landscaping

The couple used pre-cast concrete pavers for the hardscaping, as they were "more economical than cast-in-place concrete,

The team dug down two feet in the basement to add ceiling height and remodel while staying within the footprint of the house. “Without doing an addition, we could more than double the square footage in the house,” says Jake. A concrete bench topped with wood runs sixty-five feet along the perimeter of the room, and serves as a useful bench.

The group continued the weathered steel elements throughout the landscape, designed by friend Catherine Howell, such as in the planter beds at the “afternoon” patio, which faces West.

Katie and Bruce love color, which they injected into almost every room. Built-in furniture in the primary bedroom is painted in Benjamin Moore’s Enchanted Forest, and cabinetry in the closet is covered in greenish-yellow Dark Linen, also from Benjamin Moore.

Board-formed concrete retaining walls double as ramps from the deck to the garden’s highest point.

With input from her clients, Barensfeld used a computer to generate the circular patterns that were carved into a pair of Cor-Ten steel screens with a water-jet cutter. The perforations allow light and the green of the surrounding Koi bamboo to filter into the space while preserving privacy.

A maple tree grows through an ipe deck in this garden that Mary Barensfeld designed for a family in Berkeley, California. A reflecting pool separates it from a granite patio, which is furnished with a Petal dining table by Richard Schultz and chairs by Mario Bellini. The 1,150-square-foot garden serves as an elegant transition from the couple’s 1964 Japanese-style town house to a small, elevated terrace with views of San Francisco Bay. Filigreed Cor-Ten steel fence screens—perforated with a water-jet cutter to cast dappled shadows on a bench and the ground below—and zigzagging board-formed concrete retaining walls are examples.

Given the Northwest's damp climate, moss thrives, and Daniel and Sandy are embracing the natural touch.

A stepped concrete garden planted with herbs and flowers marks the descent to the house. The courtyard is the focal point of the U-shaped structure; there is clear visibility between the kitchen on one side and the children's bedrooms on the other.

An outdoor shower in the lower courtyard includes most of the materials that define the project, including Cor-Ten steel posts, horizontal ipe slats and decking, a custom seat and towel shelf set into a natural boulder, and concrete pavers. The yard includes many elements built for play, like a water feature embedded in a concrete wall that is fed by runoff rainwater collected from the breezeway roof.

In fall, the color of this backyard in Charlottesville, Virginia, changes daily with the foliage. Elizabeth Birdsall marvels how new outdoor spaces on her property, like a patio furnished with upholstered seating from Gloster, make enjoying the woods an easy experience: “It’s like comfortable camping, all the time.”

Gable in the front, party in the back. The designers preserved the facade of the original craftsman bungalow and added a new entry sequence, stairs, and porch surface.

At the ranch of Nancy and Tony Lilly in the hills of Sonoma, an area plagued by drought and fires, landscape designer John Greenlee struck a balance between beauty and resiliency with a water-wise meadow-garden.

New concrete pathways, all built by Jake and Antony, are arranged around an artful tool shed, which has a weathered steel wall punched with a pattern from the Faroe Islands in Denmark, where Sigrid is from. “That was a nod to Sigrid’s heritage,” says Bassett. The shed also acts as a privacy screen for the patio below it.

The garage was converted into the primary suite, and a modern landscaping treatment added, with staggered pavers intertwined with ground cover.

The view looking south from an upstairs dormer shows the two wildflower meadow roofs that top the home's single-story sections.

To save the tree, Carpenter called in an arborist, who helped Carpenter and the Domineys nurse it back to health. Carpenter then built the parts of the pavilion around the tree, moved the foundation away from the roots, and used permeable concrete slabs so that water would properly drain into the ground.