This front yard had a non-functional and failing walkway that needed to be re-done. Concrete that was heaving and cracking made an unusable path and were pushing on the stair case to the house from freeze thaw cycles.
We cam in and designed and built a new inviting but eye-eye catching set of front cascading stairs and landings. Not only did the stairs need to be beautiful the homeowner needed them to blend seamlessly with the architecture of the house so they looked like they were planned with the original build!
Add in the homeowners love for gardening and horticulture and this meant we needed to create a space that had local hardy plants that were densely planted so they started to mature and spill onto the hardscapes overtime. By doing this the hardscapes will soften and blend into the surrounding landscape in no time!
Paving Stone
Matching the home was essential and that is why we used a Greyed Nickel Blu 60 Paver in the 3 Piece Pattern by Techo-Bloc.ย These clean modern pavers play off the house and carry the aesthetic into the landscape.ย All the paving stone is installed on a base material of clean stone to allow drainage and avoid heaving that comes with fine base materials like crusher dust.
Stairs and Walls
Like with the paving stone the walls and steps needed to match. In this instance we did that by using Greyed Nickel Raffinato Wall in the 180mm size and Greyed Nickel Raffinato Steps. The larger scale of these materials compared to normal wall products gives them a modern feel and ties into the oversized panels you see used with the steel siding on the home.
Softscapes
A dense planting pallet of native grasses, evergreen groundcovers, and flowering perennials compliments the existing trees and shrubs the homeowner already had in place. By using a method of mass planting with rows of grasses and shrubs this creates the modern lines to match the hardscapes, but, by having plants with a more wispy and trailing growth habit the mass plantings soften a bit to remove some of the formal look the plants would have otherwise.
Landscape Lighting
Hidden to sight is the majority of the lighting for this project. There are strategically placed accent light s to up-light the trees and highlight the front facade of the house. As well lighting strips are hidden under the caps of the wall to highlight the textures of the stone as it washes down the face of each wall feature. Lastly, well place path lights at the transition points between elevations make walking at night safe while creating depth to the property at night as the eye is led up the pathway from fixture to fixture.
Courtyard Curves
