STYLE : GARDENS : Living Rooms

Rare is the home that boasts several cozy rooms outdoors. But in this Beverly Hills garden, hedges serve as walls, trees stand in for ceilings, grass and flowers make floor coverings. And handmade willow chairs, now rooted in the ground, provide comfortable, leafy seating.

Conceived by the garden’s owners, the sprouting chairs and settee are the work of furniture maker Bryan Adams of New Mexico. His Santa Fe company (for more information, call (505) 984-2102) wove together dry willow, for strength, and fresh willow, for shoots that were long enough to plant. With or without cushions, the pieces feel like overstuffed upholstered chairs.

The surrounding space is purposely spare, designed to be a simple expanse of grass to display the handsome sycamore trunks that glow white against the deep green of the lawn and the dark green of the eugenia ‘Compacta’ hedges. Originally laid out in 1977 by legendary designer Joseph Copp, the garden was divided into “rooms” six years ago by the Huntington Botanical Gardens’ retired rose expert, John C. MacGregor IV. More recently, landscape architect Robert Fletcher refurbished the garden beds and paths.

The rest of the “floor plan” includes an enclosed rose garden, a room filled with perennials that carpet the ground like an Oriental rug and a camellia-lined dining room with a regular table and chairs. Nothing else comes close, however, to the simplicity and ingenuity of Adams’ willow creations.