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352 Outdoor Hardscapes Shrubs Design Photos And Ideas

Porter worked with landscape design firm Wagner Hodgson to meld the pool house interior with the exterior.
The pool house was designed and built to mimic the main house, so they feel like "a family of structures," says Porter.
In the backyard, there is a laneway structure that is partially clad in the same shingles as the main house. Brian and Karen rent the outbuilding to a tenant. Measured collaborated with Aloe Designs on the landscaping.
The original limestone walls were cleaned up, and the new design bookends the apartment with courtyard spaces.
Completed in 1960, this Alexander home was designed by William Krisel for Robert Alexander and his wife Helene, however, it’s most famous as the location where Elvis and Priscilla Presley spent their 1967 honeymoon.
The home is organized around a central courtyard, an unusual feature for the area, and one which provides an extra touch of greenery to the surrounding rooms.
A modern stone fence made of galvanized steel mesh filled with stones surrounds the house. “We got the stones from the local stonecutter—they use the stones washed up on the beach, not the stones from the fields,” Lassen explains.
The spa area.
Wei transformed the garage into a studio/office space.
Visitors experience the beauty of the courtyard upon entry as they step atop large pavers leading up to the wood deck.
For the door that leads off the master bedroom, the architects chose a subtle, contrasting color that worked well with the timber.
Paola Lenti furniture in rich navy and burgundy tones outfit the reimagined backyard, which also features chiseled retaining walls by a local stonemason. Japanese maple trees add to the zen-like atmosphere.
The elongated walkway and porch creates outdoor circulation during the summer months
Set on a 5,556-square foot lot, the majority of the home is tucked behind a cinderblock wall facing the street. Mature Sycamore trees surrounding the property provide ample shading, allowing the landscaped outdoor areas to be enjoyed even on the warmest of days.
Minarc’s Plus Hus is a tiny energy-efficient prefab marketed towards homeowners seeking to add an accessory dwelling unit to their property. The 320-square-foot structure is prefabricated in downtown Los Angeles, and it can be shipped flatpack to anywhere in the U.S. with prices starting at $37,000.
The new rear, two-story addition adds over 2,000 square feet of living space without sacrificing the backyard. The repetition of the curved elements, such as the tall, cement-rendered columns that band the exterior, are a subtle reference to the scale and proportions of the Victorian style.
San Francisco–based landscape design studio TALC helped reimagine the lot and the green spaces around the two buildings, with distinct exterior rooms: a meadow, a dining area, a fire pit area, and a patio.
Depending on viewpoint, season, and time of day, says Edwards Anker, the water becomes either transparent or reflective. Here its flat surface mirrors the natural surroundings. At other times, undulations will reflect a rippling play of light into the house. "I know that in August at noon, we'll get the rippling water on the back wall in the living room," says Edwards Anker.
The reflecting pool/cistern serves many functions. It collects more than 50% of roof run-off to be reused for garden irrigation, acts as a cooling element in the summer as breezes run over the surface, and also "does the whole Richard Neutra effect," says Edwards Anker, in that the water, alongside the glass facade, mirrors the house and landscape.
The back patio was in a sorry state. The pool was crawling with algae, the concrete pavers were cracked, and most distressing of all, the slender wood posts supporting the roof had been clad in chunky 1980s tile. Jessy and Steve were anxious about what they might find once they were removed. “You never know what’s underneath,” Jessy says. Fortunately, the tiles came off easily and had actually protected the wood from the elements. French windows, added some years ago when the garage was illegally converted into a rental, were also discarded. “They had no business being there,” says Jessy, with a laugh.
Multiple water features had been added to the property over the years, including a tiered fountain near the driveway that Steve and Jessy discarded. Later, Steve unearthed an original reflecting pool that had been covered up some 50 years earlier. The new owners were charmed by the little rectangular pond and choose to have it repaired with a new spout and tiles. “The funny thing is we spent all this time and effort to get rid of the fountain only to discover an original fountain buried by the entryway,” says Steve, who works as a realtor.
Of the exterior cladding, Bryant notes, “Simple brick and cement render were chosen to not compete with the bold and heroic form.”
