Decorative Masonry

What is decorative masonry?
Decorative masonry is a special form of hardscape that adds beauty and dimension to a landscape.

Does it cost a lot of money?
Although its purpose is deliberately aesthetic, it can be used to build function into décor as much as it can build décor into the property. Its cost is relative to the size and nature of the form it produces. Material costs vary, and labor rates are defined by the length of time it takes to build a certain feature.

Don’t think about decorative masonry as something that you have to invest a lot of money in per se. Think of it as something that is included as a significant aspect of your landscape master plan.

What are some common materials used in decorative masonry?
You may assume at first that decorative masonry is primarily brickwork. After all, the image of the mason we have in our minds often depicts a workman laying bricks. However, concrete is just as common as brick on many properties, and on some, even more common than brick.

Concrete can be used to build beautiful and memorable hardscapes that add interest and drama to the landscape.

How can concrete possibly be decorative?
It becomes decorative through the addition of color and texture. Coloration can be done by adding pigments to the mix, or it can be added through a sophisticated staining process after the concrete hardens. Textures can be stamped or even brushed into the surface while the concrete is still wet. Brooms, trowels, rock salt, and even sponges can create decorative masonry patterns in what would have otherwise been a simple slab of hardscape staring up at the sky.

Keep in mind, too, that for certain styles of landscaping, such as contemporary and modern, white cement is perfect for creating stark contrasts, points of drama, and glaring sentiments of Mentalism. So in this context, even something non-decorative can be decorative in a setting that by nature defies convention.

Is decorative masonry only limited to hardscape?
You may be using the term hardscape as a synonym for a flat surface such as a driveway, a patio, or a sports court. The actual definition of hardscape is much broader than this. The term actually refers to any inorganic structure that is built in either the front or back yard.

Viewed from this perspective, you can immediately see how many forms you are already familiar with can be created in your yard to add vertical impact to the scenery. This is critical when you consider how flat the Houston landscape is and how important a sense of three dimensions is to generating curb appeal.

What are some of these structures?
Walls of all types constitute a significant percentage of the decorative masonry built in residential landscape design. Courtyard walls create seclusion and backdrops for up lighting. Architectural walls can subdivide a large property into smaller zones of special interest. Planter walls can combine the inorganic with the organic by creating and artificial base out of which springs life. Custom fountains create movement and a sense of the essence of light—especially when illuminated with special underwater lights. Outdoor fireplaces provide warmth in the winter and the illusion of fire in the summer thanks to hidden, special lights that cause the flu to glow even though nothing is actually burning inside.

What materials do you use to build these structures?
Stone is a preferred material for patio design when the homeowner is willing to cover the cost of its purchase, finishing, and installation. It can also be used to build any number of wall structures. Concrete pavers can be used to mimic stone at a much lower cost. Brick is another masonry mainstay that is reliable enough to use as a building material for housing, and certainly reliable enough to use for any outdoor architecture as well.

Houston Masonry Specialist

If you need a masonry specialist to upgrade or build hardscape elements in your yard, let Exterior Worlds find you one and manage the invoice from a design-build perspective. It will serve your long-term interests better if let one of our designers draft a landscape master plan first. Once that is in place, masonry specialists can be brought to handle certain aspects of construction work.

A few examples include:

Patios
These custom hardscapes are built to the size and scale needed for the specific activities they are intended to host. They are also built to be as aesthetic as possible in relation to the home, garden design, and surrounding outdoor architecture.

Entry Gardens
Masonry specialists often help build the architectural and decorative walls around these special garden gateways that transition front yard space to back yard space. They also work on custom patio construction using any number of materials that range from stone to brick to decorative concrete. These architectural walls can be built at virtually any desired height. Taller walls create privacy and enclosure. Shorter walls help frame the view of your front and back yards.

Retaining Walls
These remarkable structures that hold back the grade of the otherwise flat Houston landscape that is so very vulnerable to flooding. Such a structure is always built to look as good as it works. This is why it is so important to have it designed properly by those who understand drainage and irrigation, and then to have it built by masonry specialists who have the expertise needed to build the structure as a prominent and highly decorative point of interest in the yard.

Walkways
Walkways are key to making smaller yards look yard and larger yards look less overwhelming. When created in a small yard, they tend to magnify the perceived acreage of the lot. In larger yards, they divide portions of the lot into special areas of interest.

Think beyond the sidewalk when you think about walkways and paths. Contractors can build them out of all sorts of materials such as brick, pavers, stones, and decorative concrete. The transition they give to you and your guest contributes a superb sense of completion to a residential landscape design.

Masonry expertise is usually needed when constructing these forms due to the complexity of laying out stones, bricks, or pavers in such a way as to make them safe for transit and durable for long-term usage.

If you know of a masonry company they has already worked for you in the past, or if your homebuilder referred you to one, feel free to ask this company to talk with our team about a subcontract relationship. Provided that all parties agree to follow the specifics of the landscape master plan, you can expect the outcome to be better than anything you have experienced before.

Custom Patio

Is professional landscaping important to the design of my custom patio?
Yes. This is why you need to have it built by a landscaper. Plants soften the hardscape and differentiate outdoor living from indoor living.

Is professional hardscape design important?Yes. A hardscape is actually the equivalent of a floor. Just like the floor in the room of your house, it must be carefully planned in order to fulfill its intended use. One of the worst mistakes new homeowners make is to treat the patio like a slab of concrete to mount lawn chairs on.

This can ruin the entire scene of the back yard, and waste a great deal of money on pouring a slab that works against home architecture and garden design.

It is essential to plan your custom patio in order to make it functional, durable, and decorative. By hiring a professional landscaping company to design your custom patio as a foundation for an outdoor lifestyle, you ensure maximum enjoyment of your outdoor living space.

Should I call a masonry contractor in the phone book?
You can, but masonry contractors normally work under the invoice of general contractors. They are not used to working directly with homeowners. Also, many have experts skills in building hardscape structures, but not in landscaping itself. If you hire our company, we can find any number of masonry experts to bring in the special tools, teams, and knowledge necessary to building your custom patio.
What do I need to think of first and foremost?
All you have to do is make a list of all the things you want to do with it. We will do the rest by taking the items on your list and turning them into design specifications our contractors can follow.

When you make this list, think creatively about all the different activities that you can use a patio for. Some of these activities are personal and private, while others involve large numbers of guests and family members.

Getting a clear picture from you about what you plan to do in the future will give us invaluable information on where to begin building your custom patio. It will give us a clear picture of how large it should be, and it will also give us good idea for what building materials to use.

