This Landscape Designer Creates Enduring Gardens Full of Childlike Wonder
Landscape designer Molly Sedlacek draws on Oregon and California influences to create gardens that evoke childlike wonder and a sense of discovery.
Thomas J. Story
The gardens designed by Molly Sedlacek, of OR.CA, a design and product studio she operates out of Marin, California, are so evocative, playful, and unique they’re more than just landscapes—they’re functional art installations. A seating area looks like a long-forgotten paleontology dig. Salvaged redwood “mushroom stools” are scattered across a weathered cypress patio, sculptural yet inviting. A trio of hammocks and climbable wood totems tell the story of a father raising his two sons.
When Sedlacek opened OR.CA, which takes its name from her childhood in Oregon and her love of biophilic California design, her mission was to create gardens that would tap into people’s formative selves. “When we’re children, we take in nature with curiosity and wonder, with no preconceived notions of what a space should be,” she says, adding, “OR.CA is my inner child connecting to materials and outdoor space, and translating that to adults.”
Thomas J. Story
After using the phrase inner child, Sedlacek wonders if she sounds too “woo-woo,” but her landscapes are clearly tapping into something we crave. In just two years, her studio has installed gardens in Marin, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego, with gardens in Texas and New York in the works. Meanwhile, the heavy materials she uses and the time it takes to create her bespoke pieces aren’t child’s play. For a limestone fire pit, she crafted a chair for artist Kevin Carman to sit in while he hand-carved not only the pit but the round volcanic balls inside. “That’s pretty much the opposite of how someone will tell you to build a garden—slow and methodical,” Sedlacek says. Then again, she adds, “It’s not an add-to-cart type garden.”
Thomas J. Story
Sedlacek’s creative process begins before she meets with a client. In nature, she keeps her mind open so that when it’s time to design, her subconscious can offer up inspiration from her deep well of mental imagery. The effect is artful without being pretentious, imbued with a sense of history without being nostalgic. For a garden in Marin, thinking about a seating plan unearthed the image of curving vertebrae. (“I must have seen a skeleton while hiking,” she says.) When creating a garden she affectionately refers to as “Mars”—thanks to its red-hued sand and the fact that “it’s pretty out there”—she made a “chunk bench” out of blocks of cypress that invite long talks by the fire pit and boisterous play.
Thomas J. Story
And while there are always things clients require in their gardens—a place to sit, a heating element, a dining space—Sedlacek needs them to hand over the garden keys, metaphorically and often literally, so she can create a landscape of found materials that possess a magical sensibility. “My designs don’t work unless there’s a story to be told about materials, space, how the client plans to use their home, and their dreams for the future,” Sedlacek says. “As soon as that story is clear for the client, that’s when the trust unlocks.”
Molly Sedlacek’s Design Secrets
Canvassing the Area
When Sedlacek designs a landscape, she considers what it will look like as a whole. Here, a main viewing deck is two-and-a-half stories up, so the client can admire the garden the way they would a painted canvas.
A Hand-Carved Fire Pit
The limestone fire pit containing volcanic rocks was hand-carved by sculptor Kevin Carman
of Ventura, California.
Seat Stealer
Biomimicry is a recurring theme in Sedlacek’s work. Vertebrae-shaped chairs invite adults, children, and their stuffed red pandas to take a seat.
Keep It Local
It was important to Sedlacek to use old-growth redwood salvaged from Cazadero in Sonoma County, a scant 60 miles away. “We wanted to make sure that trees fell as close to us as possible,” she says, although creating outdoor furniture this way isn’t fast. “There are people who are patient,” she says. “This isn’t about instant gratification.”
Sit and Stay
Streamlined Adirondack chairs of Northern California cypress are for sale on ORCAliving.com. They’re intentionally heavy so they’ll stay in place despite the elements.
Weighty Matters
“I like to build things that are very heavy,” Sedlacek says. “Plants can die off, change, and grow, so with wood you always have this very concrete idea to anchor the yard. I think I feel comforted by that.”
Family Totem
To build climbable garden stacks, Sedlacek used salvaged cypress from Arborica in West Marin and had it chainsawed into shapes and threaded on a steel rod. The wood towers are strong enough to support adults and children.
Total Recline
Sedlacek installed three hammocks in the garden, but the family always ends up piling together into one. “I’m like, ‘Oooh! please hold on!’” Sedlacek says. “It’s pretty cute.”
An OR.CA Grows Up
This OR.CA garden in Oakland shows the ultimate reward of a landscape in its prime. Cedar turns a soft silver. A corten steel fireplace gains a rust-colored patina. “I always tell clients when everything goes in that it’s not the end product. Each year things get richer and more beautiful with time, just like humans. It’s like our wrinkles—they mean a lot, and it’s a journey.”
