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.

Landscape Retaining

What are they?
Retaining walls are walls that function to level slope or retain a grade. This creates a more vertical appearance to the landscape and is very important to grade, drainage, and irrigation work. Landscape retaining walls perform the same function, but they also contribute aesthetic value to the Houston landscape by working to magnify key structures and special points of interest.

Where are they built?
Landscape retaining walls are often built in front of arbors, near trees (as part of tree preservation work), or near a patio or driveway that requires extra support to maintain its grade.

What do you use to build landscape retaining walls?
Native stone and timbers are two materials that come directly from Nature and compliment any backyard landscape with a sense of untamed freedom. Many manmade materials can also be made to look natural and do the same job. Decorative concrete brick, for example, comes in many colors and patterns and is a relatively inexpensive building material. A mixture of stones, varying three to six inches in height, can be mortared together to create a mosaic pattern. Traditional mortared brick, of course, is always an option, too. It is more expensive and normally only used when complimenting a very formal hardscape such as a bluestone patio.

How do you build make landscape retaining walls decorative?
There are several things we can do to make these functional elements look attractive. To begin with, we design a landscape retaining wall with a deliberately informal look. Wall materials are placed by hand to mimic either a haphazard pattern or a natural earthwork. Natural stone is the best material to use for this. Dry laid stone can literally be stacked to look like a natural rock formation, with larger stones at the end and smaller stones toward the middle and top. Stones of many different kinds can also be randomly arranged and mortared together, either to each other or to a concrete wall concealed behind the stone façade.

Another technique we use is to build a landscape retaining wall with a secondary function. This could be anything from the base for a fence, a seat wall, the entryway to an arbor or summer kitchen, or the base for a fence or architectural wall.

How do I know if I need a landscape retaining wall?
If you have a slope in your yard, you will probably need at least a small retaining wall to create a level area for hardscape design, outdoor architecture, or garden design. If you have children, you may also want a retaining wall to create a practice field or play area for the kids.

If I have children, what safety features do you build into landscape retaining walls?
We either build a planting bed, or we build the wall against another structure like an outdoor room or outdoor building. Only the decorative side of the wall faces the landscape. The other side of the wall is blocked off by either softscape or architectural elements. This prevents people from falling off the wall and injuring themselves.

Masonry Design

What is masonry design?
It is the design of structures that are built with any number of masonry elements. These structures take on a life of their own. They add vertical impact the Houston landscape. They create unique aesthetic structures which can function as the boundaries of unique gathering places like courtyards and morning gardens. They can be used to create perspective in the form of architectural walls so that small yards look big and big yards look less intimidating because they are subdivided into zones of special interest.

Who does masonry design?
Ideally, it is done by professional landscapers who can integrate the many different types and forms of masonry into a more complex landscape master plan. The reason we recommend doing it this way is because landscape professionals will see to it that masonry forms are drawn to scale in proportion to the home and surrounding landscape elements.

Do professional landscapers also build the masonry forms themselves?
We build some of them. Most often, however, we find masonry contractors who specialize exclusively in construction. We bid out our master plan to these experts, and then subcontract them under our supervision. This way we can ensure that our plans our carried out as we intended, and that the physical aspects of the labor are handled by the appropriate specialists.

What are the forms you create with masonry design?
A hard stone, brick, or concrete product that contributes aesthetic to organic elements like lawns, flower beds, gardens, or copses of small trees is something you can consider a masonry form.

Is vertical impact really that important?
Yes. The Houston landscape is routinely criticized by people from all over the world as being too flat. Most people who were not born here come from places where there is at least some variation in the grade of the terrain. Some come from rolling hills; others from mountainous regions.

Many Houstonians who travel may have lived here all their lives for work, but secretly wish Houston had the mountains of Los Angeles, the hills of Tennessee, or the curved and winnowing grades of the Mississippi Valley States. While we cannot make mountains out of ant hills in Southeast Texas, we can alter your properties grade and add vertical impact with masonry design that lifts the terrain upward into multiple degrees of ascent and descent.

The end result of this is more variety for you and your guests, and more curb appeal for your home.

