Professional Landscaping Design
If you have invested in a house of high value, it is imperative that you invest in professional landscaping design that will appropriately magnify the value of the home and the surrounding property. Custom homes, in particular, need far more than attractive yards to compliment their appearance. They need landforms, water features, and exterior structures that directly reflect their architectural keynotes. If these things are done by a professional landscaping design firm with the knowledge and expertise necessary to integrate architecture, lifestyle, and nature into a cohesive synthesis, then both the resale value of the home and the enjoyment of the living experience will be maximized as a result.
Most homes valued at $500,000.00 or more have certain landscaping elements that almost always require professional design expertise to develop and maintain. Chief among these forms is a swimming pool. Swimming pools have been a symbol of luxury home living since the early 20th century, and they are nowhere close to going out of style. A common mistake that wealthy homeowners tend to make when it comes time to have a swimming pool installed is to directly hire a pool contractor. This seldom results in an outcome that does justice to the home and surrounding terrain. The pool contractor will work very hard to create a swimming area that in and of itself looks aesthetically pleasing. However, the pool installed will more than likely be inappropriately sized and styled in proportion to the home, other outdoor structures, and the surrounding green space.
This is why Exterior Worlds always offers to subcontract pool installation and renovation as part of our professional landscape design services. When a landscaping plan is developed that comprehensively sees the outcome as a whole, it is much easier to determine which size and style of swimming pool will work best with a particular home and property. This also makes it easier for pool specialists to do their work, because the landscaping master plan clearly specifies in advance all materials, pool dimensions, and any special features like spas or water jets.
Almost equally important to pool design is the material and design of its surrounding patio. A patio should do much more than provide a safe and comfortable walking surface. It should be instantly recognized as a prominent feature on the landscape, and it should work to draw the eye toward any decorative elements in and around the swimming pool area. Concrete has long been a favored material to use in swimming pool patio construction. However, plain white concrete lacks the aesthetic to do justice to a truly high-end property. If concrete is ultimately selected as the building material, you should have it poured by a professional landscaping design company that can upgrade its appearance through staining or coloring. This will cause it to stand out with a more atypical appearance that will catch the eye, and it will still have the same reliable, durable qualities innate to its constitution.
It might be a good idea, though, to consider investing in a more sophisticated patio build as part of your professional landscape design. Pavers laid over a concrete base provide the same hard, reliable surface, but have a much more Old World look reminiscent of cobblestone. They are ideal for any home with a historic or period look to its architecture. Stone patios work exceptionally well with almost any custom home, including houses with extremely eclectic or sophisticated architecture. Professional landscaping designers can make almost any type of stone into a patio material, including limestone, sandstone, quartzite, and slate, just to name a few. There is also cast stone, which is a masonry substitute for natural stones that has the same features, but conveys a considerable cost savings in terms of installation and materials.
Such a pool and patio layout can then form the hub of an entire landscape that is populated with all sorts of exterior structures, water features, and garden designs. Most homes valued at a million dollars or more prefer to have a lighted fountain installed in a garden area that is separated from the pool area as a unique and personal living space. French gardens, Italian gardens, and Zen gardens are very popular designs for these areas, which are almost always built with their own patios and seating arrangements as part of the layout. To create such a blend of entertainment space with green space, professional landscaping design experts must know what questions to ask the homeowner, and they must know how to intuit both the spoken desires of the client and the unspoken “feel” for what they want. Landscaping is ultimately an art form, and art is as much a state of mind as it is a quest for perfect form.
Part of the state of mind that professional landscapers aim to create in any property is a sense of expansiveness. They do this in a way that is very different from the work of the typical yard service company. Whereas the yardman works to carefully trims cultivates vegetation so as to create more open space, the professional landscaper actually works to fill space in such a way as to create the illusion of a greater area. In many ways, this is like furnishing a room with couches, chairs, and bookshelves to make it appear to have more floor space. In landscaping, much more is needed that vegetation and gardens to accomplish this. Larger trees often have to be brought in to extend the view. Outdoor rooms, outdoor fireplaces, and arbors are also installed to segregate the property into different areas and thus make it look up to 2 or 3 times the size of its actual acreage. Walkways and driveways can then be added to create a sense of movement that connects these different elements so as to preserve the overall unity of elements throughout, and to harmonize architecture with Nature and human living experience.
Every one of these aspects of professional landscaping design will work to create a better living space for personal relaxation, home entertainment, and the sense that your home is truly your domain. From a fiscal perspective, these services work to significantly contribute to the resale value of your home, so that if you do choose to move on in the future, you have a much better chance of making a profit on your home investment even in the most challenging of economic times.
