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Outdoor Horizontal Fences, Walls Design Photos and Ideas

The fire pit area displays a 48-inch concrete fire bowl, woven chairs, and upcycled tree stumps for kid-friendly-seating.
Homeowner Jay Longtin served as the general contractor and performed the majority of the remodel work, aside from the outdoor floors, concrete, and pool, which were done by Architectural Blue.
<span style="font-family: Theinhardt, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, &quot;Segoe UI&quot;, Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, sans-serif;">Gently graded steps covered in pine needles wander through the home’s L-shaped garden, designed by landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh. A</span><span style="font-family: Theinhardt, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, &quot;Segoe UI&quot;, Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, sans-serif;">six-foot-tall wooden fence shields the garden from the street, adding to the feeling of refuge. “The idea behind the garden is the opposite of minimalism,” says Van Valkenburgh. “It’s about complexity and a range of experiences and shifts. These are what make it absorbing.” </span>
Richie walks through the shared plaza between the main house and ADU.
Kuo transformed the original back house and attached garage using playful geometries and creative uses of space.
The exterior is clad in black standing-seam metal siding, while a terrace with a family-size sectional sits on the roof. Even on a small lot, there’s room for a backyard with a trampoline.
On the balcony, a Hay table is surrounded by Article chairs. The planters are by Portland outfit Wildehaus.
The backyard is a protected retreat out of the wind. The team added a balcony off the kitchen at the third floor. It has a ship’s ladder to access the roof deck, in order to service solar panels installed there. The balcony also has a grill for cooking al-fresco. “You gotta be able to go out back and barbecue – this is the beach after all,” says Levy.
The Painter's Studio is a 440-square-foot workspace architect Tal Schori of GRT Architects designed for artist Yael Meridan Schori, his mother, in Dutchess County, New York.
"The main spaces of the home are flooded with natural light because the homeowners wanted to capture the views of the mountain and have seamless indoor-outdoor living,
"The semi-public front porch projects out from the front of the house to grab views of the 'camel head' part of the mountain,
The family also used the terraces as living and work spaces. The vintage wicker furniture came from the local flea market.
In addition to its rear deck, which features an outdoor kitchen and hot tub and capitalizes on stunning ocean views, the Surf House in Santa Cruz, California, includes a sunny front patio that’s tucked between a customized surfboard storage unit and a garage.
Beach days, park picnics, and backyard barbecues—wherever your Fourth of July weekend takes you, these products will elevate your event with ease.
The roof deck, anchored by a gas fire pit from Paloform, boasts an incredible view of the water.
Now more than ever, having a sustainable home that conserves resources and energy usage is paramount. Sustainable design and architecture has seen tremendous growth over the last decade—as has the number of professionals who specialize in designing and building green homes. While major sustainable features pertain to the initial design, planning, and building stages, there are still plenty of changes to make in your home for a greener lifestyle. Have you covered all your bases?
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, food scraps and yard waste make up 20 percent of what we throw away. Composting organic materials keeps them out of the landfill, which cuts down on greenhouse gases, and enriches the soil. To compost at home, make a pile in your backyard, or introduce an indoor bin for throwaways like apple peels and eggshells.
The steel-framed doors fully open to the courtyard, maximizing indoor/outdoor living space on the small lot.
The rigid geometry of the home sits in pleasing contrast to the enveloping natural landscape.
The left side of the pool features a terrace and a large outdoor kitchen, while the right side includes suspended lighting and the changing rooms. The masonry screen—which is inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian period—allows for a dynamic display of light and shadows on the terrace.
The back garden is a perfect metaphor for what the couple hoped to achieve with their project. "We feel a part of the city, but there’s still this sense of privacy," says Ali.
"You can see [with] this building how the design is in the small details and at the urban scale," says Cynthia.
The family enjoys the outdoor lounge.
A concrete walkway connects the living and dining rooms to the exterior, and concrete forms a built-in bench for lounging by the Solo Stove fire pit.
