Refine by:
Budget
Sort by:Popular Today
1 - 20 of 4,420 photos
Item 1 of 3
Shane Marsh Architects
Photo of a mid-sized contemporary backyard patio in Brisbane with a fire feature, gravel and an awning.
WA Design Architects
wa design
Design ideas for a mid-sized contemporary backyard partial sun formal garden for spring in San Francisco with a vegetable garden and gravel.
Design ideas for a mid-sized contemporary backyard partial sun formal garden for spring in San Francisco with a vegetable garden and gravel.
Bliss Garden Design, LLC
Bliss Garden Design
This is an example of a contemporary side yard garden in Seattle with gravel.
This is an example of a contemporary side yard garden in Seattle with gravel.
Amelia B. Lima & Associates, INC.
A 4o feet long green wall creates a living colorful mural on a side yard.
Amelia B. Lima
This is an example of a contemporary side yard garden in San Diego with gravel.
This is an example of a contemporary side yard garden in San Diego with gravel.
Tierra Madre Fine Gardens
Photo of a small contemporary backyard patio in Other with a water feature and gravel.
Classic Landscapes, Inc.
Inspiration for a contemporary patio in Atlanta with a fire feature, gravel and no cover.
Ronni Hock Garden & Landscape
Photo of a small contemporary backyard full sun garden for spring in Philadelphia with a garden path and gravel.
Janice Parker Landscape Architects
A stepping stone path with grass joints lead to the lower fire pit circle.
Photo credit: Neil Landino
Mid-sized contemporary backyard full sun garden in New York with a fire feature and gravel for summer.
Mid-sized contemporary backyard full sun garden in New York with a fire feature and gravel for summer.
Studio H Landscape Architecture
Photography by Studio H Landscape Architecture. Post processing by Isabella Li.
Small contemporary backyard xeriscape in Orange County with gravel.
Small contemporary backyard xeriscape in Orange County with gravel.
Exterior Worlds Landscaping & Design
This shade arbor, located in The Woodlands, TX north of Houston, spans the entire length of the back yard. It combines a number of elements with custom structures that were constructed to emulate specific aspects of a Zen garden. The homeowner wanted a low-maintenance garden whose beauty could withstand the tough seasonal weather that strikes the area at various times of the year. He also desired a mood-altering aesthetic that would relax the senses and calm the mind. Most importantly, he wanted this meditative environment completely shielded from the outside world so he could find serenity in total privacy.
The most unique design element in this entire project is the roof of the shade arbor itself. It features a “negative space” leaf pattern that was designed in a software suite and cut out of the metal with a water jet cutter. Each form in the pattern is loosely suggestive of either a leaf, or a cluster of leaves.
These small, negative spaces cut from the metal are the source of the structure’ powerful visual and emotional impact. During the day, sunlight shines down and highlights columns, furniture, plantings, and gravel with a blend of dappling and shade that make you feel like you are sitting under the branches of a tree.
At night, the effects are even more brilliant. Skillfully concealed lights mounted on the trusses reflect off the steel in places, while in other places they penetrate the negative spaces, cascading brilliant patterns of ambient light down on vegetation, hardscape, and water alike.
The shade arbor shelters two gravel patios that are almost identical in space. The patio closest to the living room features a mini outdoor dining room, replete with tables and chairs. The patio is ornamented with a blend of ornamental grass, a small human figurine sculpture, and mid-level impact ground cover.
Gravel was chosen as the preferred hardscape material because of its Zen-like connotations. It is also remarkably soft to walk on, helping to set the mood for a relaxed afternoon in the dappled shade of gently filtered sunlight.
The second patio, spaced 15 feet away from the first, resides adjacent to the home at the opposite end of the shade arbor. Like its twin, it is also ornamented with ground cover borders, ornamental grasses, and a large urn identical to the first. Seating here is even more private and contemplative. Instead of a table and chairs, there is a large decorative concrete bench cut in the shape of a giant four-leaf clover.