What materials should be used?
There many, many materials that we can use to build you hardscape. Stone is the most popular material because it is natural and lasts the longest. Its only drawback is its cost. Even less expensive stone is still going to represent a very large investment. If you are planning on adding several structures to your backyard landscape, it might be better to use an alternative to stone for some of your hardscape.

Brick is an excellent choice for this. Brick has a historical look and feel to it that works very well with many period styles of architecture. It also lasts for long periods of time, comes in a variety of colors, and can be arranged in all sorts of interesting patterns.

Concrete is another option you can consider. Plain concrete is the cheapest material you can build a custom patio with, but it looks somewhat drab in most landscapes. A better choice is colored or stamped concrete. The techniques we use to create these designs can actually make concrete look like stone or brick—at far less the cost.

Concrete pavers can also be used and laid out in many different types of patterns that are similar to those used in brick work, although they create a much more different effect.

Hardscape

Where does the term hardscape originate?
Most materials used to build these structures are very hard, resilient, and durable. These structures are sketched out first in the landscape master plan. This is because they establish order and system throughout the yard, and often serve to highlight even more the lush shades of green and vibrant colors of garden design and manicured lawns.

What are some of the more common types of hardscape you build?
Elements like paved areas, sidewalks, brick patios, atriums, courtyards, and walkways are common examples. We also build retaining walls to create boundaries between architecture and vegetation. Other landscape features include custom fountains, sports courts, outdoor stairways, patios, pergolas, trellises, arches, masonry walls, and planters.

What are the more common materials you use?
They can be anything that provides a firm surface that will resist the elements and add decorative curb appeal to your property. Stone is a popular material because it looks so natural and can go with any residential landscaping design. Concrete is also another popular form. Concrete can be colored and stained to mimic stone, or stand out with a unique, decorative statement all its own. Wood and brick are mainstay materials that have been with us for centuries and will no doubt continue to remain with us for centuries to come.

What can hardscape do for us?
There are several practical and aesthetic benefits that hardscape contributes to every landscape. Some of these benefits include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Create transition by providing a clear, recognizable transit area that moves traffic from one point of interest to another.
• Make a small yard look bigger by creating diversity between forms that lend perspective and depth to the scene
• Create borders around vegetation and activity zones
• Change the grade of the Houston landscape
• Create privacy with a wall that encloses a private space, like a courtyard
• Screen the view with such elements as lattice walls or raftered ceilings partly open to the stars
• Establish entertainment and seating areas, such as swimming pool patios, terraces overlooking spas, and outdoor fireplaces
• Create grand entrance in the form of stairways and steps leading to and from pools, outdoor buildings, backs of homes, and natural ponds
• Creating shade in the form of garden pergolas and arbors
• Create vertical impact with masonry constructs and architectural walls
• Create curb appeal with front yard walkways leading up to the home, and custom driveways and motor courts that are decorative and safe

Is hardscape more decorative or functional by nature?
That is an excellent question. To be honest, we try to make as many elements as possible both practical and highly pleasing to the eye whenever possible. However, there are times when something that is exclusively decorative can make the difference between having a nice yard and a superb yard. Custom fountains are one example of this. Other examples include trellises and small architectural walls, which do little to create enclosure or privacy per se, but make a world of difference when it comes to adding dimension and vertical impact to your home and property.

Outdoor Gazebo

What is an outdoor gazebo?
It is an outdoor structure that can be used as either a garden shelter, outdoor room, or viewing pavilion. Gazebos go back 5,000 years in history to Ancient Egypt. The modern outdoor gazebo, however, is based on the combined design motifs of Japanese teahouses, Chinese garden shelters, and small Dutch buildings.

What types are there to consider?
There are several different types that you can choose from. There is the conventional style that is basically an outdoor room with a floor, supporting pillars, and a ceiling. Some people, however, prefer to have a custom patio substituted as the floor, or to have the gazebo itself built on top of a courtyard patio.
You can also have a portable gazebo constructed that can be moved from point to point within your yard.
What shape are they built in?
They can be built in hexagonal, octagonal square or rectangular designs.

Why should I consider an outdoor gazebo?
It is a great way to enjoy a view of your home, garden, and the surrounding Houston landscape. The covering gives you shelter from the sun on hot days, and it gives you shelter from rain on cloudy days. A screen can even be built around the sides to keep out mosquitoes.

What are these structures made of?
They are almost always made of wood. Cedar and pressure treated pine are the two most common wood types used. Cedar is much more expensive. Pressure-treated pine can be stained and painted to make a strong, sturdy structure that will last and that looks good near any garden, pool, pathway, or natural pond.

Can any other materials be used to build an outdoor gazebo?
Yes. In contemporary gardens, such a structure can be built out of metal, reinforced concrete, or even stone. The roof can be made from copper, slate, or some other inorganic material to contribute to the Mentalist themes of contemporary landscaping and contemporary gardens.

What are a few features to consider?
Outdoor lighting is always a good thing to have in any outdoor structure. It will not only make it easier for you and your guests to see each other at night, but it will also make the gazebo itself a notable landscape element in its own right.

You can also have a small bar installed, complete with an electrical outlet so you can plug in a blender for mixing drinks. Most Houstonians also want a ceiling fan installed in the top of their gazebo.

What is the best architectural style for an outdoor gazebo?
To a certain extent, the style is flexible. The only absolute here is that it has to compliment the architecture of the home. Beyond that, anything from an Amish design (which you typically see in garden pictures) or a wrought iron Victorian style will work with a variety of outdoor landscaping themes.

Try not to restrict yourself to a preconception of style, however. What we prefer to do is to create a landscape master plan that reflects the entirety of your dream of an outdoor lifestyle. The many elements of your landscape will both individually and collectively create this experience. The actual style of your gazebo will ultimately be determined by its location. If it is built near the home or garage, it will compliment building materials in those structures.

If, on the other hand, it is built in or near a garden, or setback among the trees, it will reflect a more organic theme and geometry. The colors and stains used will also support these motifs, so that when you look at your outdoor gazebo, you see an extension of the landscape itself in the form of a structure that both pleases the eye and invites your attendance.

Outdoor Living Space Design

What is the purpose of outdoor living space design?
It connects the home, outdoor rooms, and outdoor buildings to the environment. This link between the inorganic and the organic results in a fusion we call outdoor living space.

What are some considerations in outdoor living space design?
You want to subdivide your lot into zones of activity and special interest. This will make your landscape an outdoor equivalent to a house with many rooms inside. Without this process of subdivision and allocation, your yard will remain only a yard that lacks the structural complexity needed in a true living environment.