What should I think of first when I think of masonry design?
Think about the possibilities of stone. There is no structure on a landscape that cannot be built with stone. Keep in mind some types of stone cost more than others though, so be realistic about how much you can afford to invest in each particular landscape element you want.

Prioritize and choose other elements like concrete and brick for structures that are less prominent than others.

What are some popular masonry forms?
We can build you retaining walls, patios, walkways, courtyards, planters, and outdoor fireplaces, just to name a few. Because there are so many different materials we can work with, we can customize any of these basic design elements into structures that support the specifics of your home and landscape design.

Masonry Fireplace

What is a masonry fireplace?
It is an outdoor fireplace that is built out of brick, natural stones, or blocks of some sort. Many older homes do not have indoor fireplaces, and it is much easier to accommodate the owners of these residences with an outdoor masonry fireplace that offers all the amenities of indoor equivalents. You can even have one build that runs off natural gas or propane so you do not have to deal with smoke, sparks, ashes, or the cost of firewood.

Why would I want to build a masonry fireplace?
Several reasons could motivate you to have us build you one of these structures. You may want a warm spot on the patio on one of Houston’s colder nights. Even though are winter’s are technically mild, the humidity in the air can kill you at night here when it’s only a little chilly outside. A warm fire creates heat and dispels humidity.

You may also want to consider the sheer aesthetics that a masonry fireplace can contribute to your yard. The Houston landscape is very flat, and adding vertical impact to your particular portion of it can make your entire property stand out on your block and add significant curb appeal to your home.

It will also add a definitively classic touch to any garden or swimming pool, and it becomes the immediate focal point of any patio or outdoor courtyard.


What does a masonry fireplace look like?
That’s where the fun starts. It can look like almost anything you want it to look like. Because we do not have to deal with the presence of interior home walls, all we really need to build is the flu and the chimney. The geometry can be expanded from their in many directions, provided the integrity of the structure is sound and its form is appropriately complimentary to the home and surrounding landscape design.

What are some of the materials used?
All kinds of materials are used to build masonry fireplaces. Sometimes they are built out of decorative bricks. The multitude of brick colors and types makes this a very common material suitable to a variety of home architectural and landscaping design styles. Other fireplaces are built of stone or cement blocks made to look like a stone façade. Bluestone is another popular material. Stones are always hand-fitted and secured with substances that make the flue and chimney strong and sturdy. Stones can be uniform in appearance, or they can be deliberately asymmetrical to compliment avant garde or contemporary landscape designs.

How much does a masonry fireplace cost?
If it is a small fireplace in a courtyard or an entry garden, it will cost the price of materials plus the labor required to build it. Provided it is relatively small and simple in design, it should not represent an exorbitant expanse per se.

If, on the other hand, you ask us to build an outdoor fireplace and patio to serve as a major focal point in your yard, and the structure is by nature large and complex in design, it could end up being the most sizeable investment in your property.

The good thing about working with Exterior Worlds is that you have a choice in determining the scale and scope of your investment within the parameters of your landscape master plan.

Driveway Landscape Designs

What is driveway landscape design?
Driveway landscaping can consist of both hardscape and softscape. Hardscape options include walls and fences, while your softscape driveway landscaping can consist of flower beds, ground covers, trees or shrubs.

What is the best style of driveway landscape design?
That depends on your home and your yard. The direction and shape of the driveway will always draw the eye toward other landscape elements of interest. If the home is characterized by a very orderly and symmetrical architecture, a straight driveway that runs to a side motorcourt and entry garden can lend itself well to a sense of majesty. If the home appears lower to the ground, and more spread out on the sides, then a circle driveway is an excellent way to keynote the entire property around a central focal point, such as a water feature or contemporary garden.

If the home is set far back from the street, then the driveway can be built to accommodate parking in the front, and a walkway can be built to link the parking area to the front of the home. This is a nice touch that adds a sense of grand entrance to homes in private neighborhoods.

What types of softscape can be combined with driveway landscape design?
Any type of hedge or shrub can be planted along a drive to decorate it with greenery. In most cases, it is best to use more than one shade of green in order to create fullness and dimension.