Spanning the distance between these two patios, a bluestone walkway connects the two spaces. Along the way, its borders are punctuated in places by low-level ornamental grasses, a large flowering bush, another sculpture in the form of human faces, and foxtail ferns that spring up from a spread of river rock that punctuates the ends of the walkway.
The meditative quality of the shade arbor is reinforced by two special features. The first of these is a disappearing fountain that flows from the top of a large vertical stone embedded like a monolith in the other edges of the river rock. The drains and pumps to this fountain are carefully concealed underneath the covering of smooth stones, and the sound of the water is only barely perceptible, as if it is trying to force you to let go of your thoughts to hear it.
A large piece of core-10 steel, which is deliberately intended to rust quickly, rises up like an arced wall from behind the fountain stone. The dark color of the metal helps the casual viewer catch just a glimpse of light reflecting off the slow trickle of water that runs down the side of the stone into the river rock bed.
To complete the quiet moment that the shade arbor is intended to invoke, a thick wall of cypress trees rises up on all sides of the yard, completely shutting out the disturbances of the world with a comforting wall of living greenery that comforts the thoughts and emotions.
Princeton Design Collaborative
Garden allee path with copper pipe trellis
Photo by: Jeffrey Edward Tryon of PDC
Design ideas for a small contemporary courtyard shaded formal garden for summer in Philadelphia with gravel.
Design ideas for a small contemporary courtyard shaded formal garden for summer in Philadelphia with gravel.
Margie Grace - Grace Design Associates
Uber green earthy contemporary
Winner of the Gold Medal and the International Landscaper Designer of The Year for APLD (Association of Professional Landscape Designers)
Winner of Santa Barbara Beautiful Award, Large Family Residence
PureHaven Homes
This is an example of a contemporary backyard patio in Salt Lake City with a fire feature, gravel and a roof extension.
User
Photo by Matthew Niemann Photography
Design ideas for a desert look contemporary front yard xeriscape in Other with gravel.
Design ideas for a desert look contemporary front yard xeriscape in Other with gravel.
Dig Your Garden Landscape Design
APLD 2021 Silver Award Winning Landscape Design. Galvanized troughs used for vegetables in the side yard. An expansive back yard landscape with several mature oak trees and a stunning Golden Locust tree has been transformed into a welcoming outdoor retreat. The renovations include a wraparound deck, an expansive travertine natural stone patio, stairways and pathways along with concrete retaining walls and column accents with dramatic planters. The pathways meander throughout the landscape... some with travertine stepping stones and gravel and those below the majestic oaks left natural with fallen leaves. Raised vegetable beds and fruit trees occupy some of the sunniest areas of the landscape. A variety of low-water and low-maintenance plants for both sunny and shady areas include several succulents, grasses, CA natives and other site-appropriate Mediterranean plants complimented by a variety of boulders. Dramatic white pots provide architectural accents, filled with succulents and citrus trees. Design, Photos, Drawings © Eileen Kelly, Dig Your Garden Landscape Design
Jenny Bloom Garden Design
A small garden at the rear of a Grade II Listed property was extended beyond the original boundary after the client purchased the derelict and overgrown plots beyond. The original lawned garden space was redesigned as a courtyard using reclaimed yorkstone and a more contemporary 'secret garden' was created beyond the wall. A sunny chill out zone was created for the family to relax in, and a productive garden includes fruit trees and raised beds for growing vegetables.
Green Planet Remodeling, Inc.
Inspiration for a contemporary backyard patio in San Francisco with a fire feature, gravel and no cover.
Ginkgo Leaf Studio
Renn Kuhnen Photography
This is an example of a large contemporary side yard full sun xeriscape for summer in Milwaukee with gravel.
This is an example of a large contemporary side yard full sun xeriscape for summer in Milwaukee with gravel.
Orion Rockscapes
Inspiration for a mid-sized contemporary backyard full sun garden for summer in Seattle with a vegetable garden and gravel.
dSPACE Studio Ltd, AIA
Tony Soluri
Inspiration for a contemporary full sun garden in Chicago with gravel.
Inspiration for a contemporary full sun garden in Chicago with gravel.
Contemporary Outdoor Design Ideas with Gravel
1