Design 101 - Northern California Design

Blasen Landscape Architecture

The Northern California design style is earthy, calm, contemporary and sometimes sparse.  The palette consists of neutral colors and lots of natural fibers, wood, stone, metal, stucco and minimal landscaping.  The design style is about working in tandem with the surrounding environment yet these outdoor spaces are not camouflaged in their surroundings.  These outdoor spaces make a powerful visual statement.

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Designer Profile - Masters of Lighting Drama

Topher Delaney/Seam Studio

There are two types of outdoor lighting, landscape and accessory.  Landscape lighting is hardwired and built-in to your outdoor space design and accessory lighting is free standing and repositional - think table lamps.  This week we are dealing mostly with accessory lighting but an inspiring starting point is to look at a couple of designers who are masters of creating high drama in outdoor spaces using landscape lighting.  In the case of designers Topher Delaney and Jeffrey Gordon Smith their far out lighting designs can, in many cases, be replicated using new accessory lighting products on the market.

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Design 101 - Big Backyard Ideas

Tom Stuart-Smith

Looking for creative ways to transform a barren backyard into a low maintenance multifunctional space? Landscape architect Steve Verner shared with us some of his tricks of the trade for doing just that.

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Inspiration Board - Living Outdoors in Harmony with Your Landscape

When we talk about outdoor living we should bear in mind that we are actually guests of our outdoor environment or landscape.  We can either be the obnoxious guest who takes over and dominates our host's space or we can be the guest that falls into step with our host and will ultimately be asked back time and again.  This week we are going to be talking about falling into step with the outdoor environment and landscape when designing our outdoor spaces.  Here are some inspiring looks that have integrated almost seamlessly with the outdoors.

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Design 101 - Visual Interest for your Dormant Outdoor Space

Great outdoor spaces retain their visual interest as summer plantings fade.

As fall transitions into winter, brilliant foliage that dominated summertime outdoor spaces disappears. Exceptional outdoor spaces always unveil a new layer of visual interest as the seasons change.

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Inspiration Board - The North's Late Season Bounty

In the northern part of United States many are enjoying the incredible bounty of two seasons worth of growth in the landscaping of their outdoor spaces.  Like the finale of a fireworks display these late season landscapes have burst forth in one final display of awesome color, texture and lushness before these northern spaces go quiet and barren for the winter.

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