What better way to enjoy the best feature of a lake house – the lake – than spending an evening sitting around a fire? Roast marshmallows or have a heart-to-heart – the fire is the perfect setting for connecting with loved ones.

Klopf Architecture, Arterra Landscape Architects, and Flegels Construction updated a classic Eichler open, indoor-outdoor home. Expanding on the original walls of glass and connection to nature that is common in mid-century modern homes. The completely openable walls allow the homeowners to truly open up the living space of the house, transforming it into an open air pavilion, extending the living area outdoors to the private side yards, and taking maximum advantage of indoor-outdoor living opportunities. Taking the concept of borrowed landscape from traditional Japanese architecture, the fountain, concrete bench wall, and natural landscaping bound the indoor-outdoor space. The Truly Open Eichler is a remodeled single-family house in Palo Alto. This 1,712 square foot, 3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom is located in the heart of the Silicon Valley. Klopf Architecture Project Team: John Klopf, AIA, Geoff Campen, and Angela Todorova Landscape Architect: Arterra Landscape Architects Structural Engineer: Brian Dotson Consulting Engineers Contractor: Flegels Construction Photography ©2014 Mariko Reed Location: Palo Alto, CA Year completed: 2014

Berkshire Retreat. Photographer: Rob Karosis
Design ideas for a farmhouse front yard landscaping in New York.

Homeowners with kids and active life wanting progressive style to facilitate outdoor living. We fused the traditional neighborhood and home style with a contemporary feel offering an upscale, clean, defined look and the result was awesome! Landscape Architect and Landscape Designer Values: Any given Landscape Architect or Landscape Designer may have a different approach, but Landscape Designer and Landscape Contractor, Brett Berry of Berry Outdoor Living creates living areas that feel connected to the home. As a Landscape Designer and Landscape Contractor working with a Landscape Architect, we try to create the space so it feels relaxed. It should feel like it's been in place with the home for years and not an "add-on". As a Landscape Contractor that merges old and new construction into the landscape design, the goal is to build a space people want to spend time, whether at the bar of the outdoor kitchen, fire pit, patio, or covered porch. When a space becomes a large part of the homeowners' daily life, a Landscape Architect or Landscape Designer, or Landscape Contractor, knows a project has been completed with excellence. I work closely with a Landscape Architect through the design process to ensure the space has the correct "feel". A Landscape Architect and Landscape Designer must design the space to flow from the inside of the home out. The patio and outdoor living space feels like an extension of the home, or another "room" of the home and feels wrapped with fresh, low-maintenance landscaping. In Kansas City patio, and landscaping design, there is a clear trend toward a cleaner, more defined look influenced by a more modern era viewpoint that values a non-cluttered look and feel. So, as a Landscape Contractor, in our circle of clients, we've seen a definite shift toward cleaner, artisan-crafted backyards and fewer "boxy", shrub-heavy yards. A Landscape Architect with a keen sense designs this effect. landscape modern landscape Kansas city berry landscape photos, Houzz landscape design ideas pictures remodel décor, Houzz landscape design photos, Houzz outdoor photos, outdoor landscape design photos, Houzz outdoor photos, Houzz landscape design ideas pictures remodel décor outdoor photos, landscape design outdoor photos, Houzz pictures landscape, landscape back yard, landscape residential, landscape contractor, landscape design, landscape designer, landscaper, landscaping, landscape architect, landscape contractor, landscape photos, modern landscape photos, Staker landscape photos, Kansas City landscape photos, landscape photos back yard, landscape photos residential, landscape design ideas pictures, landscape pictures, landscape design ideas residential, landscape design ideas Staker residence, Houzz landscape photos, Houzz landscape pictures, Houzz landscape, Houzz landscape design ideas pictures, Houzz landscape design ideas pictures Staker residence

From the street, a round rock pathway leads to a small seating area next to the water with a small fire pit. Low maintenance, drought resistant and salt tolerant plantings were used in mass and clumps. This garden has become the focus of the neighborhood with many visitors stopping and enjoying what has become a neighborhood landmark. Located on the shores of Puget Sound in Washington State. Photo by R. Scott Lankford