Flower beds are very popular addendums to driveway landscape design. You can choose to have flowers of a single color to compliment the color of your hardscape and home, or you can you have a layering of different colors designed by our gardening specialists.

An alley of trees is also a good way to ornament your driveway. Many different types of ornamental trees, including Red Maple, Pear, and Myrtle, work well with Houston landscape designs. Larger shade trees are very popular for longer driveways.

What kinds of hardscapes can be used with driveway landscape design?
Masonry walls and ornamental fences are two common hardscape elements used to augment the appearance of a driveway. Small walls add vertical impact to the sides of the driveway. They also help keep vehicles on the pavement and away from delicate plants. An ornamental fence or stone arch can be built at the entrance to the driveway to generate presence and formality.

What type of materials should be considered?
Popular materials range from concrete to asphalt, concrete pavers, brick and natural stone. Concrete is surprisingly more popular in Houston landscaping than you might assume. Thanks to today’s technology, what was once a rudimentary, practical building material can now be rendered highly decorative. Concrete can be stained with a wide variety of colors, and it can be treated in a number of ways to create very interesting textures and patterns in its surface.

Concrete pavers are a great way to create the look and feel of real stone and save a considerable amount of money on your driveway. Brick always lends itself to traditional, Colonial, and Old World themes, and asphalt is a great driveway landscape design to use in conjunction with modern and contemporary landscaping.

Should I light my driveway?
Yes. It is much safer to pull into a lighted driveway at night. Also, outdoor landscape lights are a great way to show off any flowers, shrubs, or trees that you have planted along your drive. These lights will also help increase visibility in your yard and improve the security of your property.

Driveway Designs

A driveway serves many purposes. It is a utility feature that allows easy access and parking onto your property. It is your daily welcome mat as you drive into the garage. It is also a component of curb appeal. For all these reasons, Exterior Worlds believes your driveway design plays an important role in your residential landscape design.

A subset of custom hardscapes—the non-plant features of landscaping that are tailor-made for your site—driveway designs are essential to the way we live today. But while all design considerations need to be practical, it doesn’t mean driveways have to be mere slabs of concrete. Form can flow from function.

Examples of our driveway designs include:

• The common straightaway drive, valued for the ease it provides for driving in and backing out. Often a driveway apron is added for extra parking, for turning around, or for entry into a side garage.
• Another popular design has the driveway traversing the front of the property to end on the far side where the garage is situated.
• Circular driveways are also prevalent and practical, especially for properties situated on busy streets.
• Courtyard designs recall Old World living or contemporary life. The enclosed area can be four-sided or circular—but spacious enough to maneuver vehicles—and can be outfitted with a water feature, such as a classic fountain or an exterior wall fountain.

For anyone contemplating ranch landscaping or estates landscaping, you will have special driveway needs, which include parking for family and guests, safe access to public roads, sight distances, all-weather access, load-bearing requirements and turning radius. We would be happy to walk you through this decision-making process.

Yard drainage is one practical consideration that must be addressed since driveways increase your impermeable surface area. Rainwater run-off must be routed somewhere. Because of our expertise in this area, Exterior Worlds is an excellent choice as your residential landscape designer. We will ensure that your driveway doesn’t create problems—for you or your neighbors.

Once the practical design needs are met, you get to make some aesthetic decisions, such as the material choice. Your options include concrete, decorative concrete (stained, stamped, polished), concrete pavers, asphalt, brick and natural stone. As with all elements in your landscape, your choice should be influenced by the materials already present in your overall design and the architecture of your home.

You can also add extra features. For instance, driveway edging, either flat or raised, ratchets up the design impact. Complementary or contrasting bricks, stone or pavers can be laid on either side of your driveway in interesting patterns. The edging further defines the driveway and creates a transition area into the yard. Also an ornamental iron gate across the driveway provides extra security while it presents an impressive entrance.

While driveways are usually built to withstand the rigors of daily wear and tear, they will require some maintenance. Exterior Worlds can power-wash your driveway as part of your maintenance contract with us.