What types of zones do you create?
Generally we create zones that enhance mood or zones the serve a specific function. We can also blend mood with function with many of the elements that we design. Outdoor kitchens, for example, create a feeling of fine dining outdoors. They also serve a very practical function by making it possible to cook and enjoy an entire meal without ever once having to go inside. Play areas for children are another example. Play creates a feeling of fun for kids. A professionally designed play area can be built that gives them a place to practice for a sports team they may belong to, and it gives them a safer place to do it than simply playing in an open yard or a park without supervision.

How important is vegetation in outdoor living space design?
It is the heart and soul of everything. You can think of architecture and hardscape as the body of the design, and the organics of gardens, lawns, and trees as the spirit within the body. It is very important to develop organic element with as much care and deliberation as possible. The more of a feeling of life you have in your yard, the more apropos it feels as a living environment in its own right.

What types of vegetation do you plant?

• Special grasses more vibrant and attractive than San Augustine
• Vines and creepers that cover iron and brick with living matter
• Hedges of all kinds, ranging from tiny boxwoods to man-sized topiaries
• Trees of all sizes, ranging from trees barely taller than a child to towering oaks
• Flowering plants to add color to planters and patio edges
• Traditional and highly sophisticated garden designs

How do gardens contribute to outdoor living space design?
Gardens focus the eye onto geometric patterns that are formed out of multiple shades of green and many different colors. These patterns are formed as direct compliments to your home architecture and surrounding residential landscape design. Gardens also attract wildlife. You will see more butterflies, birds, squirrels, and even wild rabbits if you plant something that provides food and shelter for these creatures.

How do tree contribute to outdoor living space design?
Trees play a major role in two respects. The first is curb appeal through vertical impact. Because the Houston landscape is so flat, anything that rises up perpendicular to the ground is going to make the entire yard look uplifted to some degree.

The other role that trees play in your yard is providing you with shade. Just think about how hot it gets in the summer here and how important shade is to us all. We want the sun, but not too much of it. However, too much shade blocks out the sun in the winter time so you freeze if you go outside.

One of the marks of a good landscaper is the ability to judge where the sun will be travelling through the sky during the summer versus where it will be during the winter and plant trees according to the sun’s path. That way, summer sun is blocked, while winter sun is allowed to break through and warm the ground.

Garden Pergola

What is a garden Pergola?
It is a garden feature that provides a shaded walk through a passageway of pillars. The pillars support cross beams and sidewalls of lattice that give you a place to train vines that will provide additional shad and greenery.

How will a garden pergola compliment my residential landscape design?
First of all, it will give your home curb appeal by creating a bit of extra character. People always love the blend of architecture and greenery these remarkable structures add to a property. It will be an excellent way to add dimension to your patio or garden outdoor courtyard and make it into a major point of interest.

What are some other benefits of a garden pergola besides curb appeal?
The first thing it does is add a vertical dimension to your garden design. Climbers make it look as the garden was reaching upward from the ground. The blend of pillars, cross beams, and vines now create a partly shaded area that gives you a place to sit. If you are looking to turn one of your gardens or courtyards into a central outdoor focal point, then having a pergola built will definitely establish its significance.

Does a garden pergola have to be built only over a garden?
No. Sometimes it is built this way, much like a gazebo, when a small garden in the yard needs added appeal. However, many pergolas are built along walkways. These walkways can lead to any point on the landscape where a sense of entryway is desired. One very popular way to use a garden pergola like this would be to build it between a patio and a courtyard to help transition the mind from a predominantly hardscape environment to a much more organic and lush setting.

Can these structures be customized in size and style?
Yes. The geometry can be either angular or curved, depending on your residential landscape design and the elements of your yard we are building the structure to enhance. There is a famous pergola in Salzburg that looks almost like a tunnel of pure green, with just enough light filtering in to guide your path.

Are garden pergolas ever used as entrances to outdoor rooms?
Yes. In fact, this is often the best way to build an outdoor room, because the tunneling effect of the structure focuses the senses on a new realm of experience that waits just on the other side of the passageway.

Can you decorate a pergola?
Absolutely. Plant-friendly outdoor lights can be installed in the interior if you want low-level ambient lighting at night time. You can also hanging plants and flowers from the crossbeams, and outdoor artwork can decorate the interior side walls. Any wood in the structure can be stained and finished to give it a high-end look.

Landscape Patio Design

Is landscaping the patio important?
Yes. Landscaping patio design has the ability to transform the entire look of your house and create a transitional space from the house to the greater portion of the yard.

What are some of the more important considerations when it comes to landscaping patio design?
We want to make sure that the grade is right in order to guarantee proper drainage during times of heavy rain. This will involve leveling off the earth or building retaining walls to keep a portion of the landscape back. Once the grade and elevation are right, we work very hard to create a foundation that will not shift in the soil of the oftentimes unstable Houston landscape.

Concrete makes a great foundation, and it can also be concealed to support more attractive materials like rocks, stone, tiles, and bricks.

How do you determine what materials to use in patio construction?
We base material choices on home aesthetic, surrounding outdoor architectural elements, overall theme of landscaping design, and on client budget. Materials should fulfill a practical purpose of providing a reliable surface on which to place furniture, stand, and sit. They must also be attractive enough to make a major contribution to residential landscape design.

How important are details?
Important enough that you need a landscaping professional to develop your landscape patio design. Since patios are focal points for gatherings and entertainment, even the smallest details offer opportunities to thematically connect to other points of interest in the yard. It is never a good idea to hire masonry contractors to build a patio that is has not been planned in relationship to both the home and surrounding outdoor forms. To do so is to create an island of hardscape that risks looking at odds with other creations.

Is space an important consideration?
Yes. We want to create living space that generates interest, comfort, and opportunities for exploration. If your yard is exceptionally large, we want to use landscape patio design to divide it into zones of activity. Several patios of different sizes may be needed to do this. Typically they are larger in size in order to match the vast space of the lot itself.

In smaller yards, we want to create the illusion of more space. This may involve building patios out of very small stones or bricks in order to emphasize the circumference and surface area of the form. Certain tricks of the eye can also be achieved by adding items like custom fountains or small masonry walls contribute to the impression that such patios are larger than they actually are.

Are plants important to landscape patio design?
Yes. Plants link hardscape to the yard itself and lend a sense of vitality that emphasizes the patio as a focal point of outdoor life. Even in contemporary landscape design, where vegetation is minimized, there is still a very great need for some kind of vegetation to add emerging presence to form.

A patio landscaping design that features plenty of lush green plants and vibrant colorful flowers breathes life into any space. You can install a mass of perennial plants, which require little maintenance. Spruce up your patio with bright potted annuals.

What are some other features to think about?
Water features are also pleasant addition to your patio landscaping design. Consider building a small pond or adding a waterfall if your space will allow it. There are small construction kits for these features available at popular building supply stores.