A tapestry of color and texture that includes Stachys ' Big Ears, Snow-in-Summer, Penstemon 'Margarita BOP', Breath of Heaven and New Zealand Flax. Landscape Design and Photo: © Eileen Kelly, Dig Your Garden Landscape Design, Colorful plant combinations and groupings along a decomposed pathway in a San Anselmo garden in northern California. Phormiums, native Penstemon, Snow in Summer, Lambs Ears and other colorful plants create a beautiful low-water tapestry of plant groupings at the home's front entrance. Photo and Design: © Eileen Kelly, Dig Your Garden Landscape Design

The Mazama house is located in the Methow Valley of Washington State, a secluded mountain valley on the eastern edge of the North Cascades, about 200 miles northeast of Seattle. The house has been carefully placed in a copse of trees at the easterly end of a large meadow. Two major building volumes indicate the house organization. A grounded 2-story bedroom wing anchors a raised living pavilion that is lifted off the ground by a series of exposed steel columns. Seen from the access road, the large meadow in front of the house continues right under the main living space, making the living pavilion into a kind of bridge structure spanning over the meadow grass, with the house touching the ground lightly on six steel columns. The raised floor level provides enhanced views as well as keeping the main living level well above the 3-4 feet of winter snow accumulation that is typical for the upper Methow Valley. To further emphasize the idea of lightness, the exposed wood structure of the living pavilion roof changes pitch along its length, so the roof warps upward at each end. The interior exposed wood beams appear like an unfolding fan as the roof pitch changes. The main interior bearing columns are steel with a tapered “V”-shape, recalling the lightness of a dancer. The house reflects the continuing FINNE investigation into the idea of crafted modernism, with cast bronze inserts at the front door, variegated laser-cut steel railing panels, a curvilinear cast-glass kitchen counter, waterjet-cut aluminum light fixtures, and many custom furniture pieces. The house interior has been designed to be completely integral with the exterior. The living pavilion contains more than twelve pieces of custom furniture and lighting, creating a totality of the designed environment that recalls the idea of Gesamtkunstverk, as seen in the work of Josef Hoffman and the Viennese Secessionist movement in the early 20th century. The house has been designed from the start as a sustainable structure, with 40% higher insulation values than required by code, radiant concrete slab heating, efficient natural ventilation, large amounts of natural lighting, water-conserving plumbing fixtures, and locally sourced materials. Windows have high-performance LowE insulated glazing and are equipped with concealed shades. A radiant hydronic heat system with exposed concrete floors allows lower operating temperatures and higher occupant comfort levels. The concrete slabs conserve heat and provide great warmth and comfort for the feet. Deep roof overhangs, built-in shades and high operating clerestory windows are used to reduce heat gain in summer months. During the winter, the lower sun angle is able to penetrate into living spaces and passively warm the exposed concrete floor. Low VOC paints and stains have been used throughout the house. The high level of craft evident in the house reflects another key principle of sustainable design: build it well and make it last for many years! Photo by Benjamin Benschneider

