A drought-tolerant perennial border of rich four-season texture and color, including Calamagrostis, Allium, Echinacea, Rudbeckia, and Arnoglossum
This is an example of a huge eclectic drought-tolerant and full sun backyard stone flower bed in Philadelphia for summer.

Just off the pool house, a trellised terrace opens up to a quieter view of the putting green and a bioswale filled with clusters of ornamental grasses and perennials. In the distance, an existing below-grade greenhouse, renovated as part of the project program. Photography by Marion Brenner

Black Bear is a project that uses the challenges of the site as its strongest asset. The steep slopes afford a series of pathways, landings, and courtyards that have been seamlessly embedded into the hillside. The result is an articulated progression of steps and outdoor rooms that use clean surfaces and are richly planted. Landscape Construction: Environmental Designs, Inc.; Landscape Architecture Design: MARPA

The knee wall between the kitchen and family room was removed, opening the sight lines and expanding the kitchen. This change also created a direct, unobstructed path from the sliding glass doors to the heart of the kitchen. The family’s existing refectory table was refinished to harmonize with the various wood tones in the space. Dining chairs feature blue faux leather fronts and performance fabric backs accented with nail head trim, perfectly complementing the island stools. Above the table, airy and open pendants define the dining area while maintaining a clear, light-filled connection between the kitchen and great room.

A once dark and enclosed narrow hallway was opened up. Soffits were added to the cement ceiling to accommodate the recessed lighting which creates a lighted path for way finding. The kitchen island in the foreground, complete with wine refrigerator and drawer microwave, was previously closed in by a full wall. The purple passion wall continues around the corner from the living room, strikingly enhancing the artist's original work and delineating the open area between the kitchen and the hallway.

Landkamer Art / Quadratic Triptych 033 • Revved up the heat on this one. It actually started out all deep blue and rich purples but ended up on a warmer, more intense path. I must have needed the lift that these vibrant colors provide. Happens with all my paintings—they become a world unto themselves and I let it flow out of me as best I can without too much control or constrictions. * View more new art first on Instagram: @landkamerart • Custom size prints available for sale. Send an Email inquiry to: Mark@LandkamerArt.com. * © 2019 Mark Landkamer. All rights reserved.

Sleek wood and metal siding gives this house a modern industrial look.
Example of a mid-sized trendy multicolored one-story mixed siding house exterior design with a shed roof

Concrete can be made to look like any substance. Tile, stone, wood, brick, etc. With unlimited color options, Ky-Kan Coatings can transform any room in your home or business using lightweight, beautiful concrete.

Our pioneer project, Casita de Tierra in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, showcases the natural building techniques of a rubble trench foundation, earthbag construction, natural plasters, earthen floors, and a composting toilet. Our earthbag wall system consists of locally available, cost-efficient, polypropylene bags that are filled with a formula of clay and aggregate unearthed from our building site. The bags are stacked like bricks in running bonds, which are strengthened by courses of barbed wire laid between each row, and tamped into place. The walls are then plastered with a mix composed of clay, sand, soil and straw, and are followed by gypsum and lime renders to create attractive walls. The casita exhibits a load-bearing wall system demonstrating that thick earthen walls, with no rebar or cement, can support a roofing structure. We, also, installed earthen floors, created an indoor dry-composting toilet system, utilized local woods for the furniture, routed all grey water to the outdoor garden, and maximized air flow by including cross-ventilating screened windows below the natural palm frond and cane roof. Casita de Tierra exemplifies an economically efficient, structurally sound, aesthetically pleasing, environmentally kind, and socially responsible home.

This private residence, located in a planned community along Fort Loudoun Lake in Knoxville, Tennessee, is intended to be a forever home for the client couple and their family as the couple nears retirement. Designed with family gatherings and lake views in mind, those entering the stone-clad cottage are greeted with immediate views of the water. Passing through an entry corridor and then through an oversized archway, the grand, vaulted living and dining areas flank the path to large sliding doors opening onto a covered veranda that overlooks the pool and lake beyond. The interior architecture is open and light, with two en suite master bedrooms on the main level and three guest suites tucked into the eaves over the garage. The home’s furnishings are an eclectic mix of the homeowner’s unique collections, a blend of comfortable and curated. The exterior is monochromatic in color with shake siding and trim at the gable ends painted to complement the light tan and grays of the stone cladding, creating a French country feel. Custom-painted wood shutters and rich wood entry doors add additional character to the exterior.