Clearly, driveways get noticed. They are your landscape’s first and impression, so make your driveway design a good one.

Call Exterior Worlds at 713-827-2255 to discuss upgrading your driveway.

Outdoor Fireplace Patio and Courtyard

An outdoor fireplace, such as the one we built for Rick and Susan Ashcroft, are a great way to create an outdoor living experience that makes is possible to enjoy a view of the Houston landscape regardless of the time of year. Outdoor fireplaces are ideal for temperate, humid climates like ours, where it never gets all that cold per se, but rather where the high moisture content of the air creates a chill factor that can penetrate all the way to the bones.

A patio fireplace dispels humidity and warms the air. It also works as an ideal architectural compliment to home architecture. Many are courtyards that look more like outdoor living rooms than patios as we typically conceive of them to be. To create such a centerpiece in the Ashcroft project, Houston landscaping, professionals placed symmetrically square, interlocking pavers in a pattern that imitated indoor tile. This accentuated the feeling of a living room outdoors, and it worked to blend the stonework and vegetation into the surrounding Houston landscaping theme.

The outdoor fireplace itself was constructed completely with natural stone. Each stone was fitted together like pieces in a puzzle. The chimney was 2 ½ times higher than the fireplace interior, giving the entire structure a majestic presence rising up out of the Houston landscape. An Old World sensibility was also added in the form of two flanking columns.

At one end of the patio, just opposite the fireplace, was a drop-off of about 4 feet. Here, Houston landscaping designers built a stone staircase that descended to a walkway. This walkway wound around the corner of the house to a natural swimming pool. Near to the steps of this walkway, masonry contractors we subcontracted built a stone wall connecting both ends to the patio. This created plenty of room to construct a planter which housed a number of indigenous plant species. We planted an oak tree in this enclosure so that the patio would have shade in the years to come and eventually provide support for a future outdoor chandelier the Ashcrofts intended to hang.

Houston landscape professionals added one more special touch to the patio outdoor fireplace. In order to make the structure functional year round, they contracted a local lighting design firm to install special lights inside the fireplace interior. This way, on warm spring and summer nights, these hidden lights could generate an artificial firelight that contributed charm and ambience to occasions without adding to the heat of the Houston summer.

If you are interested in any high-quality Houston landscaping services, Exterior Worlds has been providing the high-end residential landscape services and garden design services discussed above for the Houston and the surrounding areas including memorial villages (Piney Point Village, Bunker Hill Village, Hunter Creek Village), Tanglewood, River Oaks, West University and the greater Houston (Hou), area since 1987. Contact us at 713-827-2255

Houston Driveway

What is a driveway?
In residential landscaping, it is a small thoroughfare that provides street access to the front yard. Most Houston driveways are plain concrete slabs and nothing more. People park their cars over them and never give them a second thought as they march to the front door.

The thing is, it doesn’t have to be this way in your front yard. Exterior Worlds can build you a driveway that is as decorative as it is functional. The key to doing this is the understanding of your home’s architecture and the construction of a surface that mirrors its aesthetic elements and compliments surrounding hardscape and softscape elements.

What are driveways used for?
Houston driveways support the commuter nature of our city by providing parking areas in front of homes. Not everyone parks their vehicles in the driveway all the time, though. Some use garages and carports to house their cars, trucks, and SUVs and leave the motor court open to guests. In these scenarios drives can be built that almost act like pathways leading from the street to a separate motor court parking slab or covered parking area.

What are different types of Houston driveways are there?
The residential parking areas that we design tend to be highly individualized to the home. Much of the customization lies in the choice of materials. A brick driveway goes very well with a traditional or colonial home. A concrete driveway, on the other hand, works very well with contemporary styles. Black asphalt can contribute a majestic sense to custom homes that are large in size and feature a unique blend of architectural motifs. Still other materials include decorative forms of concrete, such as brushed concrete, decomposed granite, and cobblestone.