The problem this Memorial-Houston homeowner faced was that her sumptuous contemporary home, an austere series of interconnected cubes of various sizes constructed from white stucco, black steel and glass, did not have the proper landscaping frame. It was out of scale. Imagine Robert Motherwell's "Black on White" painting without the Museum of Fine Arts-Houston's generous expanse of white walls surrounding it. It would still be magnificent but somehow...off. Intuitively, the homeowner realized this issue and started interviewing landscape designers. After talking to about 15 different designers, she finally went with one, only to be disappointed with the results. From the across-the-street neighbor, she was then introduced to Exterior Worlds and she hired us to correct the newly-created problems and more fully realize her hopes for the grounds. "It's not unusual for us to come in and deal with a mess. Sometimes a homeowner gets overwhelmed with managing everything. Other times it is like this project where the design misses the mark. Regardless, it is really important to listen for what a prospect or client means and not just what they say," says Jeff Halper, owner of Exterior Worlds. Since the sheer size of the house is so dominating, Exterior Worlds' overall job was to bring the garden up to scale to match the house. Likewise, it was important to stretch the house into the landscape, thereby softening some of its severity. The concept we devised entailed creating an interplay between the landscape and the house by astute placement of the black-and-white colors of the house into the yard using different materials and textures. Strategic plantings of greenery increased the interest, density, height and function of the design. First we installed a pathway of crushed white marble around the perimeter of the house, the white of the path in homage to the house’s white facade. At various intervals, 3/8-inch steel-plated metal strips, painted black to echo the bones of the house, were embedded and crisscrossed in the pathway to turn it into a loose maze. Along this metal bunting, we planted succulents whose other-worldly shapes and mild coloration juxtaposed nicely against the hard-edged steel. These plantings included Gulf Coast muhly, a native grass that produces a pink-purple plume when it blooms in the fall. A side benefit to the use of these plants is that they are low maintenance and hardy in Houston’s summertime heat. Next we brought in trees for scale. Without them, the impressive architecture becomes imposing. We placed them along the front at either corner of the house. For the left side, we found a multi-trunk live oak in a field, transported it to the property and placed it in a custom-made square of the crushed marble at a slight distance from the house. On the right side where the house makes a 90-degree alcove, we planted a mature mesquite tree. To finish off the front entry, we fashioned the black steel into large squares and planted grass to create islands of green, or giant lawn stepping pads. We echoed this look in the back off the master suite by turning concrete pads of black-stained concrete into stepping pads. We kept the foundational plantings of Japanese yews which add green, earthy mass, something the stark architecture needs for further balance. We contoured Japanese boxwoods into small spheres to enhance the play between shapes and textures. In the large, white planters at the front entrance, we repeated the plantings of succulents and Gulf Coast muhly to reinforce symmetry. Then we built an additional planter in the back out of the black metal, filled it with the crushed white marble and planted a Texas vitex, another hardy choice that adds a touch of color with its purple blooms. To finish off the landscaping, we needed to address the ravine behind the house. We built a retaining wall to contain erosion. Aesthetically, we crafted it so that the wall has a sharp upper edge, a modern motif right where the landscape meets the land.

A custom address sign is lit from behind with a LED light tile and compliments the more contemporary landscape design for the front entry. The concrete pier is designed as a planter.

Habitat Design did the plant design and landscape styling for the 2012 Sunset Idea House in Healdsburg, CA. We also provided interior accents from our online store as well!

Klopf Architecture, Arterra Landscape Architects and Henry Calvert of Calvert Ventures Designed and built a new warm, modern, Eichler-inspired, open, indoor-outdoor home on a deeper-than-usual San Mateo Highlands property where an original Eichler house had burned to the ground. The owners wanted multi-generational living and larger spaces than the original home offered, but all parties agreed that the house should respect the neighborhood and blend in stylistically with the other Eichlers. At first the Klopf team considered re-using what little was left of the original home and expanding on it. But after discussions with the owner and builder, all parties agreed that the last few remaining elements of the house were not practical to re-use, so Klopf Architecture designed a new home that pushes the Eichler approach in new directions. One disadvantage of Eichler production homes is that the house designs were not optimized for each specific lot. A new custom home offered the team a chance to start over. In this case, a longer house that opens up sideways to the south fit the lot better than the original square-ish house that used to open to the rear (west). Accordingly, the Klopf team designed an L-shaped “bar” house with a large glass wall with large sliding glass doors that faces sideways instead of to the rear like a typical Eichler. This glass wall opens to a pool and landscaped yard designed by Arterra Landscape Architects. Driving by the house, one might assume at first glance it is an Eichler because of the horizontality, the overhanging flat roof eaves, the dark gray vertical siding, and orange solid panel front door, but the house is designed for the 21st Century and is not meant to be a “Likeler.” You won't see any posts and beams in this home. Instead, the ceiling decking is a western red cedar that covers over all the beams. Like Eichlers, this cedar runs continuously from inside to out, enhancing the indoor / outdoor feeling of the house, but unlike Eichlers it conceals a cavity for lighting, wiring, and insulation. Ceilings are higher, rooms are larger and more open, the master bathroom is light-filled and more generous, with a separate tub and shower and a separate toilet compartment, and there is plenty of storage. The garage even easily fits two of today's vehicles with room to spare. A massive 49-foot by 12-foot wall of glass and the continuity of materials from inside to outside enhance the inside-outside living concept, so the owners and their guests can flow freely from house to pool deck to BBQ to pool and back. During construction in the rough framing stage, Klopf thought the front of the house appeared too tall even though the house had looked right in the design renderings (probably because the house is uphill from the street). So Klopf Architecture paid the framer to change the roofline from how we had designed it to be lower along the front, allowing the home to blend in better with the neighborhood. One project goal was for people driving up the street to pass the home without immediately noticing there is an "imposter" on this lot, and making that change was essential to achieve that goal. This 2,606 square foot, 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom Eichler-inspired new house is located in San Mateo in the heart of the Silicon Valley. Klopf Architecture Project Team: John Klopf, AIA, Klara Kevane Landscape Architect: Arterra Landscape Architects Contractor: Henry Calvert of Calvert Ventures Photography ©2016 Mariko Reed Location: San Mateo, CA Year completed: 2016

