Arbor Living Room & Landscape Design

An arbor can be something simple you sit in under the trees, or it can be the high point of your outdoor landscape design. Many arbors are nothing more than vantage points beneath large trees from which homeowners can quiet moments of the Houston landscape. Others, however, are outdoor living rooms that can only be described as monuments of residential outdoor architecture.

The arbor living room we built for the Friedman family was just such a structure. It was constructed in the form of a formal, outdoor luxury living room. It was built at the end of a long, three-level sandstone patio. Its axial location in relationship made it the second most significant structure on the landscape, and the terminus of the pool and hardscape design.

When you leave the summer kitchen that is adjoined to the home interior, you suddenly find yourself standing at the end of a patio that stretches past the length of a luxury pool and culminates in the grand finale of an outdoor luxury living space decked out with the finest furnishings and a crystal chandelier.

The arbor itself is designed with a traditional style of architecture and a touch of classicism. Four large pillars support a glass roof that shelters the fine furnishings beneath. A chandelier hangs from the roof’s interior. This adds a sense of drama, richness, and tone to the moment. Red curtains frame your view of the Houston landscape when you sit inside the arbor, and they also attract you from a distance when you look at the room from other vantage points in the yard.

The beams are made of solid steal and surrounded by pressure treated pine. They are stained to match the rest of the room’s interior. The roof is pitched slightly to run water backward to an organic wall of Japanese yew trees. This exposes the underbelly of the ceiling just a bit, making it appear to slope upwards. This gives you a better view of the stars and the traditional-style house looming majestically up from the Houston landscape and nighttime skyline.

The floor of the arbor living room is made from the same sandstone that was used to build the pool patio. Limestone inlays are cut into it, which create decoration and scaling. These look superb under chandelier light.

A few other features near the arbor enhance its preeminence position on the Houston landscape. The first of these are sandstone steps leading up to its interior. Every step is set on a concrete base hidden in the grass. Sandstone risers support the 18-inch treads that measure two inches each in thickness.

The treads are cut and thermal finished in order to give them a rich texture and sophisticated look. The generous width of every tread allows for a generous step and allows for a gradual descent to the upper pool terrace. Dwarf mondo grass grows between the risers to compliment the back wall of Japanese yew.

On either side we find additional softscape elements that lend vitality and décor to the sophisticated and complex hardscape designs that delineate this massive Houston landscape into gathering points of interest and activity. On one side we find a formal parterre garden, which runs parallel to the pool. Boxwoods frame the arbor on sides to provide scaling, organic complimentary framing, and structure, and a decorative planter housing Cyclamens adds color and vitality to the scene.