Peter Murdock
Deck container garden - contemporary rooftop rooftop deck container garden idea in New York with no cover

This single family home in the Greenlake neighborhood of Seattle is a modern home with a strong emphasis on sustainability. The house includes a rainwater harvesting system that supplies the toilets and laundry with water. On-site storm water treatment, native and low maintenance plants reduce the site impact of this project. This project emphasizes the relationship between site and building by creating indoor and outdoor spaces that respond to the surrounding environment and change throughout the seasons.

Carriage doors open to reveal a wealth of extra space in the garage, including an area custom built to accommodate a collection of bicycles hanging from the ceiling.

Zach Desart
Beach style formal dark wood floor living room photo in Jacksonville with blue walls, a standard fireplace and a wall-mounted tv

Photograph by Art Gray
Mid-sized minimalist courtyard stone patio photo in Los Angeles with no cover

Inspiration for a mid-sized timeless two-story brick exterior home remodel in Atlanta

Our custom homes are built on the Space Coast in Brevard County, FL in the growing communities of Melbourne, FL and Viera, FL. As a custom builder in Brevard County we build custom homes in the communities of Wyndham at Duran, Charolais Estates, Casabella, Fairway Lakes and on your own lot.

Bedroom - farmhouse medium tone wood floor bedroom idea in San Francisco with white walls

This whole house remodel updated and expanded a 1950’s contemporary. Redwood siding from the original home was used on this accent wall in the new powder room. Architect: Harrison Design; Landscape Design/Construction: Grace Design Associates; Photography: Jake Cryan Photography

Photos by Scott Dubose
Kitchen - contemporary kitchen idea in San Francisco with stainless steel appliances, flat-panel cabinets, dark wood cabinets, matchstick tile backsplash and multicolored backsplash

Suburban kitchen remodel for a crisp urban farmhouse look. Photo: Lauren Rubinstein
Example of a transitional u-shaped eat-in kitchen design in Atlanta with a farmhouse sink, shaker cabinets, white cabinets, white backsplash, subway tile backsplash, stainless steel appliances and granite countertops

Barry Grossman Photography
Trendy master carpeted bedroom photo in Miami with no fireplace and gray walls

Example of a tuscan entryway design in San Francisco with a medium wood front door

Clear stain on the window sash provides a simple, warm and cost neutral detail, highlighting the transition between the woods outdoors and the wood indoors.

All planting design by Deborah Cerbone Associates, Inc.
Inspiration for a small french country backyard stone formal garden in New York.

Casey Fry
Example of a farmhouse open concept kitchen design in Austin with a farmhouse sink, white cabinets, stainless steel appliances and gray backsplash

Builder: John Kraemer & Sons | Design: Rauscher & Associates | Landscape Design: Coen + Partners | Photography: Landmark Photography
Example of a trendy powder room design in Minneapolis with a one-piece toilet and an integrated sink

This shade arbor, located in The Woodlands, TX north of Houston, spans the entire length of the back yard. It combines a number of elements with custom structures that were constructed to emulate specific aspects of a Zen garden. The homeowner wanted a low-maintenance garden whose beauty could withstand the tough seasonal weather that strikes the area at various times of the year. He also desired a mood-altering aesthetic that would relax the senses and calm the mind. Most importantly, he wanted this meditative environment completely shielded from the outside world so he could find serenity in total privacy. The most unique design element in this entire project is the roof of the shade arbor itself. It features a “negative space” leaf pattern that was designed in a software suite and cut out of the metal with a water jet cutter. Each form in the pattern is loosely suggestive of either a leaf, or a cluster of leaves. These small, negative spaces cut from the metal are the source of the structure’ powerful visual and emotional impact. During the day, sunlight shines down and highlights columns, furniture, plantings, and gravel with a blend of dappling and shade that make you feel like you are sitting under the branches of a tree. At night, the effects are even more brilliant. Skillfully concealed lights mounted on the trusses reflect off the steel in places, while in other places they penetrate the negative spaces, cascading brilliant patterns of ambient light down on vegetation, hardscape, and water alike. The shade arbor shelters two gravel patios that are almost identical in space. The patio closest to the living room features a mini outdoor dining room, replete with tables and chairs. The patio is ornamented with a blend of ornamental grass, a small human figurine sculpture, and mid-level impact ground cover. Gravel was chosen as the preferred hardscape material because of its Zen-like connotations. It is also remarkably soft to walk on, helping to set the mood for a relaxed afternoon in the dappled shade of gently filtered sunlight. The second patio, spaced 15 feet away from the first, resides adjacent to the home at the opposite end of the shade arbor. Like its twin, it is also ornamented with ground cover borders, ornamental grasses, and a large urn identical to the first. Seating here is even more private and contemplative. Instead of a table and chairs, there is a large decorative concrete bench cut in the shape of a giant four-leaf clover. Spanning the distance between these two patios, a bluestone walkway connects the two spaces. Along the way, its borders are punctuated in places by low-level ornamental grasses, a large flowering bush, another sculpture in the form of human faces, and foxtail ferns that spring up from a spread of river rock that punctuates the ends of the walkway. The meditative quality of the shade arbor is reinforced by two special features. The first of these is a disappearing fountain that flows from the top of a large vertical stone embedded like a monolith in the other edges of the river rock. The drains and pumps to this fountain are carefully concealed underneath the covering of smooth stones, and the sound of the water is only barely perceptible, as if it is trying to force you to let go of your thoughts to hear it. A large piece of core-10 steel, which is deliberately intended to rust quickly, rises up like an arced wall from behind the fountain stone. The dark color of the metal helps the casual viewer catch just a glimpse of light reflecting off the slow trickle of water that runs down the side of the stone into the river rock bed. To complete the quiet moment that the shade arbor is intended to invoke, a thick wall of cypress trees rises up on all sides of the yard, completely shutting out the disturbances of the world with a comforting wall of living greenery that comforts the thoughts and emotions.

This is an example of a modern drought-tolerant river rock landscaping in San Francisco.