Contemporary front yard driveway in Phoenix with brick pavers.

Full length brick paver driveway view from house. Home built by Rembrandt Construction, Inc - Traverse City, Michigan 231.645.7200. Photos by George DeGorski

Small contemporary backyard partial sun garden in New York with brick pavers.

Stone steps, interlocking stone front landing, front entry, interlocking walkway, stone garden bed, Tough Oaks Landscaping Company Barrie. Ralph J. Young Natural Stone. Colour banding, front entrance, front porch stone steps & landing redo, makeover, remodel, renovation.

A slightly different view of the front yard shows how a low profile planting can work effectively on a large scale home. Photo is courtesy of Mike Crews Photography

Retaining wall with kerb appeal
Photo of a mid-sized contemporary front yard full sun driveway for summer in Sydney with a retaining wall and brick pavers.

Large contemporary backyard full sun formal garden in Perth with a garden path and brick pavers for summer.

Mid-sized contemporary front yard partial sun driveway in Bridgeport with a garden path and brick pavers for spring.

Amanda Shipman
Photo of a small contemporary backyard partial sun garden for summer in Hertfordshire with a garden path and brick pavers.

Lake home has easy access to the dock and lake. Paver patio is under the upper deck, a raised bed disguises the sell, and a set of steps and landings in the side yard provide easy walking access all around the property. There's even a paver walkway that connects the paver patio to both sets of granite steps at the lake.

Mid-sized contemporary side yard partial sun garden in Houston with a container garden and brick pavers.

Marco Romani, RLA - Landscape Architect. Design and Construction of Entire Property by: Arrow
Design ideas for a contemporary front yard formal garden in Chicago with brick pavers.

We worked with Darren Oldfield Architects and Imperfect Interiors as part of a period house renovation. Our clients wanted a low maintenance garden that they could use all year round. We used pleached trees, installed an bespoke oak pergola and planted a mix of evergreens and multi-stems plants to soften the structures and give the garden privacy. We were asked to disguise the gym/office and this was done by painting it a dark grey green so that it became hidden and part of the garden.

Inspiration for a mid-sized contemporary backyard partial sun formal garden for summer in Berkshire with a retaining wall and brick pavers.

Succulent wall photo by Living Gardens Landscape Design
Inspiration for a mid-sized contemporary backyard partial sun garden in Orange County with brick pavers.

A Memorial-area art collector residing in a chic modern home wanted his house to be more visible from the street. His yard was full of trees, and he asked us to consider removing them and developing a more modern landscape design that would fully complement the exterior of his home. He was a personal friend of ours as well, and he understood that our policy is to preserve as many trees as possible whenever we undertake a project. However, we decided to make an exception in his case for two reasons. For one thing, he was a very close friend to many people in our company. Secondly, large trees simply would not work with a landscape reflective of the modern architecture that his house featured. The house had been built as story structure that was formed around a blend of unique curves and angles very reminiscent of the geometric patterns common in modern sculpture and art. The windows had been built deliberately large, so that visitors driving up to the house could have a lighted glimpse into the interior, where many sculptures and works of modern art were showcased. The entire residence, in fact, was meant to showcase the eclectic diversity of his artistic tastes, and provide a glimpse at the elegant contents within the home. He asked us to create more modern look to the landscape that would complement the residence with patterns in vegetation, ornamentation, and a new lighted water fountain that would act like a mirror-image of the home. He also wanted us to sculpt the features we created in such a way as to center the eye of the viewer and draw it up and over the landscape to focus on the house itself. The challenge was to develop a truly sophisticated modern landscaping design that would compliment, but in no way overpower the façade of the home. In order to do this, we had to focus very carefully on the geometric appearance of the planting areas first. Since the vegetation would be surrounding a very large, circular stone drive, we took advantage of the contours and created a sense of flowing perspective. We were then very careful to plant vegetation that could be maintained at a very low growth height. This was to prevent vegetation from behaving like the previous trees which had blocked the view of the house. Small hedges, ferns, and flowers were planted in winding rows that followed the course of the circular stone driveway that surrounded the fountain. We then centered this new modern landscape plan with a very sophisticated contemporary fountain. We chose a circular shape for the fountain both to center the eye and to work as a compliment to the curved elements in the home’s exterior design. We selected black granite as the building material, partly because granite speaks to the monumental, and partly because it is a very common material for modern architecture and outdoor contemporary sculpture. We placed the fountain in the very center of the driveway as well, which had the effect of making the entire landscape appear to converge toward the middle of the home’s façade. To add a sense of eclectic refinement to the fountain, we then polished the granite so that anyone driving or walking up to the fountain would see a reflection of the home in the base. To maintain consistency of the circular shape, we radius cut all of the coping around the fountain was all radius cut from polished limestone. The lighter color of the limestone created an archetypal contrast of light and darkness, further contributing to the modern theme of the landscape design, and providing a surface for illumination so the fountain would remain an established keynote on the landscape during the night.

Современный сад
Mid-sized contemporary garden in Saint Petersburg with brick pavers for summer.

This project is also pictured in our front yard projects. The variety of landscape features and colors make this landscape design extra special. Tom Barrett, and his team at Environmental Construction Inc., has a special touch when it comes to quality design.

Hermes Landscaping: by Matt Kocourek
Inspiration for a large contemporary backyard full sun garden for summer in Kansas City with a fire feature and brick pavers.