The walls are painted Behr’s "Polar Bear," and the artwork is by Arnold Réthy. The firm painted the ceiling beams running throughout "Space Black" by Behr. "Painting the beams in a darker color emphasized that they run from front to back," says the firm. "This came back to celebrating the timeless, indoor/outdoor experience that continues to drive demand for renovated Eichlers."
A north-facing courtyard and garden sits between the two concrete pavilions.
"Overall, the lot was flat and grassy with a few beautiful trees," Lum says. "We nestled the house among the heritage redwood tree and the other mature oaks on the property."
The lounge deck at the rear yard of Sunset Hills Residence features a swimming pool surrounded by lush gardens. Architect Hsu McCullough's design beautifully merges minimalism with an abundance of nature.
Carlos Somoza “really brought the project home,” says Brillhart. “With our hope of the architecture being connected to landscape, you need a great landscape architect on-board, and we had that in Carlos.”
The couple tapped landscape designer Carlos Somoza to capture the wildness of the site throughout the landscape plan. This grove of old-growth trees was saved, with new Ipe hardscaping wrapping around them.
An outdoor lounge area is tucked into the juncture made where the new kitchen wing joins with the renovated Trip Russell house.
A view of the new kitchen wing. “We weren’t trying to mimic Russell’s architecture, but we were trying to be sympathetic to the structure and the materiality in our additions and renovations,” says Brillhart.
The pool was relocated and the couple redid its finishes with the Tuttle Pool Company, installing Pebble Tec, a waterfall feature, and surrounding it with modern, large-format pavers.
The kitchen wing now sits in roughly the same area as the pool used to. Says Brillhart: “The one-story wing is CMU block with exposed wood rafters – a similar system to Russell’s but a little more 21st Century.”
The façade received fresh paint, as well as new impact resistant windows. The two-story addition rises behind it. “Given that the two-story wing was larger than the existing structure, it was critical for the new building to appear as lightweight as possible,” says the firm. “The reading of concrete, which is an almost universal residential structural system in South Florida, would have been too heavy against the reading of the low-slung wood roof of the original house.”
The sunroom connects to a deck for entertaining.
Saddle Peak Residence by AUX Architecture
Night lighting emphasizes the dramatic form of the building.
A path connects the underground garage to the main house. The house’s shape was dictated by the contour of the land.
The gabled form of the building is sliced open at the entrance to reveal a deliberately placed tree. This building houses four bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a kitchen; the main living spaces are located in the second building.
The South Elevation provides complete transparency through the main level to established gardens beyond
The indoor/outdoor connection was important for entertaining as well. The windows and doors can be thrown open, and people can sit close to the kitchen, inside or out, with the raised platform doubling as informal seating.
A cozy reading nook on the rooftop.
The heavy stucco walls provide shade, and they also help separate the more private areas of the home from the public ones.
As a result of its elevation, the bedroom wing allows vegetation to nestle gently under and around with minimal disturbance.
A natural, stacked-stone fin is the grounding element below the cantilevered bedroom wing.
Mass Studio completed the renovation of a 1960s house in Brentwood, California, that came complete with a classic midcentury kidney pool. During the renovation, the patio and area around the pool was refreshed with a lounge area, fire pit, and plants.
“We had these incredible live oak trees, and so we built the house around the trees and the view,” says Raike.
Throughout the day, light animates the limestone walls to various effects. “As the sun rotates around and is more oblique to the texture of the stone, it casts these wonderful shadows on it,” says Raike. “And you just get a real appreciation for the texture of the stone and the richness of the colors in it.”
The plant-filled, covered patio leads to the swimming pool, a nostalgic feature that the Gottschalks were adamant about including in their new home.
The Olmos Park Residence sits in an established neighborhood in San Antonio. Heavy limestone walls screen neighbors on both sides, while the fourth side opens up to a verdant flood basin.
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Whether it's a backyard patio, an infinity pool, or a rooftop terrace, these modern outdoor spaces add to the richness of daily life. Escape into nature, or get lost in city views. Wherever you are, let these outdoor photos take you somewhere new with inspirational ideas for yards, gardens, outdoor tubs and showers, patios, porches, and decks.