Sarah Ray Landscape Design

Finding skilled, creative, and personable design professionals is challenging. We're so lucky to have found Sarah Ray Landscape Design. Sarah Ray came highly recommended by our friends who had hired her twice before. Her team and their work were incredible. We hired them after we made the mistake of having our house painter rebuild our decomposing pergola in our backyard. The painters pergola was standing but no angles were square and the hardware they used was basic galvanized steel you'd want to see tucked behind a wall. After I saw their initial work I could not let them continue. The janky pergola plagued us for years until we decided we needed professional help. On top of the pergola work, we decided to have Sarah Ray's design team help us conceptualize our backyard. She and Mariana visited our backyard and helped us uncover our desires for the backyard through their design process. We got two beautiful concept plans, which helped us narrow down what we ultimately wanted for our home. Once we made our directional decisions, we moved forward with a final plan and estimate. Sarah's build team entered the fray, and Sarah continued to visit to add her design sense. The build took place over about 8 weeks and included terracing our upper section and adding retaining walls, steps, and ground covers. They removed some extremely tall Eucalyptus trees and other plants. They also added a sprinkler and drainage system. And, of course, we got a brand new pergola. The result was we love our backyard and use it all of the time. We entertain frequently with cookouts or just lounging on a sunny day. We are incredibly pleased with the work of Sarah Ray Landscape Design and would absolutely pass the recommendation forward.

Thanks to Sarah, our landscape was completely transformed in the most beautiful and magical way. Sarah listened to what we wanted and rolled up her sleeves to put together her recommendation which included thoughtful suggestions such as orienting the steps in a specific way in order to have a view of the hills in the distance. She also planned (and executed) the perfect balance of succulents, trees, grasses and flowering plants. Her team designed and replaced our decaying wooden retaining walls and brick planters with concrete that has weathered in a way that I really love. I highly recommend Sarah Ray Landscape Design and am thankful for her work every time I look outside!

We had a complicated drainage situation made more complicated by an abandonment by a former contractor. Sarah Ray declined the work: but did leave a really good impression. She was able to look the area, see the slopes and options, and speak intelligently about tradeoffs.

Sarah Ray and her design build firm are nothing short of exceptional. Sarah and her crew restored our trust in the home service industry after experiencing a botched home interior addition & remodel seven years ago. Our experience with Sarah now sets the gold standard for any home service provider we hire in the future. We spent a month carefully interviewing 6 landscape designers, architects, and design-build firms. Sarah was always the front runner and knew the second we hired her that we initiated a great partnership and were embarking on an awesome ride! And it was, on every front. Sarah is not only a talented visionary, designer and expert in her field, but a great listener, collaborator and partner. We have a large flat backyard (about 5000 sq. ft.) that was overgrown and neglected. We had ideas of the style and design elements that we liked, but it was overwhelming to think of how to get there! Having Sarah shepherd us through the design to build process was a privilege and an experience I will always treasure. She is extremely approachable, upbeat, patient, and easy to work with. She was very open to listening to our ideas and iterating on design options together. We also hired Sarah to build/implement our master design plan. A full design-build firm appealed to us because of the seamless and efficient implementation of the design. Sarah is also very available throughout the build process and was onsite nearly every day, as was her foreman. Sarah also met us countless times at various suppliers so that we could carefully select our materials. Her build crew is talented and very hard working. They started at 7:30am and worked for 7-8 hours/day, sweltering hot conditions or not. We really appreciated the undivided attention and the integrity and all-around work ethic displayed by Sarah and her crew. You will also find Sarah to be very transparent. Her billing system is the most logical and straight forward approach I have experienced in the home service industry. The invoice is directly tied to our contracted line items whereby charges reflect only percentages completed on a weekly basis. All change orders were at my request, and were only represented in the invoice if we agreed to it prior. There were no hidden costs or surprises. So, aside from my change orders, the project cost aligned with the signed contracted budget. Sarah created a gorgeous garden space that is everything we ever dreamed of and much more. Our family is looking forward to enjoying this beautiful extension of our home, our new found sanctuary, for years to come. Sarah Ray Design comes highly recommended for any size project. Thanks a million, Sarah!