What would you suggest for driveway landscaping?
Houston driveways can be constructed using a blend of hardscape and softscape designs. Varying both the surface and the structure of the hardscape is the best way to make your drive truly stand out. Walls are one way of enhancing the form without altering its function. In fact, walls can even provide additional safety for parking at night. They can be built to run parallel to the surface, or they can cross perpendicular to the entrance. A gate can be installed that then allows you to control access to your own parking area and secure your car behind a barricade after dark. If you do not want to look so elusive to your neighbors, we can build an arched-entryway that provides a decorative, open access to and from the world at large.

Can you really integrate softscape into a Houston driveway?
Yes and far more than you may think. Plantings like small gardens, tree islands, shrubs, and various ground cover species can bring attention and vitality to your parking area. Flowers can either support or enhance the geometric boundaries of the motor court. For example, if your drive is simply a straight, linear form with no variation, we can plant a variety of garden forms that sweep out in curved radiuses to either side. This can soften your entire front yard and add a sense of dimension and vitality impossible to achieve with strict linear movements.

Pool Deck Remodel

Is your swimming pool area looking dated or rundown—or has it even become unsafe? If so, call Exterior Worlds for a pool deck remodeling project.

Let’s begin with a quick primer on swimming pool construction terminology and the finishes involved. The interior shell of a pool is covered with plaster that hardens like concrete and seals the interior of your pool. Popular upgrades used today include quartz finishes in a wide variety of colors and textures.

Next comes the pool coping, which is the area that immediately surrounds the pool. The coping locks in the pool plaster on one side and seals the deck on the other. Because you want to ensure a non-slippery surface in the immediate wet area, preferable choices are tile, stone or brick.

Then—the pool decking that encircles your luxury swimming pool. It is usually made of some kind of masonry and connects the pool to the rest of the spaces. It becomes a special dimension within your landscape design, creating usable, safe spaces that are visually pleasing.

Before you make a decision about your decking material, consider your total landscape design. You can integrate your swimming pool design into its surroundings by creating smooth transitions between the pool, yard and general background. A swimming pool adds texture to an otherwise blank and flat yard, so be creative. If you have small yard, a pool turns it into an oasis. For wood decks or flagstone patios attached to the house, you can use your pool decking choices to coordinate or contrast with them. In general, you don’t want a very dark color for your pool deck because it will absorb heat. Likewise, you don’t want it too light because of the higher maintenance.

You have a marvelous range of materials to choose from with a pool deck remodeling project. A pool deck remodel project gives you the opportunity to coordinate material choices in your landscape, something that can get out of balance in older homes that have undergone many home projects. Keep in mind that you want the tones used in the house and landscape to be complementary. Our clients’ choices include tinted and stamped concrete, brick and stone. One example of a design conscious choice would be to use a darker stone with a light grout or rich dark grout with a lighter stone color.

In discussing a pool remodeling project, all decisions should factor in safety. Now may be a good time to think about installing a fence around your swimming pool. Exterior Worlds will be happy to discuss different options. For example, you may want to highlight the fence by using custom ornamental iron fencing or, conversely, you may prefer to make it unobtrusive by having us weave bushes around its perimeter.

Some of our clients find that once they start a pool renovation project, such as pool deck remodeling, they uncover additional problems beneath the deck that need to be updated, such as the plumbing, the pool lighting and the general electrical system. Once the decking is ripped out, you have an opportunity to address those issues, too, a decision that usually saves money in the long run.

Limestone Patios, Architecture, and Décor

What architectural theme does this best support?
All architectural themes and Houston landscape designs can benefit from limestone forms. Limestone is a soft stone that can be easily crafted into almost any style shape or form. This makes it easy to match the resulting form to the specific architecture of houses and outdoor buildings.

Limestone can also be polished, which makes it very good for creating ornamental or decorative elements. There is very little that we cannot do with limestone.

Are there any negatives to limestone?
Limestone’s only negative attribute is that it is highly porous, so any surface that requires resistance to water should be built from something else. Aside from this very narrow and singular limitation, it can be used to build virtually any type of hardscape.

Where is it mostly used?
While it works with any type of architecture, its most powerful expression is found as a compliment to very strong architecture. There is a cultural and historical association that all of us share in that links limestone to antiquity.

