Private Newport - with Bettie Bearden Pardee

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Behind the Private Gates


Inspiring Garden Design: Island Charms

3 / 16 / 177 / 17 / 20

A chance conversation during my brief lecture stop in Vero Beach, Florida resulted in a visit to a most singular garden. The “surprise” factor played out with the Dutch Cape… Read More

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Inspiring Garden Design: Dumbarton Oaks

3 / 9 / 177 / 17 / 20

Dumbarton Oaks in the Georgetown area of Washington, D.C. was a mecca for me when I was planning and implementing my gardens twenty years ago. A former private estate, now… Read More

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Inspiring Garden Design: Geometric Juxtapositions

3 / 7 / 177 / 17 / 20

The narrow rectangle that serves as a “front lawn” to this stately, handsome home in New Orleans gives you a hint that free-thinking, creative minds have been at work here.… Read More

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Flower Magazine: A Newport Garden for Strolling

3 / 2 / 178 / 14 / 20

Flower magazine has long been a favorite of mine since Margot Shaw started it ten years ago (I even send it to my niece in New Zealand). A product of… Read More

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Inspiring Garden Design: Rooms with a View

2 / 28 / 177 / 17 / 20

New Orleans is well-known for its “Garden District” residential area, providing a king’s ransom (excuse my play on Mardi Gras) of gardens that inspire. While Harriet Nelson’s thoughtfully conceived creation… Read More

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Inspiring Garden Design: 11 Tips for Creating a Courtyard

2 / 23 / 177 / 17 / 20

One of the pleasures of traveling for lecture appearances is visiting old and new friends…and their gardens. As I headed to New Orleans last fall, I had one image in… Read More

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Parterre in the Snow

2 / 16 / 177 / 17 / 20

We all know that Newport is gorgeous year ’round. But there is an added magic quality when snow is falling and laying so softly on the landscape, within the curves… Read More

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A Clicquot Moment in the Garden

11 / 29 / 168 / 14 / 20

What’s more fun than throwing caution to the wind and being unabashedly honest about a personal like! In my case, it would be champagne…not Prosecco or Cava, but the real… Read More

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Capturing Fall’s Golden Light: The Parterre Bench

11 / 3 / 168 / 14 / 20

I’ve been thrilled about red, crazy about blue — and now I’m simply mad about golden yellow. That soft, golden light of fall is so seductive; it’s also the first… Read More

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Outdoor Fall Decorating

11 / 1 / 167 / 17 / 20

When pumpkins start appearing, we really know that summer is over and fall (or Autumn, as the rest of the world refers to it) is here. This presents a first… Read More

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About Bettie

Author of Private Newport and Living Newport, designer of the Parterre Bench, national lecturer, and entertaining expert.
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Insta Happenings

privatenewport

before trends… this was the standard

nothing accidental, nothing overlooked

follow for more places that feel like another era ☁️
#newportrhodeisland #thebreakersnewport #newportmansions #privatenewport #gildedagemansions

View Instagram post by privatenewport

May 5

366 18
Open post by privatenewport with ID 17906290311411005
before trends… this was the standard

nothing accidental, nothing overlooked

follow for more places that feel like another era ☁️
#newportrhodeisland #thebreakersnewport #newportmansions #privatenewport #gildedagemansions

privatenewport

Built around 1900 as a summer “cottage” for Anna Van Nest Gambrill, this American Renaissance-style estate is anything but ordinary.

Designed by Carrère and Hastings - the same minds behind some of the most iconic architecture of the era, this home has quietly evolved over time.

Today, it’s no longer just a private residence… but home to the National Museum of American Illustration, housing thousands of original works.

Newport always has layers..and this is one of them.

Save & follow @privatenewport for more you don’t always see ➡️
✨✨✨✨✨
#privatenewport #newportri #privateliving #gildedage #newportmansions

View Instagram post by privatenewport

May 4

669 37
Open post by privatenewport with ID 17883866517545502
Built around 1900 as a summer “cottage” for Anna Van Nest Gambrill, this American Renaissance-style estate is anything but ordinary.

Designed by Carrère and Hastings - the same minds behind some of the most iconic architecture of the era, this home has quietly evolved over time.

Today, it’s no longer just a private residence… but home to the National Museum of American Illustration, housing thousands of original works.

Newport always has layers..and this is one of them.

Save & follow @privatenewport for more you don’t always see ➡️
✨✨✨✨✨
#privatenewport #newportri #privateliving #gildedage #newportmansions

privatenewport

Often called America’s largest open house, Virginia’s Historic Garden Week offers a rare glimpse behind doors usually closed.

For one elegant week each spring, homes and gardens across the state are opened - revealing layers of history, architecture, and life as it’s truly lived. A tradition dating back to 1927, now carried on by hundreds of homeowners.

From classic Virginia red brick (as seen here), to Jefferson-inspired Palladian design, to storybook cottages and Italianate manors - the range is as refined as it is personal.

There’s something quietly extraordinary about a home that isn’t staged… just opened.

