In our busy lives, creating a peaceful and rejuvenating home environment is essential to a healthy lifestyle. Built less than five years ago, this Stinson Beach Modern home is your own private oasis. Surrounded by a butterfly preserve and unparalleled ocean views, the home will lead you to a sense of connection with nature. As you enter an open living room space that encompasses a kitchen, dining area, and living room, the inspiring contemporary interior invokes a sense of relaxation, that stimulates the senses. The open floor plan and modern finishes create a soothing, tranquil, and uplifting atmosphere. The house is approximately 2900 square feet, has three (to possibly five) bedrooms, four bathrooms, an outdoor shower and spa, a full office, and a media room. Its two levels blend into the hillside, creating privacy and quiet spaces within an open floor plan and feature spectacular views from every room. The expansive home, decks and patios presents the most beautiful sunsets as well as the most private and panoramic setting in all of Stinson Beach. One of the home's noteworthy design features is a peaked roof that uses Kalwall's translucent day-lighting system, the most highly insulating, diffuse light-transmitting, structural panel technology. This protected area on the hill provides a dramatic roar from the ocean waves but without any of the threats of oceanfront living. Built on one of the last remaining one-acre coastline lots on the west side of the hill at Stinson Beach, the design of the residence is site friendly, using materials and finishes that meld into the hillside. The landscaping features low-maintenance succulents and butterfly friendly plantings appropriate for the adjacent Monarch Butterfly Preserve. Recalibrate your dreams in this natural environment, and make the choice to live in complete privacy on this one acre retreat. This home includes Miele appliances, Thermadore refrigerator and freezer, an entire home water filtration system, kitchen and bathroom cabinetry by SieMatic, Ceasarstone kitchen counter tops, hardwood and Italian ceramic radiant tile floors using Warmboard technology, Electric blinds, Dornbracht faucets, Kalwall skylights throughout livingroom and garage, Jeldwen windows and sliding doors. Located 5-8 minute walk to the ocean, downtown Stinson and the community center. It is less than a five minute walk away from the trail heads such as Steep Ravine and Willow Camp.

Our client requested Land & Water Design to design a unique backyard, utilizing every bit of open area. Within the requests were a 12'x22' swimming pool with swim jet system to accommodate the competitive swimmers in their family. The items on their "wish list" were enough hardscape areas to accommodate at least 20 guests, a beautiful low maintenance landscape, custom storage area, outdoor lighting, water jets, retaining wall, seat walls and finally a small area for outdoor grilling. Photo Credit: Jim Folliard

This private residence, designed and built by John Cannon Homes, showcases French Country architectural detailing at the exterior, with touches of traditional and french country accents throughout the interior. This 3,776 s.f. home features 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, formal living and dining rooms, family room, study and 3-car garage. The outdoor living area with pool and spa also includes a gazebo with fire pit. Gene Pollux Photography

Designed and built by Holloway Pools; Photo by: Ashley Holloway

This gorgeous backyard project covered every square inch of this customer’s backyard and was nestled in to a tight backyard access without disturbing the existing trees or golf course. The customer had very contemporary and modern tastes and wanted that reflected in their pool and backyard design. A stunning 1” blue glass tiled raised planter box* with 5 water features gracefully separates this geometrically perfect Pebble Sheen swimming pool from the golf course it overlooks and green low-maintenance Southwest plants & floral separate the view. A dam wall separates the roomy therapeutic in-ground semi-circle spa from the pool area. The side of the pool closest to the home is a straight parallel line, with the opposing side geometrically rounded with both the raised pattern pavers and the wrought iron fence matching patterns precisely. The ( wireless EZ Touch remote operated ) pool equipment is on the side of the home allowing spacious deck space for those who enjoy this contemporary backyard. Of note, the same 1” glass tiles from the raised planter were used throughout the home’s interior to integrate outdoor & indoor elements.

Randy Angell, Designer The beautiful estate already had a well-designed backyard by a prominent landscape architect. This included the upper spa area, which we had built for the previous owner. The challenge presented by the new homeowner was to create a seamless design that integrated the new with the existing, remained true to the original architects vision, and created a space to be enjoyed by the family's children, as well as the many business and charity event guests that would be frequenting the home.

