Before and After: Standout Patios Transform 3 Underused Yards
Clever layouts, elegant pavers and thoughtful details create stylish, hardworking spaces that enhance outdoor living
Having outdoor space can do so much to enhance life at home. But if your yard isn’t designed to suit your needs or entice you outside, it can just as easily become a wasted area or — even worse — an eyesore.
In the following three yards, landscape designers transformed soggy, underused lawns and weed pits into outdoor destinations for cooking, lounging and dining. The key ingredient in all three designs: a patio. Read on to see how they balanced hardworking plantings with creative paving to add valuable living space with plenty of style.
In the following three yards, landscape designers transformed soggy, underused lawns and weed pits into outdoor destinations for cooking, lounging and dining. The key ingredient in all three designs: a patio. Read on to see how they balanced hardworking plantings with creative paving to add valuable living space with plenty of style.
After: The new patio that anchors the outdoor space features three zones and showcases the curves that the homeowners wanted. In the foreground, a curved seat wall encircles a gas fire pit. Farther back, an expansive dining area invites al fresco eating. Closest to the house, a new grilling station has easy access to the house, with the help of new stairs directly off the kitchen.
“After my initial meeting with clients, I always put together a Houzz ideabook with inspiration photos I think they’ll like,” Koehler says. “Then I share it with them so that they can tell me which ones they like, which ones they don’t like and add more photos themselves. Seeing these photos is a really important part of the process.”
The patio itself is made of three paver types. Cobblestone-like pavers outline the fire pit and the patio edge. In the area between, Koehler used pavers with an irregular river stone look. He used a kit that includes architectural blocks and caps for the fire pit and seat wall. Matching pillars anchor the ends of the seating wall. The wall’s stone veneer is called Mountain Ledge from Eldorado Stone in a color called Charleston.
Cobblestone pavers: Villagio; river rock pavers: Antika; fire pit kit: Valencia, all by Techo-Bloc
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“After my initial meeting with clients, I always put together a Houzz ideabook with inspiration photos I think they’ll like,” Koehler says. “Then I share it with them so that they can tell me which ones they like, which ones they don’t like and add more photos themselves. Seeing these photos is a really important part of the process.”
The patio itself is made of three paver types. Cobblestone-like pavers outline the fire pit and the patio edge. In the area between, Koehler used pavers with an irregular river stone look. He used a kit that includes architectural blocks and caps for the fire pit and seat wall. Matching pillars anchor the ends of the seating wall. The wall’s stone veneer is called Mountain Ledge from Eldorado Stone in a color called Charleston.
Cobblestone pavers: Villagio; river rock pavers: Antika; fire pit kit: Valencia, all by Techo-Bloc
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The third paver type is a mix of rectangles and squares that covers the patio’s grilling and dining zones. Koehler chose three colors to resemble terra-cotta and brick. “This was the most custom part of the patio. We had to work out how to make it look random yet balanced. We tried a lot of different combinations until we landed on this,” Koehler says.
The entire patio is permeable, meaning water can seep into the ground between the paver joints rather than draining off as stormwater runoff. The team added a new catch basin to handle any excess water runoff from the patio.
Pavers: Mista in Chestnut Brown, Champlain Grey and Sandlewood, Techo-Bloc
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The entire patio is permeable, meaning water can seep into the ground between the paver joints rather than draining off as stormwater runoff. The team added a new catch basin to handle any excess water runoff from the patio.
Pavers: Mista in Chestnut Brown, Champlain Grey and Sandlewood, Techo-Bloc
See more of this backyard makeover
2. Taste of Santa Barbara
Yard at a Glance
Who lives here: A family of four and their Labradoodle
Location: Portola Valley, California
Size: A quarter acre
Landscape architect and contractor: Jim Redman of Elements Landscape
Before: The owners of this San Francisco Bay Area home wanted to channel the look and feel of Santa Barbara, one of their favorite California towns, when they hired landscape architect Jim Redman to redesign their corner lot’s outdoor spaces.
“There is a feeling that I wanted to try to capture in terms of earthiness and beach life,” homeowner Emily Marenghi says. “Santa Barbara to me is [about] being barefoot, strings of market lights, sitting outdoors late into the night, the smell of a grill [and] the sound of a fountain trickling in the background.”
Before the renovation, the partly shaded backyard featured a lawn but had no areas where the family could gather and relax outside.
Yard at a Glance
Who lives here: A family of four and their Labradoodle
Location: Portola Valley, California
Size: A quarter acre
Landscape architect and contractor: Jim Redman of Elements Landscape
Before: The owners of this San Francisco Bay Area home wanted to channel the look and feel of Santa Barbara, one of their favorite California towns, when they hired landscape architect Jim Redman to redesign their corner lot’s outdoor spaces.
“There is a feeling that I wanted to try to capture in terms of earthiness and beach life,” homeowner Emily Marenghi says. “Santa Barbara to me is [about] being barefoot, strings of market lights, sitting outdoors late into the night, the smell of a grill [and] the sound of a fountain trickling in the background.”
Before the renovation, the partly shaded backyard featured a lawn but had no areas where the family could gather and relax outside.
