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For the past few years, say since 2019, we have seen the popular color tones go from traditional, warm mixtures of tans and browns, to a more gray tone. For added character, we can use bold white and black pavers by themselves or combined for a unique statement in a driveway, patio or around a swimming pool.
We’ve seen these white and black statement pavers completely change a backyard’s look from cozy traditional to modern and sleek.
You’ve got to be careful with some of the gray pavers that are out there, because they can sometimes look a little like moldy concrete and become too monotone. When we run across this in the field, we typically advise to mix it in with other shapes or pavers that match close in tone – giving the patio a more interesting textured look.
More manufacturers of concrete materials like pavers, such as Belgard and Unilock, are trying to mimic the look and feel of natural stone, with some manufacturers doing a better job than others.
Large size pavers are very popular, because they take the busyness of the pavers down a notch, you don’t feel like you’re looking at 2 million pavers on a 600 square feet patio or pool deck.
When a patio or area exceeds 600 square feet of area, we like to break up the monotony of just one big blanket of pavers. We still use pavers, but we will use a different style and complimenting color, and we use natural stone as well to draw your eye to different parts of the patio. We always use this style of installation, as long as budget allows!
In the backyard swimming pool world, we typically build an even mix of pool shapes between square and freeform configurations. In the design phase we combine the client’s desire with our professional opinion on what will work for the landscape, but ultimately the pool composition depends on what will fit the family’s needs best.
The most common upgrades to a simple pool shape are tanning ledges, jumping rocks or platforms, and spa add-ons. For more on that, check out our pools page.
While we love a complete look from coping to decking of paver decking around the entire pool, we’re seeing a lot of simply poured concrete decking as well.
A solid paver border around the pool before the concrete decking begins adds a crisp element to your overall backyard composition – really finishing off that gunite or liner pool.
While interior trends show homeowners wanting to bring the outdoors in with an increase in house plants, larger windows that blast natural light throughout the home and indoor gardens on the rise, in the outdoor living space we’re seeing the indoors brought outside!
Blame it on the work from home fatigue or 2020’s overall disruption, but the overarching trend here is merging the areas of your life and blurring the lines of the spaces you live in.
At Dogwood we’ve always been passionate about bringing the entire family outside together. Depending on your home and your family’s lifestyle, we do this with quaint outside patio and fire pit builds or full-blown outdoor kitchens equipped with heaters, electricity, TVs and fireplaces.
When we can, we use natural boulders, finger boulders, landscape boulders, to help us define or break up a space while keeping the overall backyard natural and organic.
Boulder walls can cost more than a concrete block wall, simply because they take time to “fit together” when building a wall. Despite the budget, the end result of that is a very impressive wall that will last as long as the rocks and boulders will last.
We have a product that is new to our area, that we are making known to our clients and potential clients called Rosetta. They manufacture wet cast concrete products that mimic the look of natural boulders and flagstone.
So, now we can build very impressive gravity retaining walls with a concrete product that builds faster and safer than a boulder wall, but gives the client the look of a natural boulder.
One big trend that’s not going anywhere is the woven walkway. We’ve been using a mixture of ground cover plants and mulch to act as a natural mortar between large stepping stones.
When we first begin envisioning a backyard with our client, we listen to their wants, evaluate their needs, and combine the two factors to create a truly perfectly functioning backyard.
Sometimes we go for a more “natural” approach. To do this, we use large flagstone slabs for walkways and boulders for retaining walls, paying very close attention to drainage needs and the aesthetic the client wants.
We can soften the look of the stone and even solidify the stonework, once again using “natures mortar” with plants and ground covers such as Dwarf Mondo Grass, Creeping Raspberry, Creeping Jenny and many other colorful natural options.
Outdoor lighting and landscape lighting have come a long way in a short time. Most installations use LED bulbs to reduce energy consumption, but also give a truer color on the build.
Now the bulbs are color changing via a bluetooth application and WiFi applications, all controlled by your smartphone.
More evolution of the lighting is happening everyday, like Unique’s new series of fixtures offering Infinite color changing, temperature changing (temperature is how bright the light is), and even beam spread changing, all from your wireless apps!