View of Covered Patio, grass sun deck, and pool from kitchen: 41 West Coastal Retreat Series reveals creative, fresh ideas, for a new look to define the casual beach lifestyle of Naples. More than a dozen custom variations and sizes are available to be built on your lot. From this spacious 3,000 square foot, 3 bedroom model, to larger 4 and 5 bedroom versions ranging from 3,500 - 10,000 square feet, including guest house options.

Winnetka swimming pool, spa and outdoor kitchen by Rosebrook Pools. 847-362-0400 Classic swimming pool with contemporary detail. Glass tile accents pool and spa waterline, tanning ledge,and spa overflow. Laminar deck jets surround pool along with an additional raised stone water feature. The deck and coping are in Valders Limestone. The patio is equipped with a full outdoor kitchen and a pergola. The spa and kitchen use Connecticut stone veneer, and the kitchen is topped with black granite. Norman Sizemore Photography

A couple by the name of Claire and Dan Boyles commissioned Exterior Worlds to develop their back yard along the lines of a French Country garden design. They had recently designed and built a French Colonial style house. Claire had been very involved in the architectural design, and she communicated extensively her expectations for the landscape. The aesthetic we ultimately created for them was not a traditional French country garden per se, but instead was a variation on the symmetry, color, and sense of formality associated with this design. The most notable feature that we added to the estate was a custom swimming pool installed just to the rear of the home. It emphasized linearity, complimentary right angles, and it featured a luxury spa and pool fountain. We built the coping around the pool out of limestone, and we used concrete pavers to build the custom pool patio. We then added French pottery in various locations around the patio to balance the stonework against the look and structure of the home. We added a formal garden parallel to the pool to reflect its linear movement. Like most French country gardens, this design is bordered by sheered bushes and emphasizes straight lines, angles, and symmetry. One very interesting thing about this garden is that it is consist entirely of various shades of green, which lends itself well to the sense of a French estate. The garden is bordered by a taupe colored cedar fence that compliments the color of the stonework. Just around the corner from the back entrance to the house, there lies a double-door entrance to the master bedroom. This was an ideal place to build a small patio for the Boyles to use as a private seating area in the early mornings and evenings. We deviated slightly from strict linearity and symmetry by adding pavers that ran out like steps from the patio into the grass. We then planted boxwood hedges around the patio, which are common in French country garden design and combine an Old World sensibility with a morning garden setting. We then completed this portion of the project by adding rosemary and mondo grass as ground cover to the space between the patio, the corner of the house, and the back wall that frames the yard. This design is derivative of those found in morning gardens, and it provides the Boyles with a place where they can step directly from their bedroom into a private outdoor space and enjoy the early mornings and evenings. We further develop the sense of a morning garden seating area; we deviated slightly from the strict linear forms of the rest of the landscape by adding pavers that ran like steps from the patio and out into the grass. We also planted rosemary and mondo grass as ground cover to the space between the patio, the corner of the house, and the back wall that borders this portion of the yard. We then landscaped the front of the home with a continuing symmetry reminiscent of French country garden design. We wanted to establish a sense of grand entrance to the home, so we built a stone walkway that ran all the way from the sidewalk and then fanned out parallel to the covered porch that centers on the front door and large front windows of the house. To further develop the sense of a French country estate, we planted a small parterre garden that can be seen and enjoyed from the left side of the porch. On the other side of house, we built the Boyles a circular motorcourt around a large oak tree surrounded by lush San Augustine grass. We had to employ special tree preservation techniques to build above the root zone of the tree. The motorcourt was then treated with a concrete-acid finish that compliments the brick in the home. For the parking area, we used limestone gravel chips. French country garden design is traditionally viewed as a very formal style intended to fill a significant portion of a yard or landscape. The genius of the Boyles project lay not in strict adherence to tradition, but rather in adapting its basic principles to the architecture of the home and the geometry of the surrounding landscape. For more the 20 years Exterior Worlds has specialized in servicing many of Houston's fine neighborhoods.

To counteract the formidable placement of the pool (diagonal to the house), a stronger diagonal was developed by placing a sunning deck, which appears to float, and a dining pergola at 90 degrees to the pool. These hardscape elements set the stage for an exotic, tropically themed sanctuary. www.hortusoasis.com

Berkshire Pool House. Photographer: Rob Karosis

A Neptune Pools Original design. Small concrete family pool (7m x 3.5m) with white tiled interior, Anston Bondi paving and Eco Clancy wall panelling. Rear wall render colour monument. Planting consists of Ornamental Pears with Agave underplanting. Photography by Tim Turner.