A

Judith Doner Berne

Special to the Jewish News

Photographs by Angie Baan

A16

May1.2008

rchitect Frank Lloyd Wright was
known for blurring the distinc-
tion between interior space and
the surrounding terrain, which he accom-
plished by bringing the outside in.
Ellen Stone, a psychotherapist who once
aspired to be a designer, has the same
agenda, but accomplishes it by taking the
inside out of doors.
When she tires of her objets d'art or
they must be moved to make room for
new ones, they often are sent outside.
"A lot of the things that I've outgrown
from the house come outside she says,
pointing to a large sculpture mounted on
an outside wall.
Stone is a native Detroiter, who gradu-
ated Kingswood Cranbrook in Bloomfield
Hills and received her undergraduate and
graduate degrees from the University of
Michigan.
Her house and garden, tucked away at
the end of a West Bloomfield road, reflect
her individualism and ever-changing
tastes.
"I know nothing about landscaping:'
says Stone, who is with Comprehensive
Psychiatric Services in Farmington Hills.
As you approach her sheltered front door,
signs on wood and stitched onto pillows
greet you with "Gone to Therapy" and "No
Whining."
Yet a sign on her front gate, one of
many that pervade her yard and home,
pronounces, "Garden Diva Hard at Work."
It was a gift from a West Bloomfield neigh-
bor, Sandy Wormser.
You would be hard pressed to discover
that Stone's house, now distinguished by a
columned driveway and flagstone facade,
once was a traditional tri-level built in the
1980s by Pulte Homes.
"It isn't even a reflection of me now','
she says, "because I'm ever changing. I've
redone everything a million times."
Themes of stripes, circles and hearts in
her home make their way into the garden.
Inside, stripes are in vogue even on the
ceiling, circles can be seen in mirrors and
on her many stained glass windows, and
heart-shapes are evident in many media,
even to a heart-shaped bed.
Outside, they may take the forms of
horizontal fencing and wrought-iron
arbors, mirrors and painted bowling balls,
and hanging hearts of glass and metal.
And, as those pieces take root, in much
the same way a new plant would, she adds
both landscaping and more art to compli-
ment and complete.
She got rid of a lot of routine shrubs,
planting them in a neighbor's yard, and
turned to more dramatic plantings. She
removed grass in favor of pebbles, stone
pathways and a dry rock stream. And she
used art rather than nature for color.