What type of furniture should I buy?
Find something that is weather proof first and foremost. Choose styles and colors that fit your lifestyle. Base your size selections on the amount of room you actually have on the patio. If you have limited space, aim for comfort and a nice look rather than extravagance.

Houston Deck Builders

What is a deck?
A deck is an elevated, flat surface that is normally connected to a house and provides a special surface for outdoor gatherings, seating, and transition into the rest of the landscape.

What can a deck do for my yard?
It can serve as a transition from your home to a manicured landscaped design. Houston deck builders create platforms of vantage point and opportunity by positioning seating areas and stairways in such a manner as to lead guests to various points of interest in the yard.

What is a deck made of?
Houston deck builders typically use wood. This has been the mainstay material used for decades and shows no signs of going away. Wood has to be specially treated in order to support the weight of human activity and the many decorations that are used to adorn its surface. Common wood that are used are pressure treated pine, cedar, redwood, and a number of exotic woods.

There are also well over 100 manmade decking materials we can build your structure with, provided it compliments your home and landscape design theme. Contemporary and modern style designs, for example, do better with composite decking, vinyl, aluminum, etc.

The deck frame provides support and structure for the horizontal decking. Houston deck builders are very careful in calculating the strength and material build of the frame based upon the type of deck they are constructing and the number of people the homeowner plans to entertain on its surface.
How can you blend my deck into my landscape?
We can line the edges of the deck with some type of softscape to blend its perimeter into the yard. This can be done in several different ways. One way is to build the sides of the deck as terraces that work as planters. Another way is to line the sides with hedges that grow even up to its surface. Our Houston deck builders can also plant different types of vegetation at varying heights in order to create a sense of descending entryway into a garden or courtyard below.

What are some of the different types of decks you build?
Platform Decks
These are the simplest types of decks and are built low to the ground. They are actually perfect for the flat Houston landscape and work very well as transitional areas between single-level homes and level back yards.

Raised Decks
Incorporate Safety Precautions like railings and stairs. Houston deck builders frequently recommend this style for families with small children.

Two-Story Decks
These decks give you access to upper levels of your home if you have a two story house with a balcony.

Houston deck builders have to build these structures with extra supports that must be disguised or camouflaged in order to maintain the structure’s aesthetic. One way to do this is to cover the pillars with flat rocks or skirting to ornament their appearance.

How can you decorate a deck?
Planters and benches can line the perimeter to create a garden-like or courtyard-like effect. A screened-in gazebo can be built to one side of the surface to provide a shaded area that blocks out summer mosquitoes. Angles, curves, and decorative railings can create a sense of overlook onto the backyard landscape beyond.

Garden Outdoor Room

What is a garden outdoor room?
A garden outdoor room is an outdoor room that directly connects to the back of a home. Many of these rooms are built with wings that connect on either side to the walls of the house itself. A custom stone, concrete, or brick patio provides a surface area for people to gather, relax, recline, and relish moments of conversation. A glass sliding door is almost always installed between the garden and the home interior.

What type of feeling should a garden outdoor room have?
Your garden outdoor room should look comfortable and inviting to those inside your house. This is why we almost always connect the two areas with a sliding glass door so people can see everything in the garden and eventually be drawn outside. It blurs the boundaries of interior and exterior space. People in the garden can see kitchens and living areas inside, and people in the house can see outdoor furniture, greenery and custom hardscape, and lighted fountains.

Is a garden outdoor room an important part of landscape design?
Yes. Adding a landscaped place so close to the house does several things for your yard. It brings nature right up to window, so to speak, with a convenience and immediacy that are literally only a few steps away. It also creates a transition area where indoor living turns into outdoor living. When you hold engagements at your home, your guests will appreciate being able to shift so quickly between the two without having to walk that far outside.

How do you determine how large a garden outdoor room should be?
The most important consideration we pay attention to is home architecture. The garden should be built to scale with the size of the house and the size of the yard.

What types of furniture do you put in a garden outdoor room?
That depends on what you plan to use the room for. If you want it to be more of a gathering place where people stand around and mingle, then a few stone benches are apropos. If this is going to be a central hub of conversation, you will certainly need more of a living room effect and a lot more comfort than stone seating provides.

Our design team will help you accessorize and color coordinate any number of outdoor furniture sets with the surroundings of the courtyard. Decorations can be a blend of indoor and outdoor motifs, including flowers, flower pots, planters, lighted fountains, and fine statuary. Patio design is always custom and made to support decorative themes without diminishing human comfort.

Can a garden outdoor room improve my property value?
Yes. The fusion of indoor and outdoor space creates a synergy between personal lifestyle and luxury outdoor living. Prospective buyers will immediately see the advantage of buying a home that already has extended living space, organic vitality, a connection to Nature, and personalized entertainment.

Houston Masonry

Hardscapes typically represent 60%-80% of any landscape. Masonry is an key component to hardscape design because it makes lifts the hardscape off the horizontal plane of the ground and adds a vertical dimension to the yard. You need masonry to create a truly superior outdoor living environment that conveys a sense of curb appeal to neighbors and possible future home buyers. The otherwise flat terrain of the Houston landscape will become transformed in your yard into realms of ascending and descending realities where ornamental stonework, custom patios, and special stepping stone blend harmoniously into the sculpted vegetation of your landscape design.

Some materials used in Houston masonry have been used for centuries. Stone and brick have been around since ancient of times. Today, the list of materials has also been expanded to include blocks, concrete cast materials, poured concrete, colored concrete, and textured concrete.

People routinely ask us if they can do their own masonry work. This depends completely on the individual’s level of skill and personal time. It is not easy for today’s working professional to find the time to build the many complex forms that a truly impeccable landscape requires. It is more practical to hire a professional firm like Exterior Worlds that can get a clear picture of what you want and do it for you.

Just a few of the many things we can add to your front yard landscape or backyard landscape include, but are not limited to, the following examples:

Concrete Masonry
The great thing about concrete is it doesn’t have to look like it’s just concrete. New finishing methods can make it any number of colors and polish to a level of refinement equivalent to polished stones like granite.

Rock and Slate
If you love Nature and want a natural swimming pool or miniature tropical stream added to your property, rock and slate can be used to create masonry forms that look so natural they could just have easily been carved out of a wilderness landscape.

Fired Clay Bricks
This is one of our more popular Houston masonry materials used in the construction of courtyards and outdoor fireplaces.

Quarried and Cut Stone
These are ideal for developing both contemporary and Mediterranean landscape themes.

Mortarless concrete blocks
Concrete blocks can be used to build multi-level planters around structures, adding a vertical dimension to the otherwise flat Houston landscape.

