6 Inspiring Outdoor Water Features

Get inspired by these award-winning projects with water features.

If you’re looking for inspiration for creating captivating water features in your next project, look no further. These are some of the most distinctive water feature installations we’ve covered.

1. Water Feature Serves as Heritage Property Addition

Photo: Yards Unlimited Landscaping

It was important that this new water feature blend in with the feel and age of the house. Yards Unlimited Landscaping used the slope of the side yard to create a more natural-feeling water feature. The water feature was designed by imagining what a waterfall and pond would have looked like if it had been there for years. Plant choices for the surrounding area were picked carefully to accommodate wildlife.

2. European, American Elements Highlighted in Renovation

Photo: Mom’s Design Build

Mom’s Design Build crew built new monuments to create a stronger front entry presence and installed both a seating area and a tiered fountain to enhance the Parisian feel the client’s of this property were looking for. “I was excited to work with somebody who goes to Europe a lot and really wanted this look and understands it. With the fountain going and at dusk when the low-voltage lighting is turning on, it’s so charming,” says Becca Bastyr.

3. Prized Landscape Features Circular Theme

Waterfall feature
Photo: Harder & Warner Landscape and Garden Center

Helping to tie the backyard area together is a recycling water feature. Adding a water feature was inspired when Richard Angell, designer for Harder & Warner Landscape and Garden Center, saw an old timber retaining wall that had been holding back part of the hill at the rear of the house. “I wanted to have it so that as you sit down below it feels like the water is running all the way to the lake,” he says.

4. Company Expands Project Portfolio with Backyard Overhaul

Photo: Professional Grounds Inc.

This property’s pond is 7 feet deep, and it’s surrounded by a Japanese Zen garden with Japanese lanterns, a Japanese bridge and Japanese plants. The entire project includes a pavilion with a large outdoor kitchen, pool decking, retaining walls, and a separate grill station near the house.

5. Makeover for Lincoln’s Centennial Mall

Centennial Mall fountain at night
Photo: Dreamscapes Inc.

This paver re-do by Dreamscapes in Lincoln, Nebraska, also included fountains in need of revamping. Part of the project included creating a Nebraska map in pavers on the centennial mall. There are fountains along the Missouri River portion of the map, with each representing a campsite of the Lewis & Clark Expedition. The area in front of the Capitol has a centerpiece that is the seal of the state, done in pieces of etched granite with fountains around it.

6. Designing a Client’s Dream Backyard

Stone waterfall and slabs
This water feature highlights the hillside with great stonework. PHOTO: Appalachian Naturescapes

The beautiful, natural stonework for this project was most evident in the water feature, which was the last part of the design element. Carl Meyers, co-owner of Appalachian Naturescapes of Morganton, North Carolina, says the water feature pulls the patio and fire pit areas together while providing also visual interest from the home’s dining room. “We actually built sort of a moat between the house and the fire pit area because we raised the grade and we had to make sure it drained correctly,” he says. “It really became a streambed, which acts as the overflow for the water feature.”

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