Classic urns add unexpected sculpture in the landscape

Clas­sic urns have uses far beyond hold­ing olive oil and flowers. They can be used very effec­tively to add unex­pected sculp­ture and more in the landscape.

Tra­di­tion­ally they’ve stored every­thing from wine to cre­mated ashes. Today, we typ­i­cally use urns in a range of styles as dec­o­ra­tion through­out our homes and in the gar­den. Lately large, sim­ple, Mediterranean-style urns have been catch­ing my eye.  They add curb appeal to entrances, draw the eye as sculp­ture, add color to the gar­den and serve as foun­tains. Check out a group of urns that range from antiques to mod­ern art, along with some ideas for how to use them, to see if using a large urn in your yard is for you.

Bring in a splash of color. While this home and its sur­round­ing land­scape have many tra­di­tional ele­ments, the avant-garde out­door art col­lec­tion and fur­nish­ings delight and sur­prise. This sculp­ture takes the tra­di­tional urn form, blows it up to unex­pected pro­por­tions and draws the eye from all over the yard because of its bright orange hue.

Make a bold state­ment. This gigan­tic urn sculp­ture is an apt choice for an olive grove, as large urns were tra­di­tion­ally used to store olive oil in places like Italy and Turkey.

Cre­ate a foun­tain. This designer cre­ated a foun­tain using three hand-thrown Greek urns against a stone wall and three spig­ots.

A sin­gle urn fountain’s bub­bling water invites vis­i­tors to explore a gar­den.

Make a focal point. A large glazed urn plays off all the shades of green in this gar­den full of con­i­cal ever­green trees and rounded box­wood shrubs.

This black urn is clas­sic because of its famil­iar shape, mod­ern because of its place­ment and dark col­or­ing.

Urns occupy the space between the ground and a stone wall here, serv­ing as archi­tec­tural bases for climb­ing vines.

Add an appro­pri­ately scaled archi­tec­tural ele­ment. Large palm leaves and other trop­i­cal plants could eat up most gar­den stat­ues like a Venus fly­trap gob­bles insects. This urn’s sim­ple shape does not dis­tract from the shapes of the lush and exotic plants.

Cre­ate sym­me­try. A pair of urns glazed in deep blue hues con­nects a per­gola to other ele­ments in the land­scape, like this pool.

Pick up on over­looked hues. The ochre of this urn ties together the col­ors of the dry grasses, the sand and weath­ered por­tions of the wooden fence.

via: http://www.houzz.com