Modern swimming pool and spa design. Contemporary landscape and pool lighting surround this unique pool. Luxury swimming pool landscaping ideas by Cipriano- 2013 “Top 50 Pool Builder” with 14 International Design Awards. Bergen County-Northern NJ

Unique Violin shape glass tile swimming pool with lush landscaping. Luxury swimming pool landscaping ideas by Cipriano- 2013 “Top 50 Pool Builder” with 14 International Design Awards. Bergen County-Northern NJ

Habitat Design did the plant design and landscape styling for the 2012 Sunset Idea House in Healdsburg, CA. We also provided interior accents from our online store as well!

Bridget Mitchell
This is an example of a mid-sized shabby-chic style shade courtyard landscaping in Chicago for spring.

Exterior Worlds was contracted by the Bretches family of West Memorial to assist in a renovation project that was already underway. The family had decided to add on to their house and to have an outdoor kitchen constructed on the property. To enhance these new constructions, the family asked our firm to develop a formal landscaping design that included formal gardens, new vantage points, and a renovated pool that worked to center and unify the aesthetic of the entire back yard. The ultimate goal of the project was to create a clear line of site from every vantage point of the yard. By removing trees in certain places, we were able to create multiple zones of interest that visually complimented each other from a variety of positions. These positions were first mapped out in the landscape master plan, and then connected by a granite gravel walkway that we constructed. Beginning at the entrance to the master bedroom, the walkway stretched along the perimeter of the yard and connected to the outdoor kitchen. Another major keynote of this formal landscaping design plan was the construction of two formal parterre gardens in each of the far corners of the yard. The gardens were identical in size and constitution. Each one was decorated by a row of three limestone urns used as planters for seasonal flowers. The vertical impact of the urns added a Classical touch to the parterre gardens that created a sense of stately appeal counter punctual to the architecture of the house. In order to allow visitors to enjoy this Classic appeal from a variety of focal points, we then added trail benches at key locations along the walkway. Some benches were installed immediately to one side of each garden. Others were placed at strategically chosen intervals along the path that would allow guests to sit down and enjoy a view of the pool, the house, and at least one of the gardens from their particular vantage point. To centralize the aesthetic formality of the formal landscaping design, we also renovated the existing swimming pool. We replaced the old tile and enhanced the coping and water jets that poured into its interior. This allowed the swimming pool to function as a more active landscaping element that better complimented the remodeled look of the home and the new formal gardens. The redesigned path, with benches, tables, and chairs positioned at key points along its thoroughfare, helped reinforced the pool’s role as an aesthetic focal point of formal design that connected the entirety of the property into a more unified presentation of formal curb appeal. To complete our formal landscaping design, we added accents to our various keynotes. Japanese yew hedges were planted behind the gardens for added dimension and appeal. We also placed modern sculptures in strategic points that would aesthetically balance the classic tone of the garden with the newly renovated architecture of the home and the pool. Zoysia grass was added to the edges of the gardens and pathways to soften the hard lines of the parterre gardens and walkway.

Landscape Architect: Howard Cohen Photography by: Bob Narod, Photographer LLC Pool finish is PebbleSheen.
Photo of a large transitional backyard stone water fountain landscape in DC Metro.

Glencoe IL Formal sideyard garden walk leading to rear yard pool oasis. French inspired theme. By: Arrow. Land + Structures. Landscape Architects and Builders----The sideyard path leads visitors towards the rear yard poolside retreat. Sideyards present an opportunity to create an an articulated approach that pulls you in towards your destination.

Photos By: Leslie Kipp
This is an example of a tropical outdoor playset in Philadelphia.