"Even in March and April, on a sunny day, we can open up those doors and eat outside in the sun," says Denise.
Hay outdoor furniture sits underneath the steel pergola.
A sunken courtyard at the front of the home provides a private lounge space that connects to the dining room.
“Friends can use the screened porch for the day, like a cabana,” the wife says. The couple are also planning for teachers from High Meadow Farm to hold practices here. “People will be able to use the porch and have access to the lake while our family is also using the house,” the husband adds.
“We designed the landscape and house in tandem to ensure continuity between the exterior and interior,” diNiord says. An outdoor sling chair by Croft House sits in front of the outdoor shower under the covered patio in front of the primary bedroom.
The main entrance to the property is on the lower level and leads directly to the living area of The House. The entrance is marked by a vintage rug, and the timber walkway shares the same material as the upper level deck that extends out from The Loft.
The House features a seating area and fire pit by the main entrance. "It’s a great way to experience the peace and serenity of the outdoors," says Tarah.
Initially, Tarah had wanted a backwoods-style path that felt less refined and more rugged. Drew, however, proposed a clean path that could be shoveled and provide greater clarity for guests. "In the end, Drew won, and I’m not mad about it," says Tarah. "It’s not as charming as I would have liked, but it’s very functional and so easy to plow during our cold, snowy seasons. We added some really lovely path lighting to give it a nice ambient evening glow."
When arriving at the property, a sign directs guests down one path for the workspaces (The Loft) and another for the guesthouse (The House). "We knew that having separate entrances and not connecting the spaces internally would be the trick to keeping each space separate and private," says Tarah. "We spent a lot of time thinking through the walking paths that led to each space and considering how to make them cohesive while serving different functions."
Photo: Willem-Dirk du Toit
Work-at-home architect Oliver Dang, founder of Six Four Five A, built a cozy backyard studio with cedar panels and a vast storage system. Sunlight streams through the angled skylight, warming the birch plywood interior.
A new second-floor deck was wrapped in 2020, and at $25,000, a sizeable chunk of the budget. But worth it, considering it makes for a serene spot to sit and soak up the river and forest views. “The sound of the river rushing can’t be beat,” says Devlin.
Breaking down boundaries, the courtyard allows the living spaces to extend outdoors.
The oculus allows light and views to enter the courtyard.
Emily and Mike created a small courtyard behind the office with custom concrete seating, a stone patio, and a mature tree as the focal point.
Before tackling the house, the couple converted the garage into a separate work space with a long, linear window that echoes that in the main house.
The couple planned out all of the exterior landscaping themselves. "[It was] painstaking, the time spent measuring," says Emily.
A small deck and a custom concrete planter complete the seating area off of the main bedroom.
La Paloma Gaudi was selected for the exterior brickwork to foil the white-colored ones in the kitchen. Blackbutt wood was used for the decking.
The Hourglass Corral is a four-bedroom, 3000-square-foot home that derives its tessellated form from the architects’ application of the Voronoi diagram.
The entire property consists of 90,000 square meters, or about 22 acres, on the island of Milos in Greece. Each of the five corrals are defined in the landscape by a white border.
Aidlin Darling Design recasts an unremarkable midcentury home as a multigenerational retreat crowned by a living roof.
Accompanied by their dog, Gibson, in the gravel courtyard, Kristin and Jim relax on a Driade MT1 armchair and MT3 rocking chair, both by Ron Arad. “We value that modern ideal—where you can easily go outside and where small rooms feel bigger,” says Alter.
The living room opens to the private, walled exterior courtyard at the front. “I really love the design of the courtyard and the fact that you can see it from everywhere in the house,” notes Fox. The ottoman is from Jardan and the outdoor chair is Hay.
Fox’s home design encompasses 2637 square feet across four levels, and includes a garage, an independent unit for guests, and two floors for her family of four.
“We took some pains to save the tree,” says Humble of the mature cherry tree that was preserved in the redevelopment. “We used it to focus all of our new openings.”
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