While it is a fact that Houston landscaping design occurs on a completely flat floodplain that offers no natural change in elevation, the skilled landscape developer is never held back by the constraints of local topography. Artificial earthworks and masonry forms can always be added to any Houston property and be developed in such a way as to mirror much more varied and interesting terrain in other parts of the country.

Keep this in mind if you are a new resident to our city and have recently found yourself homesick for forests, streams, or rolling hills. Call Exterior Worlds now and let our experts come build your home into the home you have always wanted that is both close to work and close to heart.

Houston Patios and Gardens

Most Houston patios and gardens are built in the back yard. These constructs literally carve special spaces out of the fabric of the landscape itself. These spaces are meant to play host to special activities and support those activities with specific states of mind.

On some larger estates, like those in River Oaks, patios and gardens can be built in the front yard as well. People in these neighborhoods often like a seating area near the sidewalk where they can visit with neighbors and get a panoramic view of the Houston landscape.

A Houston patio and garden go hand in hand. The patio gives you a surface that you can stand or sit on, and the garden frames that space with elements of vitality and life. This feeling of living enclosure makes you feel warm and invited into an intimate setting irrespective of the size of the patio itself.

There are all sorts of patio design that you can choose from. The fittingness of any given style, material build, or hardscape size always corresponds to the nature of the event that will occur on the patio and the aesthetic demands of the property. We must always respect home architecture and maintain thematic consistency with the design of the surrounding landscape. Nevertheless, there is a tremendous amount of freedom that exists for us when working even within these boundaries.

For instance, patios can be built out of any number of materials. Just a few of these include decorative concrete, natural stone, ornamental brick work, and decorative wood treated to resist the elements. Which of these works will work best with any given landscape style will ultimately be determined through consultation with the client and the expert advice of the landscaping professional.

Another major factor in Houston patio and garden design are the weather conditions of various seasons. The landscape designer must integrate some form climate control into a patio and any corresponding structure that surrounds it. This can be anything as simple as an overhanging tree or a decorative canopy.

In the hotter summer months of July, August, and September we may need a bit more to cool things down. Outdoor structures like arbors, living rooms, and outdoor kitchens can be built with ceiling fans and basic AC systems. Gardens around are often planted with shade resistant species because the plants receive less sunlight.

For the cool months of the year, patios and gardens are by nature much more self-contained. Because of heavy humidity combined with sporadic cold snaps, people must be kept both dry and warm. Garden plants used here are typically species that flourish in cooler climates with heavier rainfall. Drainage is very important because from December to February in Houston often experiences heavy thunderstorms and flash floods that can make outdoor environments uninhabitable and wash plants away if preventative steps are not taken.

Popular patio styles for winter are outdoor fireplaces and outdoor fire pits. Both can be built either as standalone structures or part of a courtyard or entry garden. Other elements like lighted fountains, pottery, and decorative statuary can be added to make even the coldest of winter nights vibrant and comfortable. Winter canopies can be used to cover seating areas on rainy nights so lighted vegetation and decoration can still be enjoyed regardless of what the weather happens to be doing.

On clear February nights, however, an evening outdoors on an Exterior Worlds lighted patio and garden space can be just as enjoyable—and perhaps even a bit more romantic and mystical—than a typical summer evening that many take for granted in our traditionally warm climate.

Tranquil Fountains

The poets tell us that a tranquil fountain soothes the soul. It does so by enchanting the eye and ear. As with all water fountains, tranquil water fountains are wonderful additions to any home landscape design. Exterior Worlds designs tranquil fountains to work a special magic by drowning out the unwanted and annoying noises of modern life without overwhelming the space.

Design is paramount with tranquil fountains. In designing this type of water fountain, your chosen site needs to be conducive to a dripping, slow flow of water. You want the water action to relate to the scale of the space.

As for application, one location for a tranquil water fountain is to design it as an exterior wall fountain. Wall fountains, which come in many different shapes and sizes, are perfect for small or oddly-shaped sites. Our clients have put them in such places as on a brick garden wall, as part of a retaining wall or to enliven a blank fence.

Versatile elements within the landscaping lexicon, tranquil water fountains work well in a range of garden styles, from small garden designs to tropical landscaping. When landscaping for entertainment, a tranquil fountain will delight your guests. For traditional landscapes, a classic urn design works beautifully.

Tranquil water fountains have a place in commercial landscaping, too, such as in restaurants, courtyards, atriums and interior commercial spaces when you don’t want voluminous water sounds and movement to overpower your clientele. For open and airy sites, such as building entrances and golf courses, large-scale fountains are more appropriate.

It is good to keep in mind that there is no one way to design or build a water fountain. You can choose among the many different approaches that will achieve your desired outcome, tranquil or otherwise. Working with open-minded professionals as you will find at Exterior Worlds, who possess technical skills and creative flair, is one of your more important decisions when installing a water fountain.

You will also want to consider a related aspect for your fountain, which is proper exterior lighting. Landscape lighting extends a water fountain’s attraction into the nighttime hours. Depending on your preferences, Exterior Worlds can design it to play up its inherent dramatic effects or accentuate the peaceful ambiance of moving water. Lights also add a safety factor, which is crucial around any water feature.

Water elements, in general, create special focal points in your custom landscaping design by providing movement and creating delightful sounds. Ponds create texture, color and depth. Waterfalls have a mesmerizing quality that is uniquely their own. Moving water adds mysteriously pleasing background music.

It feels somehow right to acknowledge that humans and water are connected at our most basic level. There is just something powerful, helpful and healing about it. Some cultures have codified that feeling, such as several Southwestern Native American cultures where you will find the belief that you should be near moving water whenever you contemplate an important decision. Moving water calms the heart, steadies the breathing, and captivates the mind’s eye, which, when you think about it, is a powerful state of being in which to decide nearly anything.

Exterior Worlds provides upscale landscaping services, such as custom water fountain designs, installations and maintenance, to fine neighborhoods in the Houston area. Call 713-827-2255 for a private consultation.

Houston Landscaping Creates an Outdoor Dinner Room

What is an outdoor dining room?
An outdoor dining room is an environment that is created through landscaping elements that creates a special space where dining feels appropriate and meals can be enjoyed in comfort. Traditional walls are typically not the norm for enclosing such spaces, although low-level architectural walls made from custom masonry may at times be used. More common enclosures are typically built from hedges that are low to the ground or from columns that set the space apart with a sort of “invisible wall between them” appeal that appears at once both contrasted from the surrounding landscape and simultaneously open to the full view thereof.