After: Now, the backyard draws the homeowners outside year-round. It includes a fire pit and seating area, an outdoor kitchen, a raised dining area and a hot tub on a new patio. “Removing the grass in the backyard and replacing it with hardscape has made it so much better for entertaining,” Marenghi says. “It is almost like we added another large room to our home.”
The team covered the back patio with precast hexagonal pavers made of concrete, a durable, attractive material that the homeowner says feels like a modern take on the terra-cotta pavers popular in Santa Barbara.
The dining table sits on a platform, with a stained cedar pergola providing shade. String lights and an infrared heater enable the homeowners to enjoy alfresco dinners.
Outdoor kitchen counter: Neolith; grill: Lynx Grills; concrete pavers: Stepstone; fire pit: Concreteworks
The team covered the back patio with precast hexagonal pavers made of concrete, a durable, attractive material that the homeowner says feels like a modern take on the terra-cotta pavers popular in Santa Barbara.
The dining table sits on a platform, with a stained cedar pergola providing shade. String lights and an infrared heater enable the homeowners to enjoy alfresco dinners.
Outdoor kitchen counter: Neolith; grill: Lynx Grills; concrete pavers: Stepstone; fire pit: Concreteworks
A bubbler fountain sits in a garden bed on the patio’s perimeter. Soft green, gray and blue-green plants frame the space, including foxtail fern (Asparagus densiflorus ‘Myers’, USDA zones 9 to 11; find your zone), flax lily (Dianella tasmanica ‘Variegata’, zones 9 to 11), blue chalk sticks (Senecio sp.) and iceberg roses. “I love that I can hear the fountain from my office when the windows are open in summertime,” Marenghi says.
The landscape redesign coincided with a remodel and 350-square-foot addition by Libby Raab Architecture. It included repainting the family’s ranch home in a cool brown that allows the new plant material to pop.
House paint: Dragon’s Breath, Benjamin Moore
See more of this patio makeover
The landscape redesign coincided with a remodel and 350-square-foot addition by Libby Raab Architecture. It included repainting the family’s ranch home in a cool brown that allows the new plant material to pop.
House paint: Dragon’s Breath, Benjamin Moore
See more of this patio makeover
3. Chic Backyard Lounge
Yard at a Glance
Who lives here: Cara Buffa and Josh Weitzman, and their two teenage children
Location: Irving Park neighborhood of Chicago
Size: About 800 square feet (74 square meters)
Designer: K&D Landscape Management
Before: Homeowners Cara Buffa and Josh Weitzman contacted KD Landscape Management for their Chicago backyard renovation after discovering the landscape design firm’s work on Houzz. The backyard was pretty much unused by the family at the time and featured minimal plantings.
Yard at a Glance
Who lives here: Cara Buffa and Josh Weitzman, and their two teenage children
Location: Irving Park neighborhood of Chicago
Size: About 800 square feet (74 square meters)
Designer: K&D Landscape Management
Before: Homeowners Cara Buffa and Josh Weitzman contacted KD Landscape Management for their Chicago backyard renovation after discovering the landscape design firm’s work on Houzz. The backyard was pretty much unused by the family at the time and featured minimal plantings.
After: A chic new bluestone patio and dining area replaces what had been the unused patch of grass. The team framed the space with a black-stained western red cedar pergola and a decorative lattice screen, elegantly blocking the neighbor’s garage while also anchoring the new design. For stability, the bluestone patio sits on a 1-inch layer of sand over 10 inches of gravel.
Shop for outdoor dining furniture on Houzz
Shop for outdoor dining furniture on Houzz
Elegant bluestone paving continues to a new outdoor lounge area, which sits in front of an existing deck off the back of the house. (A bluestone paver path connects to the two gathering areas.) The black pergola ties in with the black-stained deck and perimeter fence.
New plantings — including Japanese white pine (Pinus parviflora, zones 4 to 7), Quick Fire panicled hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata, zones 3 to 8) and ‘Big Daddy’ hosta (Hosta ‘Big Daddy’, zones 3 to 9) — frame the seating area to add texture, color and a sense of enclosure to the space.
See more of this patio makeover
More on Houzz
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Browse landscape photos
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New plantings — including Japanese white pine (Pinus parviflora, zones 4 to 7), Quick Fire panicled hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata, zones 3 to 8) and ‘Big Daddy’ hosta (Hosta ‘Big Daddy’, zones 3 to 9) — frame the seating area to add texture, color and a sense of enclosure to the space.
See more of this patio makeover
More on Houzz
Read more stories about landscape design
Browse landscape photos
Hire a landscape contractor
Shop for your outdoor spaces
Yard at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple
Location: Richmond, Virginia
Designer and builder: Outdoor Dreams
Before: A family with a brand-new home in Richmond, Virginia, knew they wanted to tackle their landscape after moving in, so they requested that their builder leave the outdoor space pretty much bare. Just next to the house is a forest, and a swale, or depression, flows through the space.
When they were ready to tackle the landscape, the homeowners contacted landscape design-build firm Outdoor Dreams, whose work they had discovered on Houzz. “They had seen one of our projects with a lot of curves on our Houzz page, which gave us a starting point,” landscape designer Greg Koehler says.
In their design request to Koehler, the homeowners asked for a seating area around a fire feature, a dining area for six, a grilling station and stairs to connect the back door to the patio.