This private residence, located in a planned community along Fort Loudoun Lake in Knoxville, Tennessee, is intended to be a forever home for the client couple and their family as the couple nears retirement. Designed with family gatherings and lake views in mind, those entering the stone-clad cottage are greeted with immediate views of the water. Passing through an entry corridor and then through an oversized archway, the grand, vaulted living and dining areas flank the path to large sliding doors opening onto a covered veranda that overlooks the pool and lake beyond. The interior architecture is open and light, with two en suite master bedrooms on the main level and three guest suites tucked into the eaves over the garage. The home’s furnishings are an eclectic mix of the homeowner’s unique collections, a blend of comfortable and curated. The exterior is monochromatic in color with shake siding and trim at the gable ends painted to complement the light tan and grays of the stone cladding, creating a French country feel. Custom-painted wood shutters and rich wood entry doors add additional character to the exterior.

These homeowners wanted to maintain their home's existing tropical mediterranean vibes, so we enhanced their space with accenting multi-tone pavers. These paving stones are rich in color and texture, adding to the existing beauty of their home. Artificial turf was added in for drought tolerance and low maintenance. Landscape lighting flows throughout the front and the backyard. Lastly, they requested a water feature to be included on their private backyard patio for added relaxation and ambiance.

With adjacent neighbors within a fairly dense section of Paradise Valley, Arizona, C.P. Drewett sought to provide a tranquil retreat for a new-to-the-Valley surgeon and his family who were seeking the modernism they loved though had never lived in. With a goal of consuming all possible site lines and views while maintaining autonomy, a portion of the house — including the entry, office, and master bedroom wing — is subterranean. This subterranean nature of the home provides interior grandeur for guests but offers a welcoming and humble approach, fully satisfying the clients requests. While the lot has an east-west orientation, the home was designed to capture mainly north and south light which is more desirable and soothing. The architecture’s interior loftiness is created with overlapping, undulating planes of plaster, glass, and steel. The woven nature of horizontal planes throughout the living spaces provides an uplifting sense, inviting a symphony of light to enter the space. The more voluminous public spaces are comprised of stone-clad massing elements which convert into a desert pavilion embracing the outdoor spaces. Every room opens to exterior spaces providing a dramatic embrace of home to natural environment. Grand Award winner for Best Interior Design of a Custom Home The material palette began with a rich, tonal, large-format Quartzite stone cladding. The stone’s tones gaveforth the rest of the material palette including a champagne-colored metal fascia, a tonal stucco system, and ceilings clad with hemlock, a tight-grained but softer wood that was tonally perfect with the rest of the materials. The interior case goods and wood-wrapped openings further contribute to the tonal harmony of architecture and materials. Grand Award Winner for Best Indoor Outdoor Lifestyle for a Home This award-winning project was recognized at the 2020 Gold Nugget Awards with two Grand Awards, one for Best Indoor/Outdoor Lifestyle for a Home, and another for Best Interior Design of a One of a Kind or Custom Home. At the 2020 Design Excellence Awards and Gala presented by ASID AZ North, Ownby Design received five awards for Tonal Harmony. The project was recognized for 1st place – Bathroom; 3rd place – Furniture; 1st place – Kitchen; 1st place – Outdoor Living; and 2nd place – Residence over 6,000 square ft. Congratulations to Claire Ownby, Kalysha Manzo, and the entire Ownby Design team. Tonal Harmony was also featured on the cover of the July/August 2020 issue of Luxe Interiors + Design and received a 14-page editorial feature entitled “A Place in the Sun” within the magazine.