Save this for your spring itinerary… and follow for more places you weren’t meant to see 🤍
#virginiagardenweek #richmondvirginia #privatenewport #privateliving #fyp

View Instagram post by privatenewport

May 3

307 7
Open post by privatenewport with ID 18096325154131385
Often called America’s largest open house, Virginia’s Historic Garden Week offers a rare glimpse behind doors usually closed.

For one elegant week each spring, homes and gardens across the state are opened - revealing layers of history, architecture, and life as it’s truly lived. A tradition dating back to 1927, now carried on by hundreds of homeowners.

From classic Virginia red brick (as seen here), to Jefferson-inspired Palladian design, to storybook cottages and Italianate manors - the range is as refined as it is personal.

There’s something quietly extraordinary about a home that isn’t staged… just opened.

Save this for your spring itinerary… and follow for more places you weren’t meant to see 🤍
#virginiagardenweek #richmondvirginia #privatenewport #privateliving #fyp

privatenewport

Nothing here is accidental.

Set around a storybook-like stone cottage, often described as something out of Hansel and Gretel - this garden is just one of the many private homes opened during @historicgardenweek .

Where detail like this isn’t added… it’s expected.

Save & follow along for the kind of inspiration that’s hard to come by➡️🌳
#virginiagardenweek #richmondvirginiagarden #fyp #privatenewport #gardensofvirginia

View Instagram post by privatenewport

Apr 30

344 12
Open post by privatenewport with ID 18090018584242115
Nothing here is accidental.

Set around a storybook-like stone cottage, often described as something out of Hansel and Gretel - this garden is just one of the many private homes opened during @historicgardenweek .

Where detail like this isn’t added… it’s expected.

Save & follow along for the kind of inspiration that’s hard to come by➡️🌳
#virginiagardenweek #richmondvirginiagarden #fyp #privatenewport #gardensofvirginia

privatenewport

An outstanding botanical garden has always felt like the quiet measure of a great city… and in Richmond, that standard is met beautifully at @lewisginter

Founded in 1984 and now considered one of the top botanical gardens in North America, it has grown into an 82-acre oasis, complete with four lakes, fifteen distinct gardens, and conservatories showcasing plants from around the world.

But it’s in spring that it feels almost cinematic…
roses climbing effortlessly, peonies just beginning their debut, and the kind of blooms that stop you mid-step.

And of course, there’s always one..
that singular flower you didn’t expect to fall for.

(For me, it was this deep violet bearded iris… appropriately named Superstition.)

Even the smallest details feel considered here, pollinators drifting from bloom to bloom, the entire landscape quietly in motion.

A place worth returning to… perhaps even in winter, when the garden transforms for its famed Festival of Lights.

Save this for later - and send it to someone you’d wander here with 🌿
#lewisginterbotanicalgarden #richmondvirginia #botanicalgardensofvirginia #privatenewport #lewisginter

View Instagram post by privatenewport

Apr 28

192 13
Open post by privatenewport with ID 18262702786289214
An outstanding botanical garden has always felt like the quiet measure of a great city… and in Richmond, that standard is met beautifully at @lewisginter 

Founded in 1984 and now considered one of the top botanical gardens in North America, it has grown into an 82-acre oasis, complete with four lakes, fifteen distinct gardens, and conservatories showcasing plants from around the world.

But it’s in spring that it feels almost cinematic…
roses climbing effortlessly, peonies just beginning their debut, and the kind of blooms that stop you mid-step.

And of course, there’s always one..
that singular flower you didn’t expect to fall for.

(For me, it was this deep violet bearded iris… appropriately named Superstition.)

Even the smallest details feel considered here, pollinators drifting from bloom to bloom, the entire landscape quietly in motion.

A place worth returning to… perhaps even in winter, when the garden transforms for its famed Festival of Lights.

Save this for later - and send it to someone you’d wander here with 🌿
#lewisginterbotanicalgarden #richmondvirginia #botanicalgardensofvirginia #privatenewport #lewisginter

privatenewport

You would never guess where this is…

For one elegant week each spring, homes like this quietly open their doors to the public.

It’s called Historic Garden Week in Virginia, a long-standing tradition by the Garden Club of Virginia, where private estates and gardens are revealed… just briefly.

The kind of access that feels almost impossible now💫

Save this, it only happens once a year🌳
#privatenewport #richmondvirginia #gardenweek #gardensofvirginia #gardensofrichmond

View Instagram post by privatenewport

Apr 27

1845 39
Open post by privatenewport with ID 18093916601151379
You would never guess where this is…

For one elegant week each spring, homes like this quietly open their doors to the public.

It’s called Historic Garden Week in Virginia, a long-standing tradition by the Garden Club of Virginia, where private estates and gardens are revealed… just briefly.

The kind of access that feels almost impossible now💫

Save this, it only happens once a year🌳
#privatenewport #richmondvirginia #gardenweek #gardensofvirginia #gardensofrichmond
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Bettie's Faves

  • Charlotte Moss
  • La Dolce Vita
  • My Beautiful Paris
  • The Enchanted Home
  • The Glam Pad
  • The Lush List
  • The Potted Boxwood
  • Vicki Archer
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