20 Stunning Hamptons Inspired Garden Designs

When looking for inspiration for your garden, it can be hard to know where to start! The Hamptons make us picture coastal elegance and charm, a style renowned for its luxury feel that blends colonial American architecture with modern, exquisite design features and a breezy colour palette to mirror its casual attitude. Where better to extend this aesthetic than your garden, a place designed for sophisticated calm and a place for relaxation in nature?

We’ve come up with a selection of ideas to help you achieve that feeling of warm, cosy luxury in your very own home. You’ll be jumping to host alfresco entertainment in your own garden oasis, a timeless retreat for you and future generations to enjoy.

Here are our 20 Hamptons-inspired stunning garden designs to implement for yourself.

1. Classic Pool Set-Up

You can’t go wrong with a classic pool, especially not in the temperate climates of Australia. A pool is an essential garden feature for those who have the space to install one! Keep accidents at bay around slippery surfaces with PVC fencing panels, a chic and exceptionally more durable take on the traditional white picket fence. Grab your Malibu and sunnies and you’ll practically be in Long Island. And when the months draw cooler here, that marks the perfect time to go over for yourself!

2. Gothic Drama

You'll love this style if your home is graced with turrets, sharp angles, or anything resembling a Harry Potter film set or an old university college in England. Take inspiration from your architecture to fuel your garden designs, and stick to angular focal points such as stone fountains and pointy trees. Whether you achieve these shapes through plants, architecture, or a mix of both is up to you, but symmetry is key. A winner in this garden design is muted colours – so if you’re a bright flower fan, this one’s probably not for you.

3. Topiary

For those after a highly manicured garden, topiary is a classic feature of Hamptons gardens and an effortless way to achieve the style in your home. Craft neat gravel paths on trails around your outdoor space to create the feeling of walking through a botanical garden. Source exotic plants and flowers to build up a world of colour. This style requires some hefty upkeep, so you’ll need a lot of time, or the ability to hire one or many gardeners for regular maintenance.

You can make this particular Hamptons-inspired design a little more low-maintenance by investing in some Hamptons-style planter boxes for planting your exotic plants or flowers rather than planting them directly into your soil.

4. Bloom & Wild

Lean into grandma-chic, the old-fashioned, Victorian style inspiration within the mix of the Hamptons aesthetic. This garden style blends flowers with foliage, meeting an excellent halfway point between trimmed garden design and the freedom to let nature do its thing. Your house will start feeling like part of the garden and look especially beautiful, covered in trailing roses in the summer. There’s no such thing as too many flowers with this style, so get your gardening gloves on!

5. Upstairs Terrace

If your property is blessed to have a beautiful view, make the most of it! Even if you don’t have a large outdoor ground space, transform your upstairs section into the highlight of the house. Secure your terrace with chic, white fencing and decorate it with simple but elegant furniture in earthy neutral tones for a coastal feel. Invite friends over for refined dinner parties, and install a roof covering if you can, so you can enjoy the views, rain or shine.

6. Animal Kingdom

Let those shears run wild, and put the ‘Hampton’ in the ‘Hampton Court Flower Show’ with an animal-theme inspired topiary garden. Swap fountains for living, growing lions, squirrels, bears, you name it - any animal can be made out of a bush if you can find the right experts. Centre these around bright flowers to attract the eye, and ensure you lay down paths to walk around them without stepping over the beds. Bring Noah’s Ark into your garden and create a stunning showcase of topiary-led garden design.

7. Wrap Around Porch

Fans of The Notebook will be familiar with the sentimental significance of a wrap-around-porch for the beloved protagonist. Whilst it may be a stretch to ask your significant other to build that wrap-around porch for you, luckily, these days, it’s easier to get one installed around your house. Cover it in plants and vases for added privacy, and create a regal entrance to your home that combines inspiration from an Ancient Greek aesthetic, with beautifully ornate awnings to match.

8. Forge Your Path

Lean into the essence of all things prim and proper, by designing a stone path around your garden. Style either side with neat soil beds that can grace your ankles with daffodils, pansies and lavender in the summer. In the winter, the bare branches will make for a delightful cosy aesthetic to admire from the warmth of your bedroom window. Keep your lawn relatively simple with free grass for kids and dogs to play on, and you’ll have the family-friendly Hamptons aesthetic down to a ‘T’.

9. Doll’s House

If your house’s exterior benefits from architectural symmetry, keep these features going in your garden design. A cute, understated white picket fence around the perimeter will embellish white features on the exterior of the house and only serve to ‘dollify’ your house even more. Keep the plants at the front of your garden lush, but not so large that they distract from the symmetry. You’ll feel like you’re stepping into a fairytale everytime you come home.