What are common furnishings in an outdoor dining room?
Common furnishings include chandeliers, fireplaces, and ceiling fans. Gas lanterns are also popular. Larger outdoor rooms can be decorated with curtains that partially enclose the space and still leave some space open to view the Houston landscape.

What does Exterior Worlds do to make this actually FEEL like an indoor room?
We make sure that the dining room tables have adequate space between the chairs. We set the room up on an axel basis to give it a sense of balance and proportion so that any vantage point looks equivalent to all others within the space. This contributes to a feeling of intimacy in the midst of open spaces.

We also sometimes add decorative stone mosaics beneath able to emulate the patterns seen on indoor rugs. If the room is designed between columns, these stones can also be placed between columns to create a feeling of grand entrance from either of two directions.

Where do you normally build these rooms?
Outdoor dining rooms are normally built near an outdoor kitchen or just behind a house.

Are they usually a part of an outdoor kitchen?
Yes.

Do they always have ceilings and hardscape walls, or can they be courtyard style surrounded by trees and hedges?
When it comes to using the term walls, we want to clearly define this term as meaning more than what you think of when you think of the walls inside your house. Walls that surround outdoor environments can never block the view of the Houston landscape. Instead, they have to be skillfully constructed to actually magnify its appeal by sectioning off a unique area which in turn provides a unique vantage point onto the rest of the Houston landscape.

What are common flooring materials?
We want these environments to be as comfortable as possible. Formality is something that nine times out of ten the homeowner prefers we avoid. Since a more casual environment is therefore preferable, any number of simple materials can be used to build a solid, attractive, floor surface that is workable and aesthetic enough to create mood—but never so overdone as to draw attention away from the moment and down to the ground.

What would be the point of that?

Do you place climate controls in these?
Normally we do not place climate controls in outdoor kitchens. Outdoor buildings like summer kitchens and entertainment rooms are better suited for AC and Heating. There have been exceptions to this per homeowner request, with the understanding that cooled air in such an enclosure is immediately lost to the environment.

Do you have restrooms in them?
Sometimes, yes.

What entertainment media, if any, goes into these rooms?
We can easily configure audio distribution centers, iPod connections, and television sets with all weather equipment.

Outdoor Fireplace Design

The fireplace has long been a symbol of intimacy, warmth, and domestic harmony. Fireplaces are very ancient and have existed in homes of all types in most cultures for millennia. Now, with outdoor fireplace design, you can enjoy one of the most treasured amenities of classic home interiors as a key element to the pursuit of quality outdoor living.

Outdoor fireplace design offers more aesthetic diversity than its indoor equivalent. This is because the firebox and chimney are built independently of a large, primary wall. A fireplace that is built outside normally is not a part of a wall of any real size. The firebox and chimney rise up from the ground as unique architectural elements.

By this we do not mean that all outside fireplaces are stand-alone landscape elements. Much to the contrary, outdoor fireplace design is a major part of many custom hardscape themes. As outdoor rooms such as entertainment rooms and outdoor kitchens become increasing popular, a fireplace is a common center point for the back wall of any such structure.

Such a wall, however, is typically very different from the wall within a home. The wall inside a house must support the roof and adjacent walls. Outdoor rooms, however, are usually built as open-air structures that do not need the same structural supports that houses require. Because of this, the rear wall of a summer kitchen living room area can actually be designed around the aesthetic of the outdoor fireplace design, rather than the other way around.

The landscape architect consequently enjoys a tremendous creative freedom that allows him or her to match fireplace aesthetic to the exterior architecture of the home and compliment the geometry of softscape elements.

Other hardscape designs that often include outdoor fireplace design are courtyards and entry gardens. Both of these elements often use a lighted fountain as a central focal point of design. However, many Exterior World clients want fountains built in other places, and for this courtyard or entry garden would rather have the charm and warmth of a fireplace instead.

Such patio-fireplace hardscapes again offer tremendous latitude for design freedom provided a few basic principles are observed. Home architecture has to be respected in every form and size. We never want to build a chimney that is taller than the house or a firebox that completely eclipses the entirety of the house.

We have to make certain that regardless of whether or not we build with brick, stone, or decorative concrete that we remain consistent with other materials used to build other structures on the landscape. Certain elements complement one another very well, while other elements simply do not work all that well with some residential architectural designs or landscape design themes.

Outdoor Living Designs

What is outdoor living?
Outdoor living designs by Exterior Worlds bring the inside world of the home into the outdoor realms of social opportunity and natural wonder. Conversation and relaxation are always to be found somewhere in an Exterior Worlds landscape master plan. Mobility is essential so people can move from point to point freely and escape the feeling that often accompanies being confined within four walls of a room. Special activities such as dining can also be integrated into a landscape design so that creature comforts and luxury transform the outdoor world into a world of refined Houston outdoor living.

How does it differ from indoor living?
Outdoor living designs differ from interior design in a number of respects. To begin with, they are far more organic in terms of sense. Even in the more modern landscape designs where vegetation is minimized and contained within geometry and abstract forms, living presences are still more common in the world outside the house than they are inside the house. Other, more traditional landscape designs are even more abundant in life force. The green elements of French, Italian, English, and Mediterranean gardens punctuate areas of growth and vitality that form the organic softscape constructs of superior landscape design.

Outdoor living designs are also more open than indoor equivalents and therefore give you far more. There is always a view of the sky, the many different elements occurring throughout the yard, and the trees, hedges, flowers, and grasses of the lawn. Even when residing in the enclosure of a so-called outdoor room, you are far less confined than you are inside a typical house. Outdoor rooms normally have at least one wall open to the rest of the landscape, and some do not even have walls per se at all. What we call a wall in such as structure can be a row of boxwoods or special planter with year-round blooming flowers. With outdoor structures, geometric focus is the intent more so than surrounding and complete enclosure.

What landscape elements are necessary to create differentiation?
To make outdoor living designs interesting and engaging, we have to break up the monotony of too much of any one thing. We avoid devoting too much of any one section of the yard to any one form. Instead, we like to build patios near gardens, and outdoor buildings under trees. We prefer courtyards to be integrated into entry gardens, and ornaments like statues and fountains to occupy otherwise empty space to provide unique focal points along transit areas that link the various gathering places that are designed around homeowner lifestyle and preferred activities.

How do we maintain comfort?
Comfort is a relative term when it come to outdoor living designs. The biggest complaint that Houstonians voice is the searing heat and humidity we experience for most of the year. There are a variety of ways we can compensate for this, including ceiling fans, AC in outdoor buildings, and outdoor fireplaces that can provide heat during cold and damp winter months.

