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Jessica Schwartz
Belgard Announces Color Trend Of The Year
Belgard, a leading manufacturer of paver and wall products, is joining the ranks of Sherwin Williams and Pantone by introducing its first-ever Color of the Year. And Belgard is going green, earthy green, with Terrarium. A rejuvenating hue, Terrarium is meant to enhance connections to the natural environment, signifying growth, vitality, and renewal. Accents of Terrarium complement the full range of Belgard colorations and allow landscapers to create a biophilic paradise in client backyards. Biophilia, a term popularized by American biologist Edward O Wilson in the 1980’s, focuses on human’s innate attraction to nature and natural processes. “We want to stay true to our roots with Belgard’s first-ever Color of the Year. While Pantone’s Classic Blue lends itself to the sky, Terrarium is grounding with a strong connection to earth,” says Joe Raboine, director of residential hardscapes at Belgard. “The biophilic design initiative aims to connect people and nature with built environments and has taken off in outdoor living and design in recent years. Terrarium is guided by these core biophilic elements with a sleek aesthetic that is cozy yet contemporary.” Landscapers can create a biolphilic sanctuary for clients’ outdoor living spaces by pairing Terrarium-colored pieces, such as textiles and live greenery, with: Texture: Paver surface and texture add a dimensional aspect to outdoor living design, from a time-worn aesthetic with tumbled or distressed finishes, to an element of sophistication with a smooth or sculpted look. Scale: Depending on design goals, the shape and size of outdoor design elements — ...
Design/Build Project Expands To Grow With Client’s Needs
What began as one residential landscape project expanded to two distinct areas when the homeowner purchased an adjacent lot. Lindgren Landscape in Fort Collins, CO took this impressive project from start to finish. Imagine designing and building one project, and then having the clients offer you a second, totally different one. The big question: how do you meld a small, intimate space to an entire city lot? Not only did Tim Lindgren, owner of Fort Collins, CO-based Lindgren Landscape, come up with an answer, but his solution was good enough to be recognized by Hardscape North America (HNA) for its use of concrete pavers in a residential space of less than 3,000 square feet. Lindgren explains that his company was initially contacted by the buyers of a residential lot in what’s known as Old Town Fort Collins, an area of older homes in this university town in north central Colorado. “They were going to scrape the house and start new,” he says. “And, they had some pretty lofty goals for the site. They interviewed us and we won the design-build portion of the landscape.” He says work on the new home was about halfway completed before Lindgren Landscape got involved with the project on what had become a bare lot. “They entertain a lot, so having a place to host large parties was a big piece of what they wanted,” Lindgren explains. “They also wanted a sense of unity between the indoor and the outdoor. They wanted to be able ...
Story Of A Landscape: Custom Buffet/Water Feature Combo Fits The Bill
A backyard redesign delivers on what the client was looking for, including a custom buffet and water feature combo. Sometimes, getting a job is simply a matter of giving the customer what he wants. Just ask Nathan Filip. The owner of Elmhurst, Ill.-based Premier Outdoor Environments, Inc. (POE), says his firm got the job that earned it recognition from Hardscape North America (HNA) in the category of concrete paver — residential — less than 3,000 square feet for 2017 because it did just that. “This job was a referral from another client that we previously did work with,” Filip explains. “They were already in the design process with a few other contractors. They chose our design because we incorporated everything that they were asking for as well as a few of our own touches.” And, POE was not, he stresses, the lowest bid. The property certainly needed help. Filip says the owners had been in the home — in a large-lot subdivision — for several years and after doing interior renovations finally decided to take on the exterior. “They wanted to remove an old and rotting deck and gain a functional outdoor living space,” he says. “Their wish list included an outdoor kitchen, dining space, lounging spaces, a buffet and serving island, and both water and fire features.” Perhaps not surprisingly, the ability of designer Kevin Barnes to fit all that into a 1,200-square-foot space is what makes Filip most proud of this project. And, with good reason. While POE ...
Three Cheers For Pavers In Hardscape Design
Sticker shock may deter a homeowner from choosing pavers for their driveway, patio or pool deck project, but these are most often the better choice for long-term, beautiful results. A hardscape is an extension of the home, and homes are a reflection of those who live within them. The extra effort to research materials and building techniques that last and are easily maintained pays dividends in the end. Realtors would agree that details like extremely durable and attractive pavers make the difference in curb appeal. Here are three reasons to point out pavers when speaking to clients about hardscaping projects — courtesy of EP Henry, a Woodbury, NJ-based family-owned and operated manufacturer of unit concrete products. The following highlights why pavers are good option for these types of projects. 1. Attractive and flexible. Pavers have an immeasurable advantage over other common paving materials like concrete and asphalt. The range of colors, textures, size, and pattern options give homeowners design advantages that other surface covers cannot offer. Many very closely emulate the look of natural stone. Pavers can be customized to fit any design aesthetic. 2. Extremely durable and weather-damage resistant. Pavers last for decades. Stamped concrete, ordinary concrete, and asphalt begin cracking after the first few winters. Because pavers are a flexible system, they have room to expand with freeze and thaw conditions; the other monolithic surface treatments do not. The design of the pavers help snow and ice melt more quickly and the surface pavers create allows for easy ...
Oaks Pavers Launches Design Visualizer
Oaks Pavers, a paving stone and wall block manufacturer, has launched a new Landscape Design Visualizer that allows users to play with a broad range of colors, patterns and materials to create custom landscaping designs. Created by Chameleon Power, a leader in visualization technologies for the building and decorating industries, the tool allows customers to view Oaks Pavers products using pre-made scenes, or by uploading their own projects. The Landscape Design Visualizer helps users to imagine how their landscape design ideas will look in real-world applications. “Industry leaders typically embrace our tools first, and Oaks Pavers is a leader in the manufacturing of various landscape products,” said Dan Dempsey, President of Chameleon Power. “Visualization is quickly becoming a standard in landscape design, and we are happy to provide this experience to the Oaks Pavers customers.” Chameleon Power visualizers shorten the design cycle and enhance customer satisfaction. Websites that utilize Chameleon visualizers enjoy increased user time of more than 3X and sales increases of more than 75%. The Landscape Design Visualizer is integrated into the Oaks Pavers website, accessible via the homepage. View the Oaks Pavers Landscape Design Visualizer here.
Story Of A Landscape: Pervious Pavers Aid Environmentally Sensitive Property
Many landscape clients — and their contractors — have turned to pavers for their good looks and durability without thinking about their versatility as a permeable surface. Still, when designer Chris Rupp of Virginia Beach, Virginia-based Dominion Pavers was called in on a custom home job here, perviousness was utmost on his mind. Not only did the job call for a long driveway, but because of the property’s location in the Chesapeake Bay Protective Area, runoff had to be controlled to meet Resource Protection Area (RPA) setbacks. Rupp explains that he frequently works with Sasser Construction LC of Portsmouth, Virginia, on his projects. In this case, because of the location of the land and its proximity to the bay, as well as the RPA setback, the owners were required to give up a certain square footage of impervious material for their project. “That’s how we came up with a plan to tie the detached garage, which has some parking areas and a turnaround, along with a front walkway, together,” Rupp says. “There’s quite an elevation change, and because the house is on a little peninsula, we couldn’t have the stormwater running off into the RPA.” That’s not to say appearance didn’t play its part in the selection of a paver product, however, “There’s a stone façade on the garage and around the house and the color of that stone was more like a fieldstone,” Rupp says. “That basically drove me to find the product that would marry with the color ...