Classical buildings and porticos were commonly built of this stone, so any work we do on today’s Houston landscape can convey that same feeling of grand drama and regal authority that we associate with our own heroic, historical origins.

English and French landscape designs both convey a strong sense of presence due in part to the their deliberate incorporation of classical materials and their insistence on symmetry and geometry that trace their way back to Rome, Greece, Egypt, and Mesopotamia—cultures that all used limestone to build their monuments, temples, and great works of art.

What if I could care less about ancient culture?
Then you can enjoy limestone’s modern application. Because of its malleability, limestone is a timeless material to work with. It is easily molded to human intent, and it works just as well in contemporary and modern Houston landscapes as it did on Appian vineyards and Greek hillsides 2,500 years ago.

You can go forward with limestone just as easily as you can go backward. The choice is yours.
What are some decorative objects that you can build out of limestone?
Many decorative Houston landscape design elements can be made from limestone. These elements include custom fountains, walls, arbor columns, urns, and planters.

What garden design does this work well with?
It works best with Mediterranean, French, and Italian themes. Limestone makes ideal material for building architectural walls, retaining walls, garden stepping stones, and linear planters to set the boundaries of garden space.

Will just about any outdoor building benefit from a limestone patio?
Yes, because we can shape the stone to match the architecture.

The Importance of Custom Masonry in Houston Landscape Design

What is custom masonry?
Custom masonry is a very pronounced form of hardscape that rises up from the ground, adding a third dimension to the landscape beyond that offered by a simple foundation or patio.

Masonry includes a multiplicity of forms most of us have seen all of our lives. Most of these forms date back to ancient times and have become iconic of the mythic and archetypal in our collective consciousness. Brick walls, stone patios, columns, seat walls, stone steps, and stone retaining walls, have dominated everything from the Sumerian landscape to the Houston landscape, and many places and times in between.

Where does masonry offer the greatest aesthetic impact on the Houston landscape?
Its strongest virtue, as the Ancients would say, is that it marries the architecture to the landscape. Such unity is prerequisite to creating a truly livable outdoor space that defines activity with aesthetic itself. When we introduce the masonry elements of the home by building them out into the open spaces of the yard, we create a feeling of unity between hardscape and softscape that implies a return to a state of Nature, and a blissful life of harmony with the elemental forces of life.

What are some examples of custom masonry?
Some of them are surprisingly unobtrusive until you get close enough to see them. Custom drain grates, mosaics, and custom stone patterns constitute the “little things” that transform functionality into sophisticated ornamentation.

How does custom masonry support swimming pool construction?
Custom masonry is literally the backbone of swimming pool construction. It is the predominant material for cladding the substructure of the pool. This superstructure includes the beams that stabilize the entire structure, the pool shell itself, and the concrete that forms the actual bottom of the pool.

How does custom masonry support garden design?
Since gardens are almost completely organic, the selective addition of custom masonry elements ties the vegetation directly into the architecture of the home. For a typical garden, a small architectural wall, or a planter running parallel to a wall, is often all that is needed to link apparently divergent realities into a interrelated, interdependent unity. Larger gardens can also be linked to key elements of the Houston landscape with more elaborate masonry work.

How does custom masonry support outdoor room construction?
As we have previously noted, masonry has been the main element of architecture for millennium. Outdoor room construction follows this principle. Since most outdoor rooms are open to the air on at least one side so that people can have a view of the Houston landscape, the importance of custom masonry is even more pronounced, because it is in the nuances and subtleties of design that unique outdoor living spaces find true expression in the form of new and innovative boundaries and spaces.

The Many Uses of Cut Stone in Houston Landscape Design

What is a cut stone patio?
It is a patio constructed out of stones cut into geometric shape. They are generally cut into squares, rectangles, or some other clearly recognizable pattern.

Are these stones all the same size?
The individual stones in a cut stone patio may or may not be the same, depending on the style of Houston landscape design they are intended to support.

Where is it mostly used?
Cut stone patios are used to build hardscapes in areas where people gather and move from point to point. We commonly build them around swimming pools located at the rear of homes. Here, the patio becomes the focus of outdoor living space, and a gathering spot that links architecture to water’s illuminated fluidity and ambience.

