When moving into a new home, most people focus immediately on renovating and fixing up the interior living spaces. However, giving the outside of your home a landscaping makeover is equally as important.
Improving Your Curb Appeal
While many new homeowners put landscaping on the backburner, neglecting this area can reduce your home’s value. Bottom-line, the exterior presentation of your home matters. It all boils down to an element known as curb appeal. Have you ever looked in your neighborhood? Did you see homes with great looking front yards? The very concept of that ‘look’ is what’s known as curb appeal. In other words, these homes have attractive front yards (and backyards) while likely looking just as appealing on the inside.
Due to curb appeal, it’s important to have your home’s exterior landscaped. Why not make your new home look the best it possibly can with things like our plant bed maintenance or rock landscaping? The right architecture, design, colors, textures and even fragrances do a lot to enhance the outdoor environment of any home.
Landscaping Ideas for New Homes
Austin New Home LandscapingGetting started with new home landscaping can feel a bit daunting, which is why so many people put it off to begin with. Try to approach your new home landscaping as an adventure in creativity. Perhaps your new property needs only a few small upgrades to make it more appealing. Regardless, it’s important to consider how each of these mini projects will fit into the bigger picture.
It helps to draw your landscape out on graph paper first. Start conceptualizing and sketching out ideas and a potential layout for both your front and backyard. Think about how you will use the outdoor areas of your property. Do you love to entertain or does your backyard represent more of a private haven to you? Deciding on the aesthetic style you want to portray is an important first step. This decision will influence the type of materials, colors, plants, furniture and décor you purchase. There is an endless list of landscaping styles to choose from, including
- Traditional
- Contemporary
- Tropical
- Country
- Mediterranean
- French
- Zen Garden
- Southwest
- Xeriscape
Start by Googling some of the popular landscaping styles and see which appeals to you most, and which would best complement the architecture of your new home. When you start planning your Austin new home landscaping design, it is a good idea to treat your front yard and backyard as two different entities. You might want to decorate both in the same fashion, but you need to think about the different role each plays in your life, and how these separate spaces will be used. Since both yards have different functions, they should be treated as such.
Front Yard
The front yard is the first thing anyone sees when they look at your home. So, why not make a lasting impression?
Most people place gardens in their front yards, since flowers provide an immediate visual upgrade to any front yard area. Other greenery, such as bushes and hedges, boost the appeal of front yards as well.
All of our new home landscaping ideas incorporate landscape plants for Texas, such as desert motifs and other front yard styles made to survive the Texas heat. The Desertscape and Xeriscape styles are a popular version of this, and are now prevalent in many Austin front yards.
Your landscaping should work to create balance and unity between your house and front yard. Your new home landscaping will often be influenced by the look and style of your home itself. Whether you prefer the modern look with well-defined lines and clean geometry or a more natural look, with a meandering pathway lined with lush vegetation, a well-designed entrance to your home creates a memorable first impression – on both visitors and potential buyers.
Backyard
Even though most backyards are tucked away out of sight, it’s still important to create an enjoyable and aesthetically pleasing atmosphere in the backyard. If you’re looking for a more intimate setting in your backyard we offer landscaping for privacy.
Another element you should consider incorporating is some type of seating or dining area. Many Austin homeowners go the extra mile and have an entire outdoor kitchen installed in the backyard. A large number of Austin homes have integrated some type of BBQ fire pit or outdoor kitchen to create a more appealing atmosphere in their backyard. These areas create an inviting space that is a natural extension of the home to spend time with family and friends.
If you have the room, adding a pool and patio can dramatically transform the look and feel of your backyard, converting it into your own private oasis. Some families opt to add a recreational element to the backyard as well, such as a volleyball or basketball court. If you just want to keep it simple though, adding in some greenery and attractive yard furniture does the trick.
Our team of landscaping designers and architects have years of experience in new home landscaping in Austin. We have the tools, knowledge and ingenuity to help bring your project to life.
