Before Land Design Associates renovated the backyard at this family home in Westwood, it was bland and underutilized.
The small, discolored vinyl deck was misshapen and tired, the paver-stoned yard offered no privacy for socializing and the lawn areas presented unkempt woods that imposed on the amorphous space.
In short, the homeowners had a beautiful house but lacked a stunning outdoor living space that they could be proud of.
So we set out to design and build for this family with children a backyard patio and lounge area, complete with an outdoor gas fireplace, a kitchen grill built into a stone island and a beautiful perimeter of flowers and plants, to help get them back into nature.
We designed and built a new patio by hand-laying modern, blue-hued pavers from Techo Bloc and enlarging the surface area for proper outdoor gatherings.
These pavers are a popular choice for many backyard designs in the Boston area as they fit into modest budgets better than most natural stones without greatly sacrificing aesthetics or functionality.
We constructed a grill island along one corner of the patio using a durable, blue-gray granite called Blue Mist for the countertop to complement the nearby wall colors and to match materials for the wall caps and steps.
We built the base from natural veneer stone, sliced very thinly and cemented to a steel-reinforced, concrete-block wall trimmed and hand-laid by our skilled masons, for a high-quality look.
Because veneer stone, landscape contractors which is available in multiple colors and styles, is sliced so thinly, our masons can easily create tight, aesthetically pleasing joints.
We designed the steps to flow gracefully to the patio and ensured they would be large enough even for the children to sit on. The Blue Mist granite for the steps has a non-skid surface yet is smooth enough to comfortably enjoy the area with your bare feet during the summertime.
Outdoor Gas Fireplace Provides Warmth to the Outdoor Lounge Area
Sited at an angle to provide a great interface with the upper patio, the outdoor fireplace is the focal point of the lower sitting area.
We built walls at bench height on the sides of the fireplace to allow plenty of sitting room for friends and family, again using veneer stone and Blue Mist granite for the caps for continuity.
The remote-controlled gas fireplace eliminates the time-consuming needs of having to prepare a fire by hand and to wait for potentially unsafe embers to extinguish before retiring for an evening. Gas fireplaces also do not need to be cleaned of ashes and potentially foul-smelling half-burnt logs.
We used the same Techo Bloc pavers for the lower-area patio surface from the dining-area patio for further aesthetic consistency, accenting them with a lovely Victorien paver border. Banding the patio with a paver of contrasting colors here provided a nice, inexpensive flourish to the design.
The fireplace area is now a “go-to destination” for the family, enabling them to enjoy their outdoor space from early spring to late fall (and even sometimes during mild-weathered winter days!). Gone are the family’s times of not being able to relax outside with a red wine and friends on a gloriously crisp autumn day.
