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All Photos/outdoor/patio, porch, deck : concrete/landscapes : hardscapes

Outdoor Concrete Patio, Porch, Deck Hardscapes Design Photos and Ideas

A simple, hardscaped back patio is the site of many summer parties. The steps lead down to the firepit, where one feels increasingly embraced by the forest.
The family spends much more time together in the rear yard since the renovation.
A covered breezeway connects the main house and the guest house. Here, Legge took the opportunity to play with perspective, framing part of a tree and the sky with an abstract roof cutout.
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.
Fleetwood Windows were installed throughout the home, including as a partition between the living room and deck.
<span style="font-family: Theinhardt, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, &quot;Segoe UI&quot;, Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, sans-serif;">Wood adirondack chairs surrounding a stone firepit. </span>
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.
The fire pit area displays a 48-inch concrete fire bowl, woven chairs, and upcycled tree stumps for kid-friendly-seating.
Guy (holding Pickles the cat) and Mark transformed the backyard, adding a pool and planting sycamore trees and native grasses. A custom dining table by Angel City Lumber is paired with vintage chairs from Amsterdam Modern.
Their daughters, Annapurna, left, and Siddartha, play with their dog, Anouck, beneath the kangaroo paws in the entry garden courtyard.
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.
The atrium is a lovely place to sit outside while still being somewhat protected.
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.”
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 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.
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 courtyard off the kitchen is an extension of the living space and a popular spot for morning coffee.
“The pitched ceilings and ribbon of clerestory windows make the interior feel more spacious than it is,” notes Gooden.
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.
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.
A small deck and a custom concrete planter complete the seating area off of the main bedroom.
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.
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.
The outdoor living room can accommodate anything from movie night to a morning work session.
The Ebels enjoy their outdoor area.
The Ebels have outdoor living and dining rooms. The Span Small table is composed of stone composite and natural fibers and designed by Mermelada Estudio, available at CB2.
Dozens of slender steel rods, installed at arbitrary points, echo the grove of birch trees that sits behind the home.
An award-winning, modern masterpiece inspired by Neutra
One of the owners steps out on the new terrace with one of the many household animals. “We have moved the chicken coop so we can enjoy their busy, chooky lives,” they explain.
A protected outdoor space is tucked beneath the new addition. "When you have an opportunity to breathe new life into a typology, which is indicative of a period, that's a good job to have," says Cuddington.
The seating on this terrace outside a second-story bedroom not only functions as a balustrade, but also provides privacy. It faces the raised planter wall in the courtyard.
The roof terrace offers a refreshing view of the ocean. "It's important for us to consider how to place architectural elements based on the topography and orientation, and how they’re going to face the sunset, the sunrise, and interact with the wind blowing over the land," says Elizarraras.
The outdoor furniture is by Taller Capitán.
The stone-edged fire pit is a family favorite. "We do s'mores around the fire every time we go, walk the golf course at night, and love watching the sunsets against the pink mountains," she says.
The landscaped patio provides separation from a public walkway along the rear of the home. "We could have had bigger rooms, but we wanted more outdoor space.” says Anton.
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