Front walks are also made of cut stone to create a sense of grand entrance to a house. This sense of stateliness can be further enhanced by building the front porch out of the same materials. A house differentiated by these elements stands out on the Houston landscape as being unique in its ability to add human refinement to natural elements without overpowering the organic vitality of life.

How does it compliment garden design?
Because stone is a natural element, it ties very well into the richness and natural order of a garden. Cut stone makes an excellent border for almost any garden style. It can also compliment nearby gardens with patterns that are recognizably geometric and reflective of the layout of garden design. Many times a pathway, fountain, or retaining wall that is built near a garden will draw attention to the greenery and magnify its importance on the Houston landscape.

Is this a good style to use near a pool or outdoor building?
Yes. One of the biggest benefits of cut stone is its ability to communicate a sense of control that is governed by the order of nature and not the hand of man. This creates symmetry, design, and containment without overpowering the scenery.

What architectural theme does this best support?
All architectural themes can be enhanced with cut stone patios. Different styles can be reflected by simply varying the type of stones we use, the geometric shapes into which they are cut, and the sizes of the individual stones themselves.

Color also plays a very important role in supporting certain architectural styles such as traditional, contemporary, and modern. Stone colors should be selected that appropriately reflect the intent of the home itself as it rises up from the Houston landscape.

What landscaping theme does this work best with?
Any landscaping theme can be enhanced with this type of patio design. It works especially well with natural landscape design and tropical landscape design.

Hardscape Design

A recent project that we did for the Friedman family demonstrates just how important hardscape design and variation of grade changes are to creating zones of interest and comfort in a vast Houston landscape. The size of the home and the property at large demanded that outdoor elements be very large as well. For example, the pool patio alone had to be 2,000 square foot to compliment the size of the house and to provide sufficient space to entertain an average of 40-50 people.

We decided we could break up the sense of an overwhelming structure by creating three changes in elevation. These grade changes were the pool patio itself, an upper terrace between the pool fountain and the spa adjoined to the outdoor kitchen, and an arbor overlooking the Houston landscape from a vantage point above.

We built the pool patio out of Pennsylvania blue stone and provided a nice dark surface area that set the gathering area apart from the surrounding vegetation. It featured custom drains and special water jets that sent water into the lighted depths of the pool at night. The stairs leading up to the terrace are broad and wide, and they create a feeling of a very gradual, gentle ascent to a higher realm where one can view the surrounding Houston landscape from the comfort of a rocking chair, or the sheik luxury of a heated spa sunk into the terrace.

The upper terrace was also constructed using Pennsylvania sandstone. It is also the first entry point for guests when they enter open space. It gives them a choice between the spa and the arbor above. Rocking chairs position the viewer for panoramic visual intake of the Houston landscape, swimming pool, and parterre garden. A retaining wall that rises behind the terrace aesthetically frames it and adds emphasis to its border. It also functions on a practical level to hold back the soil and the grade.

Perched above both the terrace and the pool, we built a traditional style arbor built with ornate columns and a solid roof, built in the style of a luxurious outdoor living room, and overlooking the entirety of the pool, the garden, and the Houston landscape beyond. In many respects, this was the grand finale to the Friedman project. It is built on an axis with the pool and provides us with as an entry point to the upper terrace through a series of steps very similar to those built along either side of the pool waterfall. Each two-inch step is built upon a concrete base hidden in the grass, with veneered sandstone risers and treads. Each top stone is flat and thermal finished.

The treads are also constructed with a very rich tread to prevent slippage. They are gauged at 18 inches in width to give you a generous step and uniform descent to the terrace. This reinforces the feeling of controlled drama that you feel when you walk out into the open space of the Friedman back yard, and it helps pause the visitor just long enough to make choices as to where to go next.

Climbing the steps creates an even greater sense of grand finale, because the arbor itself is decorated as an outdoor living room overlooking the Houston landscape, complete and living room furniture overlooking. The rear of the arbor is covered by a group of Japanese yew trees that create an organic wall and frame the Houston outdoor living experience with a sense of controlled vitality.