The life of royals is within your grasp. Your luxury custom home is much more than the culmination of the dream home designs spinning in your head ever since you were little. It’s also an investment in your social stature. At this level, your social stature becomes the new capital for you to pursue new opportunities. And it all starts with entertaining guests at your new lavish digs.
The interior of your home is your guests’ first exposure to your inner circle. The most memorable parties though are always the ones held in the backyard. Besides, when the season of hot summer evenings begin, who can resist spending time outdoors?
Luxury homes should be designed to take people on a curated journey that shows off all the best parts of the house. Your guests may already be impressed with the interior. You just have to build up their anticipation for what’s to come next when they see your backyard.
This is Part 1 of how you can leave a lasting impression on your guests, from the moment they enter the backyard to the moment they say good night:
Terraced natural landscaping
If you have a backyard that’s on a slope, this is a great way to create levels for different activities. The trend is to make all the features part of the natural environment with organic flow from one area to the next. This involves using natural materials as much as possible. Like wood or rugged stone finishes on backyard structures and low walls. Or paving pathways with flagstone. It also means following the curve of the land and minimizing sharp angles whenever you can. By doing so, you can even subtly work your preferred progression of activities into the design of your backyard.
You can still get the same effect even with a flat backyard. All you have to do is slightly raise the levels of certain zones to give off a terraced impression. If you prefer to keep everything on the same level though, then just make the pathways between more distinct.
Sectioned pool
Pools are one of the must-have backyard features that will add to your home value. Rather than the ordinary rectangular pool though, go with an irregularly shaped one that has custom sections. Inset spas and tanning ledges are popular pool sections in addition to the main swimming zone. If space is too limited for a long enough pool to swim laps, install counterflow jets at one end for endless swimming in place. You can also separate the sections at different heights and connect them with waterfall curtains.
Staying with the natural landscape theme, blend the pool with its surroundings with a vanishing edge. A vanishing edge also fits nicely in a minimalist design. That way, you get the optical illusion of the pool popping out of a travertine, Italian marble, or coral stone pool surround.
It’s already a good start to the party with your guests admiring the landscaping and splashing in the pool. But that’s only the first half! Stay awhile for Part 2.