Fine furnishings can be place d in both indoor and outdoor rooms regardless, and transit areas can be built to mimic the rhythm of the human footstep. Forms can be built around activities and personal preferences. For example, small seating areas can be built in a circle around a disappearing fountain or lighted garden area to create a sense of privacy and isolation for a few select guests chosen to be removed from the jostle of the crowd.

Outdoor Patio Design

Why do people build patios in the first place?
Outdoor patio design is motivated by two things: function and artistry. People hire professional landscaping companies to build patios in order to host events and support activities that pertain to Houston outdoor living. They also want these patios to contribute a sense of artistry and design to the property as a whole. They want beauty added to the organic elements of their yards beyond the simple level of lawn and garden forms.

What function do play in the landscape?
The functionality of outdoor patio design is always predicated on the activities that will be transpiring on that patio. People use a patio either for sitting or standing. Designers use the patio as a foundation element. Many landscaping styles require integrating softscape with hardscape elements. It is important to strike a sense of balance between utility and aesthetics in order to preserve the sense of unity between divergent, albeit complimentary, landscape forms.

How many patios should the average home have?
There is no way to determine this without looking at the home, the yard, and the lifestyle of the owners. Patios are normally built around areas of interest where people will be gathering. Some are built to host special occasion events. Others are intended to be private areas used only by the homeowners themselves. The shape and size of a patio depends greatly on surrounding aesthetics. Home architecture and landscape design themes must be complimented by the materials used and the geometry of the patio itself. There are a number of examples of how Exterior Worlds uses surrounding architecture and landscape aesthetics in our case histories section, which you can visit here.

Where do we build patios?
Considering how activity and aesthetics are really the heart and soul of outdoor patio design, there are few places where a patio cannot be built. The one exception to this is any area adjacent to the home itself. We do everything we can to avoid linking a vertical wall of a house to the horizontal plane of a patio. It simply does not serve the aesthetics of either architecture or residential landscape design to create perpendicular inorganic structures of this nature. It is too much for the eye to bear.

Instead, we always look to surround an outdoor patio design with greenery or ornamentation of some sort. Even in entry gardens which lie to the side of a home in the space between the house and the property line, we build custom fountains, install planters with flowers, or create linear gardens. This creates the sense that the patio, no matter how large its size, is surrounded by an organic presence.

This is very important to preserving the beauty of a yard. Since hardscapes can take up to 80% of the landscape in many yards, surrounding an outdoor patio with even a little bit of vegetation creates the sense that Nature is always present, alive, and well in the inorganic world of human structures.

What materials are used to build patios?
Many people think that high-end landscape design would only be done with special stonework. This is not necessarily true. Concrete can be a very cost-effective and highly aesthetic material for outdoor patio design. This is because there are so many ways to make something as plane as concrete look highly decorative. (Please remember too that the Romans invented concrete and many of the famous ruins that people visit to this day are not built from stone, but rather from concrete.)

Brushing and staining concrete add texture and color to its surface. Proprietary masonry techniques can also be used by landscape architects to create blocks of concrete that look identical to stones. The effect is the same, but the cost is significantly less.

For people who do want to invest in stone patio design, the colors and sizes of stone must be selected based upon the garden design that surrounds the area and the color and style of the house that preeminently rises up from the landscape. Two of the more popular stones used are limestone and flagstone, although there are an infinite variety of more unique and even obscure stone types that can be used at will to build any custom patio necessary for a design element or special occasion.

How to patios contribute to outdoor landscape aesthetics?
Outdoor patio design is important to every form of landscaping. Because hardscapes take up to 80% of a yard in some landscape master plans, it is essential to build structures that will harmonize with softscape elements rather than overwhelming them. Patios are ideal for this because they are built as horizontal planes even or parallel to the ground itself.

This implies a structural design that engages Nature on the level of equivalence rather than from a position of dominance. With such a structure we can do many things to introduce manmade elements into a landscape design that will provide all sorts of human creature comforts and simultaneously work to differentiate organic points of interests as unique areas of natural beauty. Careful positioning of patios helps draw attention to special plantings of trees and flowers, garden design, lawn elements and hedgerows.

Outdoor Garden Design

Outdoor garden design is one of the most important pieces to creating a truly superb Houston landscape.
One thing to keep in mind when discussing your new Houston landscape with your professional design team is that you do not have to limit yourself to only one garden.

There can be many different gardens installed in both your front and back yards, and there are many different roles these gardens can play. A few of these new forms will ultimately occupy positions of central importance and significance. Others will work in a deliberately supportive fashion to accentuate specific structures and landscape elements.

Perhaps the most significant supporting role of this type could arguably be the aesthetic contribution it makes toward accenting home architecture. With the right vegetation and form, home architecture can be extended beyond its inorganic boundaries and given organic expression and added dimension. The actual style of the garden will be based upon the intended tone of the landscape in general and on the necessary forms and colors required to support surrounding architecture.

Many architectural designs have a specific cultural origin or reference a specific historical period.
Many outdoor garden designs also reference specifics of historicity and culture. For example, there are French, Italian, and Mediterranean styles. These specific garden types help establish the visual motif of the home as the predominating thematic component to the landscape. A French home supported by French garden design becomes a French landscape.

Other outdoor garden designs may not be intended to support architecture. English gardens reflect the order and symmetry of the British rural countryside. Knot gardens turn backyards into reflections of Celtic and Renaissance embroidery, making the landscape itself into a fabric of utility where herbs and spices can be grown as well as used for decoration. Zen gardens create quite retreats for meditation and reading in the private corners of the yard. Shade gardens help center growth and activity in areas beneath stately trees.

Outdoor garden design can occupy a more central role in residential landscape design. In front yard landscaping, it can lead the way to the front door of the house, establish boundaries between a home and neighboring residences, and create dimension in the open areas of the lawn. In backyard landscapes, gardens can center divergent elements on a common focal point.

In contemporary landscape design, the modern outdoor garden is used to create pockets of organic presence in a landscape of geometry and inorganic hardscape structures. In other forms of professional landscape design, the organic presence is much stronger than it is in contemporary landscaping. Outdoor garden design is even more important to these developments because it accentuates the vitality and diversity of vegetation and provides the much needed sense of vitality that is so vital to differentiating the amenities of outdoor living from the comforts and enclosures of indoor lifestyle pursuits.

Outdoor Living Space

The intent of outdoor living space is to extend the definition of home beyond the boundaries of the house proper into the open areas beyond the walls and into the hardscapes and softscape beyond.

Outdoor rooms are a very important part to the creation of this whole thing we call outdoor living space. An outdoor room is not necessarily four walls and a ceiling. It can be anything from a courtyard surrounded by small architectural walls, or it can even be a patio ringed by clipped hedges. The important thing is the furniture. Furniture defines both décor and supports activity, so choosing the right style and pieces of furniture is a major factor in creating the right look and feel of outdoor living space.

