~$400 including expedited shipping. My GC just had his regular countertop guy do them, which wasn't great.... he had trouble making clean cuts. If I were going to do it again I would have pressed for someone with expertise to cut them. You can see in the image that the facing is not made of the stone peak, because too much was broken during the cutting to make the mitered edge. I'm a little bummed, but mostly pleased with the surface (which is the important part) thus far.

Looks like the palm tree look is working so I would blend that with some succulents maybe agave which can grow large and make great statement plants. Also stick with the stones.

An old post , so sort of sorry to revive it ! The lighter shade looks a lot better , but something doesn't gel with me -- it looks like a beautiful Million Dollar house , let down by someone trying to save $10k . IF it was my place , the 2 things I would do is change ( or hide ) the round pillars , and the relatively cheap looking brickwork . I'd go for quality stonework in place of the brickwork , and carry the theme through to the pillars -- probably 'squaring' the pillars . In fact , I personally don't like the slightly strange 'extra' pillars -- I'd try to 'cut back' to 4 pillars , in a quality natural stone . Once I had done those 2 'improvements' , I'd sand back and restain a darker brown the entrance doors and surrounds -- that golden look screams 1980's IMO . I realise they tie in with the existing colours , but I'd want to get away from that look . Maybe I'm strange . . . . . . .

I think the most impact would come from a well placed, well sized Acer. You can get them grown fairly tall already, Tamata have them and I'm sure there are other places. I'd get one that grows to no more than 3 metres (although check this against your property as scale is hard to gauge from photo), and has changing colours of leaves/bark. I'd place it towards the left of the property, looking at it. That will give some balance to the windows, provide some privacy but not obscure light. It wouldn't be a cheap option but cheaper than painting the house, and would need almost no aftercare. Then some easy care phormiums in the border underneath the windows. Both phormiums and acers come in a range of colours- limes, bronze, purples, oranges, dark reds etc, so choose what you like. The acers are soft and provide movement and variety, the phormiums sharp and provide solid consistent structure. This echoes the plants that can be seen already behind and at the side of the house and should make the hour 'sit within' its environment instead of bing perched on top of it. Also, the edge of the driveway- I would dig a border to just beyond the seam of the gate, lay down a weed mat, and put some stones in there. The garden centre has a range of them, in several colours from white through green red greys and blacks. If you chose reddish (or reddish and lime/orange) tones for your acer/phormiums, I would prob buy a large specimen plant in a pot for the top of the driveway, at the eight hand side of the garage, to link the colours. And maybe paint the front door and have some pot plants there that tone in too, especially in the area near the path that can be seen from the street. For a cleaner line I'd consider painting the lower part of the decking (the vertical frontage) to tone in with your house.