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Outdoor Grass Hardscapes Design Photos and Ideas

The kitchen opens to the dining area, with a table and benches from Facebook Marketplace. The firepit chairs are from Polywood. The circular window has a custom exterior copper trim by Mission Iron Works.
Kevin and Katie enjoy happy hour on their new covered patio. The plantings were inspired by the garden in Mexico where they got married. During the pandemic, "We were like, I want to go on vacation, but we can't, so let's just make our backyard a vacation,
Fung and Blatt worked slowly on the project over five years. But it was a rhythm Mary and Carlton appreciated, as it allowed for the design to emerge in close dialogue with the site.
The family spends much more time together in the rear yard since the renovation.
Another move that reduces the house's environmental impact is the inclusion of photovoltaic panels on the roof. The panels generate enough energy to offset 95% of the house’s consumption.
According to the homeowners, one concession they made to save money was downgrading the exterior retaining wall from a gabion retaining wall to native limestone blocks.
On the home's east side, the overhang created by the second story volume shades the front door while still allowing morning light into the bedrooms.
A healthy budget for landscaping allowed Leah to achieve a natural, wild look with plants. “I wanted to look out and see just lush plants growing wild,” she says. The collage of native vegetation was also used to soften the transitions between surface materials and backyard zones.
The courtyard brings natural light into the lower level of the home, which has a den/media room, guest suite/workout area, and storage and mechanical.
Alloi's design solution for the exterior envelope included exterior rigid insulation to reduce solar heat gain, and recycled newspaper blown-in cellulose insulation at interior and exterior walls, creating an energy efficient and peacefully quiet home.
“The pool house was something I always wanted to build,” Robert says. The bar is the main attraction. And next to it, a lime tree is within reach to make fresh gin and tonics.
The Smiths’ new cabin, designed by Risa Boyer Architecture and completed in 2020, sits in the same spot as their previous home, on five acres on Mount Veeder, in Northern California. Somehow, the red chicken coop, which is constructed of wood, survived the fire with the chickens still alive inside.
Two new structures were also built in the backyard, and connected to the main house via the landscape plan by Lilyvilla Gardens. One is a 485-square-foot guest house, and the other is a 375-square-foot workshop for the owner, who’s a bike builder. They have the same exterior siding as the main house: rough-sawn tongue and groove cedar.
The guesthouse was the first part of the project to be completed, and Mel lived there while the main house was under construction. From his buying the property in 2009 to Sarah completing a roof garden, the entire renovation took roughly 11 years. Around the pool, the lounge chairs are from Restoration Hardware in a Charcoal fabric, and the trailing vine overhead is a California table grape installed by Sarah’s studio. The competition around the Cornilleau 500M Outdoor Crossover ping pong table can be fierce.
The expansive, covered patio that extends from the living space features an outdoor kitchen and adjoining pizza oven. “My favorite aspect of the project was that the clients embraced the idea that home can be more than just shelter,” says architect Cavin Costello. “It can be a place that incentivizes you to socialize, think, eat, work, create, and play differently.”
The open-plan lower level flows into a covered patio through bifold doors by Loewen. The shingles, made of Alaskan yellow cedar, were pre-stained off-site in seven earthy hues. For maintenance, they will require a new UV topcoat every two-to-three years. The Condesa chairs are by Innit Designs.
“The intention of the landscape design was to create a tranquil refuge in a vibrant neighborhood for the family to entertain, play, and spend quality time together outdoors,” says the team at The Green Room Landscape Architecture. “The architecture produced multiple lines of sight that penetrate through the home, connecting the front and back yards with similar plant materials, creating a feeling that the house was planted in a scenic Sonoran meadow.”
Now, an eight-foot sliding door brings light into the kitchen and enables fluid movement between inside and out. The wider steps can serve as seats during a party, and they make for a graceful transition to the yard.
The owners built the house as a place to gather with their three adult children on Loon Lake, where they had vacationed at the husband’s family home for years. The modern Adirondack chairs are by Loll Designs.
The roof deck, anchored by a gas fire pit from Paloform, boasts an incredible view of the water.
People frequently talk about "good bones" when it comes to purchasing a home, but it's not crystal clear what that actually means. Here, we walk you through the process of spotting a diamond in the rough.
Architect and surfer Kenichiro Iwakiri transformed a 40-year-old cottage into his own beach house in Shonan, Japan. This region, located south of Tokyo, is known for its surf spots.
"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.
While the owners really liked the idea of shou sugi ban, they opted for a more cost-effective black stain. The random-width, reverse board-and-batten siding reflects the wabi-sabi concept. “The builder said the math for the random siding was torturous,” the wife said. “We didn’t know how hard it was to make things look simple.” DeNiord planted hay-scented fern and lowbush blueberry sod around the house. “We didn't want any side of the house to feel unconsidered,” he says. As for the local boulders he placed around the house and terrace, he says, “They give the feeling that the house grew up around the outcroppings.”
DiNiord collaborated with craftsman Ken Hood to design the concrete bench with firewood storage and detachable wood back. Douglas fir columns along the walkway creates a colonnade. The mono-sloped roof is a nod to the long roofline of the original house that stood on the property. “Reducing the angles also reflects the strictness to budget,” the wife says.
The ceiling of the exterior patio and soffits is crafted from inexpensive sheets of plywood cut into smaller pieces, assembled in a custom pattern, and stained.
The pool and fire pit in the courtyard are at the heart of the home. The olive trees and native Ironwood trees planted around these spaces soften the rectilinear architecture.
Before the home was built, the lot was almost entirely grass—however now the landscape is composed of desert and native vegetation. It also includes productive gardens of numerous types, including herb and vegetable plantings and citrus and stone fruit groves. These, in combination with the chicken eggs, provide a healthy, local food source.
The decorative screen casts playful shadows across the front terrace.
The new front door, offset by a stained wood surround, leads into an entry vestibule that connects the guest wing with the rest of the house.
Now, decorative screens "provide dappled western shade and frame the view of the monumental chimney from the street," says the firm.
New front steps lead up to a front terrace.
Ben and Luis sit by a fire in their side yard surrounded by a flourishing garden.
The rear of the garage and studio is fitted with a slatted screen, which creates unique shadows on the stairwell and inside the unit. The outdoor room also benefits from views of the lake and is anchored by a two-sided, white brick fireplace.
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.
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.
“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.”
The original front porch swing inspired the couple to add one at the back. “We wanted to figure out how to recreate that hangout space in the back, where the kitchen and dining room were,” says Dean.
The landscaping was intended to be as low-maintenance as possible for professionally touring musicians. (Though during the pandemic, obviously, there is plenty of time for yard work.) The little covered veranda could act as a mini stage for backyard acoustic shows in the future.
The rear patio was refreshed with new concrete pavers. A strip of grass accents the perimeter of the pool and hot tub. The boulders by the hedge are all that remain of a previous owner’s rock grotto, which Steve disassembled.
Landscape company The Backyard was hired to enhance the outdoor spaces. Voids in the overhanging roof partially frame the mountain in the distance.
The wispy landscaping, also inspired by Hallová’s Florida roots, is by Lango Hansen.
"We wanted the pavilion to be freestanding and to have minimal columns, so using CLT, which can span a long distance without support, made sense,” explains resident Anyeley Hallová.
Tiered plantings embellish a courtyard that encloses a sunken portion of the front facade.
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