Medium Sized Modern Garden and Outdoor Space Ideas and Designs
Refine by:
Budget
Sort by:Popular Today
1 - 20 of 29,960 photos
Item 1 of 3
Aoba LandscapesA modern, contemporary space to relax and entertain that had plenty of space for their young family to play safely.
Randy Angell DesignsThe planning phase of this modern retreat was an intense collaboration that took place over the course of more than two years. While the initial design concept exceeded the clients' expectations, it also exceeded their budget beyond the point of comfort.
The next several months were spent modifying the design, in attempts to lower the budget. Ultimately, the decision was made that they would hold off on the project until they could budget for the original design, rather than compromising the vision.
About a year later, we repeated that same process, which resulted in the same outcome. After another year-long hiatus, we met once again. We revisited design thoughts, each of us bringing to the table new ideas and options.
Each thought simply solidified the fact that the initial vision was absolutely what we all wanted to see come to fruition, and the decision was finally made to move forward.
The main challenge of the site was elevation. The Southeast corner of the lot stands 5'6" above the threshold of the rear door, while the Northeast corner dropped a full 2' below the threshold of the door.
The backyard was also long and narrow, sloping side-to-side and toward the house. The key to the design concept was to deftly place the project into the slope and utilize the elevation changes, without allowing them to dominate the yard, or overwhelm the senses.
The unseen challenge on this project came in the form of hitting every underground issue possible. We had to relocate the sewer main, the gas line, and the electrical service; and since rock was sitting about 6" below the surface, all of these had to be chiseled through many feet of dense rock, adding to our projected timeline and budget.
As you enter the space, your first stop is an outdoor living area. Smooth finished concrete, colored to match the 'Leuder' limestone coping, has a subtle saw-cut pattern aligned with the edges of the recessed fire pit.
In small spaces, it is important to consider a multi-purpose approach. So, the recessed fire pit has been fitted with an aluminum cover that allows our client to set up tables and chairs for entertaining, right over the top of the fire pit.
From here, it;s two steps up to the pool elevation, and the floating 'Leuder' limestone stepper pads that lead across the pool and hide the dam wall of the flush spa.
The main retaining wall to the Southeast is a poured concrete wall with an integrated sheer descent waterfall into the spa. To bring in some depth and texture, a 'Brownstone' ledgestone was used to face both the dropped beam on the pool, and the raised beam of the water feature wall.
The main water feature is comprised of five custom made stainless steel scuppers, supplied by a dedicated booster pump.
Colored concrete stepper pads lead to the 'Ipe' wood deck at the far end of the pool. The placement of this wood deck allowed us to minimize our use of retaining walls on the Northeast end of the yard, since it drops off over three feet below the elevation of the pool beam.
One of the most unique features on this project has to be the structure over the dining area. With a unique combination of steel and wood, the clean modern aesthetic of this structure creates a visual stamp in the space that standard structure could not accomplish.
4" steel posts, painted charcoal grey, are set on an angle, 4' into the bedrock, to anchor the structure. Steel I-beams painted in green-yellow color--aptly called "frolic"--act as the base to the hefty cedar rafters of the roof structure, which has a slight pitch toward the rear.
A hidden gutter on the back of the roof sends water down a copper rain chain, and into the drainage system. The backdrop for both this dining area , as well as the living area, is the horizontal screen panel, created with alternating sizes of cedar planks, stained to a calm hue of dove grey.
Gardens by Gabriel, Inc.Golden Goddess bamboo and Mexican weeping bamboo peek through cattle panel fencing and garden wall panels.
Photo by Gabriel Frank
Boyce Design + BuildA covered outdoor kitchen, complete with streamlined aluminum outdoor cabinets, gray concrete countertops, custom vent hood, built in grill, sink, storage and Big Green Egg .
Techo-BlocThis backyard landscaping project consist of multiple of our modern collections!
Modern grey retaining wall: The smooth look of the Raffinato collection brings modern elegance to your tailored spaces. This contemporary double-sided retaining wall is offered in an array of modern colours.
Discover the Raffinato retaining wall: https://www.techo-bloc.com/shop/walls/raffinato-smooth/
Modern grey stone steps: The sleek, polished look of the Raffinato stone step is a more elegant and refined alternative to modern and very linear concrete steps. Offered in three modern colors, these stone steps are a welcomed addition to your next outdoor step project!
Discover our Raffinato stone steps here: https://www.techo-bloc.com/shop/steps/raffinato-step/
Modern grey floor pavers: A modern paver available in over 50 scale and color combinations, Industria is a popular choice amongst architects designing urban spaces. This paver's de-icing salt resistance and 100mm height makes it a reliable option for industrial, commercial and institutional applications.
Discover the Industria paver here: https://www.techo-bloc.com/shop/pavers/industria-smooth-paver/
Timberline Patio CoversThis project is a skillion style roof with an outdoor kitchen, entertainment, heaters, and gas fireplace! It has a super modern look with the white stone on the kitchen and fireplace that complements the house well.
DPG Pavers and DesignPaver driveway, drought tolerant planting, black mulch. Paver color and style selected to compliment paint and roof color.
