Scope: Front entrance, front balconies, center courtyard, and backyard.

Objective: Create sophisticated and inviting atmosphere with outdoor entertaining.

Design: Add formal balconies with custom railings to the front of the house. Add new landing with posts that complement the grandness of front entry. Front yard landscaping was designed to add curb appeal. Add custom-designed trellis in center courtyard as a focal point. Add a 15 x 20 ft. pergola with outdoor kitchen and seating wall. 

Scope: Front yard, front entrance, sidewalk, driveway.

Objective: Create a showcase garden in very tight front yard space (35 x 20 ft.).

Design: By adding steps and landings, adding hedges to existing white fences, and adding custom-designed garden gate and posts, what used to be a very simple and narrow yard now looks bigger than what it actually is, therefore adding privacy and more depth to a house that sits very close to the street. 

Scope: Front entrance, front patio, side yard, and backyard.

Objective: Bring cohesiveness, visual interest to a huge flat lot in the back.

Design: Add new landing with posts to front entry. Add new patio to the front, in preparation for future addition of a French door to the dinning room area. Add side yard, vegetable garden, pergola, swing chair, sitting wall to the backyard. The client has a huge lot (approx. 4000 sq. ft.) in the back. The vision was to create a park-like setting in the backyard, tailored to client’s specific love of growing organic vegetables.

Scope: Front entrance, and backyard.

Objective: Turn what’s essentially unusable up sloped backyard into a dramatic focal point.

Design: Enhance front yard by adding fence posts with Japanese boxwoods in between to enhance privacy. Backyard was approx. 5000 sq., with approx. 1,500 sq. ft. that’s flat, and the rest sloped up. So a multi-terraced backyard was created to accommodate the site topography. Each terrace step has inset lighting and other lighting on posts so the terraces look dramatic at night. On the flat area a waterfall and BBQ area were added for outdoor entertaining.

Scope: Front entrance, center courtyard, and backyard.

Objective: Connect the narrow side yard and small back yard with a cohesive design, to create a spacious and inviting atmosphere.

Design: A mix of natural and man-made materials was used to create the semi-modern and inviting out-door spaces, giving the existing square footage maximum spatial impact. For the front, multi-colored slate tiles in a crisscross pattern, bono bricks, inset lighting, and landscaping create a formal, inviting entrance to an otherwise narrow front door. For the center courtyard, natural flat stones blend into concrete stamping for cost effectiveness, at the same time bringing interesting texture into concrete. A water fountain is set into a new wall with veneer stone capping, creating a relaxing backdrop for seating area. The curvy border of the concrete-stamped footpath leads to another small backyard with trellis and seating area beneath.

Scope: Center courtyard, backyard.

Objective: Design a brand new center courtyard and backyard with entertainment in mind, but with a peaceful atmosphere.

Design: For center courtyard an outdoor fireplace was added, with concrete seating area. For back yard, Cypress trees were planted around the border to create privacy screen. 8 x 8 ft. planter for Japanese Maple. 15 x 15 ft. Japanese style pergola for entertainment.

Scope: Front yard, side yard, and backyard or a ranch-style home on leveled street.

Objective: Transform a typical ranch-style home with grass lawn into a garden oasis, with a variety of California natives and perennials.

Design: Even though the house sits on flat, leveled street, the site still gives enough soil grades to enable the design of a down-sloping front yard, with opportunity to create a custom-designed garden gate and landing steps. Natural flat stones are used on front walkway to set off the path from concrete stamping. Plants for the front garden are selected with the purpose of creating a semi-private sitting area on the front porch, discretely hidden by plants. The owners were very pleased that the California native plants brought a lot of butterflies and hummingbirds to their garden. 

Scope: Front entry way, front yard, side yard, and backyard.

Objective: Comfortable, easy to maintain, inviting garden space for social gathering, with planters and sitting walls to accommodate large parties.

Design: Redesign the landing and landscaping to the front of the house. Added a custom-built kitchen, custom-built planters with sitting walls to accommodate at least 30 people. Center piece of the yard is a custom-designed water fountain that invokes serenity, as water falls and glide down the side of the urn. A non-symmetrical pentagon shaped arbor with Roman column was designed as a focal point where entertaining takes place.

Scope: Front yard, side yard, and backyard.

Objective: Create privacy for a house located on a semi-busy street.

Design: Planted more than 100 ft. long of hedges to provide privacy for the house. Custom-designed electronic gate for drive way entrance. Entire yard is laid with cobblestones. Front gate is custom-designed with arbor on top. Arbor and seating area for the front and back yard.

Scope: Front entrance, center courtyard, side yard, and backyard.

Objective: Create the ultimate family gathering outdoor space for a retired couple.

Design: The client was going to retire in this house. They wanted to create an inviting outdoor space where everyone in the family can relax in and share family time. Starting from the front of the house, an Italianate style balcony and new landing was added, along with topiaries to complete the look of the house. Side yard was made useful with vegetable beds. Simple, peaceful waterfall and multi-colored plants were added to center courtyard. 12 x 20ft. endless pool, out-door shower, full outdoor kitchen, and pizza over were added to the backyard for ultimate family entertaining. 

There're five projects, each project feature 4 images:

1) To create the space bike friendly for kids.

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