By raising the ceiling in this newly remodeled kitchen, the space simply opened up. The large island is able to accommodate conversational seating to be near the cook, but does not interrupt the traffic path to the cooktop, sink, and refrigerator. White painted periphery cabinets with a rich countertop creates a larger outline, while the dark stained island cabinets and lighter countertop grounds the center of the space. Beautiful veined tile adds depth and interest to the solid surfaces. On the opposite side of the main island, the open space allowed for a dog feeding station to be imbedded. A second island divides the kitchen from the dining area with a unique countertop waterfall edge for a sleek look. Within the second island, houses a beverage/wine refrigerator and table setting storage.

We used: Custom cherry cabinetry in Arts & Crafts Shaker style by Kabinart in Boulder and Espresso stains. Liberty Hardware Venetian bronze 1-1/2" cabinet knobs. KitchenAid Architect II Series 22 CF counter-depth French door refrigerator. KitchenAid Architect Series II 27" convection single wall oven. KitchenAid 36" 6-burner dual fuel freestanding commercial-style range. KitchenAid Architect II Series 24" dishwasher. Sharp Insight Pro Series 24" built-in microwave drawer (Model #KB6524PS). Crystorama Solaris 12" wide pendant lights in English bronze. Granite countertops in Brown Fantasy. 3"x6" polished marble backsplash. Paint colors: Walls: Glidden Silver Cloud 30YY 63/024 Ceilings/Trims/Doors: Glidden Swan White GLC23 Robert B. Narod Photography

This private residence, located in a planned community along Fort Loudoun Lake in Knoxville, Tennessee, is intended to be a forever home for the client couple and their family as the couple nears retirement. Designed with family gatherings and lake views in mind, those entering the stone-clad cottage are greeted with immediate views of the water. Passing through an entry corridor and then through an oversized archway, the grand, vaulted living and dining areas flank the path to large sliding doors opening onto a covered veranda that overlooks the pool and lake beyond. The interior architecture is open and light, with two en suite master bedrooms on the main level and three guest suites tucked into the eaves over the garage. The home’s furnishings are an eclectic mix of the homeowner’s unique collections, a blend of comfortable and curated. The exterior is monochromatic in color with shake siding and trim at the gable ends painted to complement the light tan and grays of the stone cladding, creating a French country feel. Custom-painted wood shutters and rich wood entry doors add additional character to the exterior.

This private residence, located in a planned community along Fort Loudoun Lake in Knoxville, Tennessee, is intended to be a forever home for the client couple and their family as the couple nears retirement. Designed with family gatherings and lake views in mind, those entering the stone-clad cottage are greeted with immediate views of the water. Passing through an entry corridor and then through an oversized archway, the grand, vaulted living and dining areas flank the path to large sliding doors opening onto a covered veranda that overlooks the pool and lake beyond. The interior architecture is open and light, with two en suite master bedrooms on the main level and three guest suites tucked into the eaves over the garage. The home’s furnishings are an eclectic mix of the homeowner’s unique collections, a blend of comfortable and curated. The exterior is monochromatic in color with shake siding and trim at the gable ends painted to complement the light tan and grays of the stone cladding, creating a French country feel. Custom-painted wood shutters and rich wood entry doors add additional character to the exterior.

This private residence, located in a planned community along Fort Loudoun Lake in Knoxville, Tennessee, is intended to be a forever home for the client couple and their family as the couple nears retirement. Designed with family gatherings and lake views in mind, those entering the stone-clad cottage are greeted with immediate views of the water. Passing through an entry corridor and then through an oversized archway, the grand, vaulted living and dining areas flank the path to large sliding doors opening onto a covered veranda that overlooks the pool and lake beyond. The interior architecture is open and light, with two en suite master bedrooms on the main level and three guest suites tucked into the eaves over the garage. The home’s furnishings are an eclectic mix of the homeowner’s unique collections, a blend of comfortable and curated. The exterior is monochromatic in color with shake siding and trim at the gable ends painted to complement the light tan and grays of the stone cladding, creating a French country feel. Custom-painted wood shutters and rich wood entry doors add additional character to the exterior.