Joe Fletcher Atop a ridge in the Santa Lucia mountains of Carmel, California, an oak tree stands elevated above the fog and wrapped at its base in this ranch retreat. The weekend home’s design grew around the 100-year-old Valley Oak to form a horseshoe-shaped house that gathers ridgeline views of Oak, Madrone, and Redwood groves at its exterior and nestles around the tree at its center. The home’s orientation offers both the shade of the oak canopy in the courtyard and the sun flowing into the great room at the house’s rear façades. This modern take on a traditional ranch home offers contemporary materials and landscaping to a classic typology. From the main entry in the courtyard, one enters the home’s great room and immediately experiences the dramatic westward views across the 70 foot pool at the house’s rear. In this expansive public area, programmatic needs flow and connect - from the kitchen, whose windows face the courtyard, to the dining room, whose doors slide seamlessly into walls to create an outdoor dining pavilion. The primary circulation axes flank the internal courtyard, anchoring the house to its site and heightening the sense of scale by extending views outward at each of the corridor’s ends. Guest suites, complete with private kitchen and living room, and the garage are housed in auxiliary wings connected to the main house by covered walkways. Building materials including pre-weathered corrugated steel cladding, buff limestone walls, and large aluminum apertures, and the interior palette of cedar-clad ceilings, oil-rubbed steel, and exposed concrete floors soften the modern aesthetics into a refined but rugged ranch home.

Heather Cooper Photography
Deck - large transitional backyard deck idea in Atlanta with a roof extension

Custom steel and limestone boulder retaining walls with xeric, native Texas planting. Photographer: Greg Thomas, http://optphotography.com/

Lynne Bernstein
Example of a transitional exterior home design in San Francisco

Photo of a mid-sized tropical full sun backyard stone landscaping in San Francisco.

Jeff Pervorse
Inspiration for a traditional landscaping in Los Angeles.

Welcome to the ultimate backyard, where the interior effortlessly merges with the exterior through wide panoramic glass doors, and where material transitions are subtly concealed. Centered in this vast space is a sizable pool complemented by a water wall, making it the centerpiece of the area. Designed for entertainment and enjoyment, this space features a spacious outdoor kitchen, a covered area for watching TV by the pool, a bocce ball court with a custom horseshoe backstop, and as night falls, a snug fire pit ideally situated on the canyon's brink.

Expansive patio with boat slip, fire pit, expansive pool, and lounge chairs.
Patio - contemporary patio idea in Austin

Welcome to the ultimate backyard, where the interior effortlessly merges with the exterior through wide panoramic glass doors, and where material transitions are subtly concealed. Centered in this vast space is a sizable pool complemented by a water wall, making it the centerpiece of the area. Designed for entertainment and enjoyment, this space features a spacious outdoor kitchen, a covered area for watching TV by the pool, a bocce ball court with a custom horseshoe backstop, and as night falls, a snug fire pit ideally situated on the canyon's brink.

Welcome to the ultimate backyard, where the interior effortlessly merges with the exterior through wide panoramic glass doors, and where material transitions are subtly concealed. Centered in this vast space is a sizable pool complemented by a water wall, making it the centerpiece of the area. Designed for entertainment and enjoyment, this space features a spacious outdoor kitchen, a covered area for watching TV by the pool, a bocce ball court with a custom horseshoe backstop, and as night falls, a snug fire pit ideally situated on the canyon's brink.

This front entrance is breathtaking. The path to the left leads out to the horseshoe driveway while the path to the right leads to the extensive pool patio, bar, and recessed fire pit. This is an extensive pondless water feature, running over 50 feet from the waterfall to the end.

Design ideas for a transitional landscaping in San Francisco.

Contemporary expansive estate with golf course, pool, boat slip, fire pit, and spacious patio.
Inspiration for a contemporary exterior home remodel in Austin

Scottsdale, DC Ranch Horseshoe Canyon Outdoor fireplace double sided Pool ramada fireplace exterior Riveria Beige unfilled travertine simple mediterrantian design

A magnificent cobblestone driveway horseshoes around to a modern French Chateau estate. These homeowners were looking for a comprehensive landscape plan for their newly completed custom home. They wanted an extensive driveway, a planting plan that would provide privacy in some key areas while accentuating the style of the home, as well as a pool, fire feature, hot tub, new stone entrances, and a play center on artificial turf. We provided a design that brought together all these items with a very specific colour palette which we repeated throughout different elements.

A magnificent cobblestone driveway horseshoes around to a modern French Chateau estate. These homeowners were looking for a comprehensive landscape plan for their newly completed custom home. They wanted an extensive driveway, a planting plan that would provide privacy in some key areas while accentuating the style of the home, as well as a pool, fire feature, hot tub, new stone entrances, and a play center on artificial turf. We provided a design that brought together all these items with a very specific colour palette which we repeated throughout different elements.

A magnificent cobblestone driveway horseshoes around to a modern French Chateau estate. These homeowners were looking for a comprehensive landscape plan for their newly completed custom home. They wanted an extensive driveway, a planting plan that would provide privacy in some key areas while accentuating the style of the home, as well as a pool, fire feature, hot tub, new stone entrances, and a play center on artificial turf. We provided a design that brought together all these items with a very specific colour palette which we repeated throughout different elements.

A magnificent cobblestone driveway horseshoes around to a modern French Chateau estate. These homeowners were looking for a comprehensive landscape plan for their newly completed custom home. They wanted an extensive driveway, a planting plan that would provide privacy in some key areas while accentuating the style of the home, as well as a pool, fire feature, hot tub, new stone entrances, and a play center on artificial turf. We provided a design that brought together all these items with a very specific colour palette which we repeated throughout different elements.

A magnificent cobblestone driveway horseshoes around to a modern French Chateau estate. These homeowners were looking for a comprehensive landscape plan for their newly completed custom home. They wanted an extensive driveway, a planting plan that would provide privacy in some key areas while accentuating the style of the home, as well as a pool, fire feature, hot tub, new stone entrances, and a play center on artificial turf. We provided a design that brought together all these items with a very specific colour palette which we repeated throughout different elements.