The unique window pattern on this mid-century home was repeated in the concrete patio in the form of inlaid bluestone runnels. Renn Kuhnen Photography

Photography by Jimi Smith / "Jimi Smith Photography"

PixelProFoto

The finished garden, an abundance of plants compliment the design of this garden.

Backyard fire pit. Taken by Lara Swimmer. Landscape Design by ModernBackyard

洗面室から直接アクセスできる物干しスペースのスナップ写真。

This freestanding covered patio with an outdoor kitchen and fireplace is the perfect retreat! Just a few steps away from the home, this covered patio is about 500 square feet. The homeowner had an existing structure they wanted replaced. This new one has a custom built wood burning fireplace with an outdoor kitchen and is a great area for entertaining. The flooring is a travertine tile in a Versailles pattern over a concrete patio. The outdoor kitchen has an L-shaped counter with plenty of space for prepping and serving meals as well as space for dining. The fascia is stone and the countertops are granite. The wood-burning fireplace is constructed of the same stone and has a ledgestone hearth and cedar mantle. What a perfect place to cozy up and enjoy a cool evening outside. The structure has cedar columns and beams. The vaulted ceiling is stained tongue and groove and really gives the space a very open feel. Special details include the cedar braces under the bar top counter, carriage lights on the columns and directional lights along the sides of the ceiling. Click Photography

Photographer: Roger Foley

Scott Feuer

With the goal of enhancing the connection between interior and exterior, backyard and side yard, and natural and man-made features, Partridge Fine Landscapes Ltd. drew on nature for inspiration. We worked around one of Oakville’s largest oak trees introducing curved braces and sculpted ends to an organic patio enhanced with wild bed lines tamed by a flagstone mowing strip. The result is a subtle layering of elements where each element effortlessly blends into the next. Linear structures bordered by manicured lawn and carefully planned perennials delineate the start of a dynamic and unbridled space. Pathways casually direct your steps to and from the pool area while the gentle murmur of the waterfall enhances the pervading peace of this outdoor sanctuary.

A Memorial area family commissioned us to create a natural swimming pool in their back yard. The family already had a standard pool on premises, but it was isolated in an area of the yard not particularly suited to seating guests or hosting get-togethers. What they wanted was a second, natural swimming pool built that would serve as the hub of a new home outdoor entertainment area consisting of a new stone patio, comfortable outdoor seating, and a fire pit. They wanted to create something unique that would preserve as much of the natural features of the landscape as possible, but that would also be completely safe and fully functional as a swimming pool. We decided to design this new landscaping plan around a pre-existent waterfall that was already on the property. This feature was too attractive to ignore, and provided the ideal anchor point for a new gathering area. The fountain had been designed to mimic a natural waterfall, with stones laid on top of one another in such a way as to look like a mountain cliff where water spontaneously springs from the top and cascades down the rocks. At first glance, many would miss the opportunity that such a structure provides; assuming that a fountain designed like a cliff would have to be completely replaced to install a natural swimming pool. Our landscaping designers, however, came up with a landscape plan to transform one archetypal form into the other by simply adding to what was already there. At the base of the rocks we dug a basin. This basin was oblong in shape and varied in degrees of depth ranging from a few inches on the end to five feet in the middle. We directed the flow of the water toward one end of the basin, so that it flowed into the depression and created a swimming pool at the base of the rocks. This was easy to accomplish because the fountain lay parallel to the top of a natural ravine located toward the back of the property, so water flow was maintained by gravity. This had the secondary effect of creating a new natural aesthetic. The addition of the basin transformed the fountain’s appearance to look more like a cliff you would see in a river, where the elevation suddenly drops, and water rushes over a series of rocks into a deeper pool below. Children and guests swimming in this new structure could actually imagine themselves in a Rocky Mountain River. We then heated the swimming pool so it could be enjoyed in the winter as well as the summer, and we also lit the pool using two types of luminaries for complimentary effects. For vegetation, we used mercury vapor down lights to backlight surrounding trees and to bring out the green color of foliage in and around the top of the rocks. For the brown color of the rocks themselves, and to create a sparkling luminance rising up and out of the water, we installed incandescent, underwater up lights. The lights were GFIC protected to make the natural swimming pool shock proof and safe for human use.