10. Brick & Foliage

For an ultra-modern style, combine traditional elements of a Hamptons’ inspired home in places you wouldn’t normally find them. That means testing the boundaries of where your house stops and your garden begins to combine outdoor and indoor living. For example, have your ivy or other evergreen tree trailing up the walls and round the windows. Then, incorporate colonial red brick courtyards in places you’d expect to see grass.

11. Vintage Retreat

Whilst the rest of your house may be an homage to cosy, warm minimalism, create a space in your garden to retreat to where things feel a touch more rough and ready. Whether a stained glass conservatory, or an old upcycled shed, incorporate some wooden features, cosy seating and hanging plants for the perfect spot to take a phone call or read a book. The Hampton look combines classic elegance with contemporary features, so your garden is a perfect location to bring in some vintage feeling.

12. Hidden In The Bushes

Cover your space in large maple trees, evergreen shrubs and rose bushes for a bit of lavish privacy that doubles up as an extravagant garden statement. The contrast of neatly trimmed bushes with dominating trees allowed to grow free shows an appreciation for the harmony of the wild and the tamed. This style works especially well for a house of three floors, or a loft extension, that can compete with the height of the trees.

13. Restrain & Abandon

The aesthetic of the Hamptons is often synonymous with neat, curated styles, designed with precision in mind. Whilst incorporating some of these elements into your garden will help create a cohesive space, the garden is a place to allow some freedom to enter as well. Mix your topiary and immaculately trimmed shrubs and trees with others that are left to grow more or less as they wish. Your outdoor space will seem more authentic, and the contrast will help make the more refined areas stand out in contrast. 

14. Balconette

Even if you have a smaller space and know a garden with grass is beyond your limits, make use of any outdoor space you do have, and create a ‘balconette’, where there’s just enough space for a sofa and a table for those early coffee mornings, or warm summer evenings shared outside with a friend and a glass of wine. Decorate with light pastel colours that make for a sea-breezy coastal attitude.

15. Front Garden Focus

Since traditionally only front gardens are visible to the street, for those who want an audience for their well thought-out plans, make it the star of your show. Park your car somewhere else and ditch the stone drive. Embrace a colonial Hamptons style era and fill your front garden with colourful flowers, for all to admire. Although you may want to swap out the US flag for an Australian one.

16. Statement Piece

Turn your garden into a piece of art with your plants - and a very talented gardener! Whether it’s a novel alternative to a gravel drive, or the centrepoint in your garden, a statement piece in your garden made from the natural elements around you will be sure to be a conversation starter and point of admiration for all guests who come across it. Opt for a patchwork like design as pictured above, or a burst of colourful flora that demands attention.

17. Victorian Tranquillity

Contrast your relatively modern home with a ‘forgotten garden’ that seems as though it could have been left untouched for hundreds of years before being stumbled upon. Lean into that overgrown aesthetic with trailing plants being the focal point of your garden, climbing over fountains, awnings and birdbaths. Keep your outdoor furniture dainty and simplistic, as though you’re simply perching for a while before returning to your home, and giving it back to the birds and squirrels.

18. Infinity Pool 

Another way to maximise the view from your home, be it of mountain or coastal scenery, is to install an infinity pool in your garden. If your house is built on a hill or mountain in a sunny part of Australia, this is a luxurious way to make the most of the altitude, with some sleek, modern architecture that certainly delivers on sophisticated relaxation. You’ll feel like you’re on holiday every time you step into your own garden.

19. Paradise Balcony

Extend your aerial garden by installing your balcony doors so that they can slide completely open or to one side, leaving an uninterrupted view and easy movement towards your balcony or terrace. On colder days or wetter weather, you can still enjoy the fresh air and gorgeous views from the comfort of your home with a chaise lounge placed next to the large windows for a touch of European chic. If you want to borrow elements of a boho style, install a hammock on your balcony.

20. Private & Public

Separate your outdoor space with intentional fencing, to create an ‘interior’ and ‘exterior’ garden. Build a moat-like fence with some space around the circumference of your house, to create some privacy for outdoor activities like drinks on the porch or summer lunches. The rest of your garden is left relatively simple with large trees as the focal point. This garden design is great for dog owners looking to let their pooches out quickly in the morning and before bed.

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With so much inspiration to find in this tiny corner of New York, drawing from influences across the centuries and around the world, your Australian garden is ripe for an American makeover. Create a plan, get your plants in the fresh soil, and leave nature to do the rest. A Hamptons-inspired garden certainly takes more maintenance and upkeep than most, but the results are a stunning oasis that boasts luxury amid unparalleled relaxation.