Space management is always a big driver of cost and design when developing outdoor living space in a landscape master plan. The type of occasion hosted and the anticipated number of guests are two major criteria for determining outdoor living space. For example, we recently designed an outdoor summer kitchen that featured a living room and fireplace adjacent to the kitchen. Space was an issue in this project, like it is in so many others.

We had to really talk a great deal with the homeowner to determine if this was going to be a room primarily used for cooking and dining, or primarily for seating. The homeowner really wanted more of an outdoor living room and outdoor fireplace design. A fully functioning kitchen was needed here in order to prepare meals, but the main attraction was the living room setup. We helped consolidated the two requirements much like many indoor custom kitchens where the kitchen and dining areas are really one floor plan adjoined to the living room. With the right living room furnishings, our outdoor living space mimics a home interior very closely.

Transition spaces are also very essential to the ultimate success of outdoor living space design. It is simply not feasible to create points of interest throughout a landscape without also creating a motivation to move from point to point. Transition areas can be very many different things. Walkways and pathways are obvious transition areas. Other areas include stairs and special custom hardscapes. The form is established by the emotions you are looking to create.

For example, to put people at ease, you have to make everything on the landscape extremely comfortable. When we design stairs, for example, we build all steps to be 5-5 ½ inches high. This mimics the natural gate of people walking across the ground. They hardly ever notice they are climbing up or down the stairs. It lends a nice feeling to any occasion. Such natural ease turns outdoor living space into a comfort zone that rivals home interiors, and gives guests time to admire structural elements such as pools, gardens, fountains, and tree lines.

Custom Hardscapes

In the vernacular of landscaping, hardscapes are the permanent elements built in your yards that serve both a decorative and functional purpose. As the name implies, custom hardscapes are ones that are tailor-made for you and your location. A few examples of custom hardscapes include luxury patios, garden pergolas, swimming pool construction, and other water features such as a disappearing fountain or koi pond.

At Exterior Worlds, we have used a long list of materials to build these outdoor elements—stone, brick, metals and concrete, just to name a few. We use these materials based on their texture, form and color, adding interest and variety to the overall design. We also are very cognizant of what complements the architecture of your home and the existing flora.

The process of planning and building hardscapes follows a fairly standard timeline:

• First, we believe hardscape plans begin with you, your family and what you want. For instance, do you intend to use it for formal entertaining or will it be a quiet sanctuary in which you can retreat from the pressures of the outside world? Perhaps you have a theme in mind, such as a Tuscan or English garden, or own an outdoor sculpture you want to feature.
• The next step requires hiring professionals, such as Exterior Worlds, to help with the planning, designing and building. We work hard to ensure that your plans fit the style of your home. For instance, a landscape design filled with organic features works beautifully with Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired architecture.
• Once our plans have been presented to you and we have your approval, the permitting stage begins. This step represents a compelling reason to hire us as we understand the local rules and regulations, an expertise that will, in the long run, save you money.
• Last—the implementation and project management phase. We promise to make sure you understand what to expect when. We not only want to manage your expectations, but we also realize that anticipation is part of the fun!

If your needs are more along the lines of backyard remodeling, Exterior Worlds has a special proficiency in this area, especially with swimming pool restoration. And if these plans sound too grand for your current budget, you might consider landscape phasing. It is a service we offer your clients that involves implementing your landscape design in incremental steps over time. You still get the improvements to your property, but the draw-down on your finances is spread out.
One example of a three-year phased-in plan, including custom hardscapes:

• Phase 1: Re-design and remodel your outdated swimming pool. Plant trees.
• Phase 2: Install custom-designed wrought iron fence and driveway gate. Design and build gazebo.
• Phase 3: Create pathways to connect the swimming pool to the gazebo. Update landscape lighting design. Complete landscape plantings.

Your exterior design should be all about you just as your interior design is. It should reflect your aesthetics, needs and desires, and be planned around your intended usage. Custom hardscapes help turn your exterior world into one that is uniquely your own.

Visit www.exteriorworlds.com for a full run-down of the landscaping services offered by Exterior Worlds. In Houston, 713-827-2255.

Covered Outdoor Kitchen

One of our recent projects involved the construction of an outdoor kitchen. This was something of a challenging construction project because this portion of the yard lies below street level. We would not have discovered this problem were it not for our systematic methodology we follow in developing a landscape master plan, and for the 3D imaging software we use to model our design.

The survey of the property and subsequent model we adopted showed us exactly what grade elevations we were working with, and they provided us with the data necessary to develop a workaround for the problem. Rather than building the room in a less convenient location and risking ruining the aesthetic of the landscape, we simply installed a special pump to siphon out waste water into the drain system.

One of the most unique features of this outdoor kitchen was a custom smoker that we built inside it. Our clients like to smoke meats as much as they like to cook traditional fare, so this added convenience allowed them to do either or both all from the convenience of a central location.

We also added side burners that were specially designed for foods such as heated sautés, soups, chili, and other similar foods can all be prepared off to the side. This frees up a great deal of stove space for meats and vegetables without forcing the cook to change location to check on sauces or sups.

Because many outdoor events occur after sunset, it is very important that an outdoor kitchen have plenty of light. In addition to typical room lights we also installed a task light for cooking. The luminance of this fixture is so superb that the finest textures and colors are clearly visible even on dark, cloudy nights.

A number of specialized appliances were also installed in this outdoor kitchen so as to make it so fully operational that no one ever has to run inside. A sink and instant water heater were installed and linked to the hidden pump that removed the waste water from beneath the structure. We also added a refrigerator that was rated for outdoor use. It is equivalent in operability to indoor refrigerators, but specifically built to withstand the climatic and temperature variables that come with outdoor use.

We wanted to do more than simply make this structure a place for cooking food. The Pesek’s wanted us to create for them an outdoor living experience that represented the epitome of décor and amenity. They requested that we install custom mahogany cabinets and drawers. These helped to better establish a sense of décor, and they also provided excellent compliments to the architecture of the home.

A fireplace was built in the center of one wall, and fine furnishings were added to create the feel of an outdoor living room. The view of the landscape is superb from this seating area, because the outdoor kitchen is built at a terminal view point for the whole yard. The swimming pool lies in a direct line of site from its entrance and can be conveniently accessed at will.

Finally, to top of the sense of fine Houston outdoor living, we installed a fully operational sound system and entertainment system. Now, the Pesek’s can prepare a full course dinner for special guests and enjoy a movie, CDs, or, on cooler nights of the year, a warm conversation by the fireplace.