Gwc Decorative ConcreteUnusable back ward area transformed into great lounging area in full use daily from the day we complete led. Check out review of Oleary project
Ginkgo Leaf Studio A line of 'Skyracer' molinia repeats the same element from the front yard and is paralleled by a bluestone stepper path into the lawn.
Westhauser Photography
California Landscape ConstructionWe installed a raised garden bed made of redwood with individual timed sprinklers. This is a great contemporary garden with minimal upkeep.
Exterior Worlds Landscaping & DesignA local Houston art collector hired us to create a low maintenance, sophisticated, contemporary landscape design. She wanted her property to compliment her eclectic taste in architecture, outdoor sculpture, and modern art. Her house was built with a minimalist approach to decoration, emphasizing right angles and windows instead of architectural keynotes. The west wing of the house was only one story, while the east wing was two-story. The windows in both wings were larger than usual, so that visitors could see her art collection from the home’s exterior. Near one of the large rear windows, there was an abstract metal sculpture designed in the form of a spiral.
When she initially contacted us, the surrounding property had only a few trees and indigenous grass as vegetation. This was actually a good beginning point with us, because it allowed us to develop a contemporary landscape design that featured a very linear, crisp look supportive of the home and its contents. We began by planting a garden around the large contemporary sculpture near the window. Landscape designers planted horsetail reed under windows, along the sides of the home, and around the corners. This vegetation is very resilient and hardy, and requires little trimming, weeding, or mulching. This helped unite the diverse elements of sculpture, contemporary architecture, and landscape design into a more fluid harmony that preserved the proportions of each unique element, but eliminated any tendency for the elements to clash with one another.
We then added two stonework designs to the landscape surrounding the contemporary art collection and home. The first was a linear walkway we build from concrete pads purchased through a retail vendor as a cost-saving benefit to our client. We created this walkway to follow the perimeter of the home so that visitors could walk around the entire property and admire the outdoor sculptures and the collections of modern art visible through the windows. This was especially enjoyable at night, when the entire home was brightly lit from within.
To add a touch of tranquility and quite repose to the stark right angles of the home and surrounding contemporary landscape, we designed a special seating area toward the northwest corner of the property. We wanted to create a sense of contemplation in this area, so we departed from the linear and angular designs of the surrounding landscape and established a theme of circular geometry. We laid down gravel as ground cover, then placed large, circular pads arranged like giant stepping stones that led up to a stone patio filled with chairs. The shape of the granite pads and the contours of the graveled area further complimented the spirals and turns in the outdoor metal sculpture, and balanced the entire contemporary landscape design with proportional geometric forms of lines, angles, and curves.
This particular contemporary landscape design also has a sense of movement attached to it. All stonework leads to a destination of some sort. The linear pathway provides a guided tour around the home, garden, and modern art collection. The granite pathway stones create movement toward separate space where the entire experience of art, vegetation, and architecture can be viewed and experienced as a unity.
Contemporary landscaping designs like create form out of feeling by using basic geometric forms and variations of forms. Sometimes very stark forms are used to create a sense of absolutism or contrast. At other times, forms are blended, or even distorted to suggest a sense of complex emotion, or a sense of multi-dimensional reality. The exact nature of the design is always highly subjective, and developed on a case-by-case basis with the client.
Earth Designs Garden and Build London and EssexThis new build property was built around three years ago.
As is often the case with new builds the garden had little of interest offer – a very small patio, lawn and no planting.
The client wanted a modern, family garden, with areas for dining and relaxing, and child-friendly spaces to play.
The new design follows the curve of the existing boundary wall, using wide curves to create the illusion of space and to split the garden into different areas for dining and relaxing.
A deep, wide curved path laid with sawn, honed sandstone joins the lounge and kitchen doors and sweeps across to the left hand side of the space wrapping round the corner of the building towards the garage door.
Steps lead down to the lower area adjoining the rear of the garage where the floor is laid with a large patio of sawn honed sandstone in a contrasting hue.
A bespoke seating area is enclosed by a rendered block retaining wall separating the lower area from the rest of the garden. Two hardwood curved benches form a semi-circular seat. The deep bed behind is densely planted to provide screening from the neighbours.
Deep planting runs along the edge of a curved central lawn, edged with flexible metal edging to produce a crisp clean finish.
To the right of the space a curved pathway, laid with black basalt planks in a radial pattern, runs around the side of the house from the utility room door to the patio directly outside the lounge doors.
In the top right hand corner of the garden, an oval patio is inset with a contrasting curved section of black basalt. This area provides informal seating and nocturnal focal point through the patio doors, with a corten steel fire table for night time entertaining.
The curved basalt pathway also helps to divide the children’s area, tucked around the side of the house, from the rest of the garden. This includes a wooden wigwam, an outdoor black board on the wall, and hook for a hanging ‘cocoon’ seat suspended from the boundary wall. Play bark provides a safe surface. A corten steel edging strip creates a low boundary between the play area and the rest of the garden. Planting in the space is modern and contemporary with areas of block colour and seasonal perennials.
Medium Sized Modern Garden and Outdoor Space Ideas and Designs
1