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If you want to give your home amazing curb appeal, starting with your driveway is an excellent way to accomplish this goal. There are many ways to design a beautiful and functional driveway that go beyond classic concrete and asphalt.
Discover four amazing driveway upgrade ideas that will have you wanting to redesign your driveway as soon as possible. Your contractor can help you design a beautiful front driveway that you will love.
Creating a warm and inviting landscape can make your outdoor space more usable and boost your home’s curb appeal. While a well-manicured lawn and the right foliage can serve as the foundation for your home’s landscape, adding specialty features can really take your outdoor design to the next level. read more
Making the most of your outdoor space should be a goal for every home owner. Unfortunately, too many people are content to let their lawns stretch out as underutilized and underperforming stretches of land that don’t inspire excitement or provide for a great deal of comfort. Rather than allowing yourself to fall victim to complacency, you should embrace design possibilities and excitement.
If the prospect of coming up with a design plan for an outdoor patio has deterred you from trying to upgrade your home, it’s important that you make the decision to seize the opportunity to reverse that trend. Educating yourself on your options might be an important push that sends you down an exciting path.
Below, you’ll find a guide to some tips for designing your new patio. Keeping these suggestions in mind can allow you to feel some excitement and enthusiasm about the process and might allow you to see opportunity in parts of your home that previously seemed much more like a burden.
Build in Your Features
Few things are more frustrating than completing a major home improvement project and then realizing at the end that you wish you had gone further with it. If you’re going to make the commitment to improve your space, it’s important that you consider all of your possible options and expend all of the necessary energy and resources up front to guarantee that you’re happy with the results.
This strategy can allow you to directly integrate important features into your design. If you think you might enjoy an outdoor fireplace, it can be built directly into the stone. Enclosures for electronics and proper wiring channels can be part of the design elements. Even some permanent furniture may be able to be sculpted from strong building materials in order to guarantee that it remains reliable over the life of your space.
Consider the Color Palette
Your patio should offer you the opportunity to embrace some peace and serenity. Anything that jars you out of that state should be avoided, so it’s important that you make wise decisions with your color choices. The extent of the landscaping in your yard and the frequency with which your space will be in direct sunlight can play important roles in picking out the tones that really make your space pop.
One of the major advantages to building a natural stone patio is the wide variety of colors and shades that can come both directly and indirectly from the surface of the stones. This variety can allow you to plan the perfect look for your new space and can guarantee that you’ll never be sitting and enjoying your patio and wondering why you made such a poor decision in your color palette.
Maximize Cool Air
Shielding yourself from the sun can also mean creating an obstruction that prevents air from moving freely over your patio. Stagnant air can cause your space to feel stuffy or uninviting even when the weather is perfect and can leave you looking for solutions to bring back a feeling of freshness.
Sometimes, the best solution to a problem is also among the simplest. By installing a simple ceiling fan above your patio, you can be sure to keep air moving and remain cool and comfortable even in stifling weather. A fan can help guarantee that you’re always able to enjoy your space and you never feel shut out from relaxing.
Bourget Bros. Building Materials is an experienced supply firm who can give you access to the paving stones you need to build the foundation of a new space. Turning to the benefits of natural stone can provide you with comfort and satisfaction and can form the basis of a new, long-term fixture.
More and more homeowners are interested not only in reducing their water bills but also in helping the environment. You can have both without sacrificing beauty.
One excellent way is to add a rock garden to your yard. Whether it’s a focal point, a small yard or just one piece of a large and sprawling landscape design, a well-executed rock garden can really make the landscape pop, while making your life easier.
If you’re thinking of including one in your own space, here’s a quick primer on how to do it.
Pick a Good Spot
Choose a sunny spot in the yard. Xeriscaping is a type of drought-tolerant landscaping, like a rock garden, and is designed to not need much watering. The plants generally thrive in sunny conditions.
This makes a rock garden ideal for a section of the yard that’s hard to reach or where you never seem to be able to grow lush greenery. Consider the views of your chosen location from all angles, including the house, entertainment space, and walkways.
Add a Slope
You’ll want a spot with lots of good drainage and a slight slope that will help rainwater runoff into thirstier parts of your yard. If your garden doesn’t naturally come with these features, you can add them with a little digging and planning. Add drainage underneath the ground by mixing in a few bulky rocks with the dirt below or adding a layer of sand.
A rock garden generally benefits visually from having different levels, so feel free to build it upward with a simple dirt berm, a retaining wall, or layers of medium-sized rocks.
Select Interesting Rocks
Visit your local natural stone supplier and look for some attractive boulders and rocks of different sizes. For a small or medium garden, you’ll probably want one to three large boulders to use as centerpieces. Stick with odd numbers of boulders, since this quantity generally appears more natural and random.
Boulders and large rocks should be settled into the ground about one-third of the way up the rock. This will help keep them stable and make them look more natural. When choosing your base boulders, look for ones that will hold up well in the dirt but that also look attractive above the ground.
Once your larger rocks are in place, add a variety of smaller sizes around them. Use pebbles, pea gravel, or crushed rock to cover the surrounding soil around the larger stones. Be careful to avoid too much symmetry, since this will look man-made.
Add Flowers
The plants and flowers in a rock garden add a fun touch of color and vibrancy. Depending on the style of your overall yard design, you can opt for anything from desert succulents to lush, creeping vines.
If you’re not sure where to start with your rock garden greenery, try a few fun (but hardy) flowers like aubrietia, saxifrage, baby’s breath, or bellflower. Add a small groundcover (like creeping phlox) for some ornamental grasses around the base of the garden and between rocks to help it blend in with the surrounding landscape.
Once your basic features are in place, you may want to add a final touch with an accent piece. Again, your particular accessories will depend on your landscape style, but popular choices include small, self-contained water fountains, a bird bath, an overturned plant pot, or small statuary. Use outdoor solar lights to frame it beautifully at night.
Your new rock garden is sure to bring years of enjoyment to you, your family, and your friends. As a low-maintenance part of your yard, it may even inspire you to find new ways to incorporate xeriscaping into your landscape design. Contact the experts at Bourget Bros. Building Materials for more information on xeriscaping your yard.
As a homeowner, it’s important that you do everything you can to take advantage of the available space in your lawn. Unfortunately, many people allow themselves to be limited by their own lack of vision, and they may not consider all of the exciting possibilities that come with building materials that are simultaneously modern and ancient.
Developments in landscaping with natural stone may make it an extremely appealing option for many people, but hesitation persists due to a lack of familiarity of working with it. By overcoming that hesitation, and learning about all of the benefits that stone has to offer, a new world of ideas and inspiration await.
Below, you’ll find a guide to some of the benefits and possibilities that stone has to offer. Its’ durability and natural beauty will last for years to come, creating a space you will want to come back to time and again.
Durability
Many people who settle on wood or composite products find a great deal of frustration in a relatively short amount of time. Exposure to heat and sunlight can cause these surfaces to crack and split. Moreover, it may require you to put in countless hours of maintenance in an attempt to make your space usable again.
Natural stone products don’t have these same types of restrictions. In fact, many natural stones get even more attractive through wear and exposure. The stone surfaces may wear down to a smooth polish, and sunlight can bring out tones in the stone that highlight warmth and comfort.
Natural stones are also resistant to grease and liquids, making them an excellent choice for a patio area where entertaining guests with food and drink may cause the occasional spill.
Consistent Aesthetic
Developing a spot to relax that looks like it grew naturally from your yard can provide a great deal of peace and tranquility. Other materials may break up the natural beauty of your lawn, but stone will typically accentuate it.
By utilizing earth tones that blend into your space, natural stone pavers and fixtures can highlight the best aspects of your landscaping, while also smoothing over any visible imperfections and rough spots.
Stone paving can also help you add additional soothing features that blend in with natural surroundings. Fountains and ponds can add an air of relaxation and sophistication, and they’re frequently comprised of stone.
By sticking with a consistent material, you can create the perception that a landscaped area that was completed in pieces is actually one consistent project. A cohesive design promotes the precise and thoughtful appearance that you want to see from your landscaping efforts. Consistency can go a long way toward promoting a sophisticated, relaxed aesthetic.
Sustainability
While it’s important to add value and comfort to your home, many people now have a strong environmental conscience and want to rely on sustainable materials in order to do so. Landscaping with wood can require a great deal of lumber, and that raises red flags for many concerned homeowners.
By using natural stone, you can commit to an environmental upgrade that’s consistent with the way you prefer to live your life.
Bourget Bros. Building Materials is committed to helping you see your natural stone landscape design projects all the way through to completion. Relying on 70 years of experience and know-how, Bourget Bros. offers an extensive selection of natural stone options to help turn any dream into a reality.
Bourget Bros. Building Materials and Bourget Flagstone Co. offer a full array of decorative and landscaping options to help turn any design dream into a reality. Our buyers are constantly on the lookout for new and innovative products and go to great lengths to ensure that we are sourcing from only the finest suppliers in the market.
We offer an extensive collection of custom water features and fountains, all made in house by our team of expert craftsmen. Natural stone garden benches and decorative stone art are displayed at both of our locations, and can also be custom tailored to your exact specifications.
Both stores have a large open display of pebbles, crushed glass and decorative gravel where you can literally touch the assortment to obtain samples.
Our vast selection of Xeriscape landscape materials is the perfect solution for those looking to conserve water while still maintaining an attractive outdoor space. We look forward to sharing how you can create a beautiful landscape design using eco-friendly products such as recycled glass and pebble groundcovers.