Desert Crest Press

Most of the time you see ramadas and pergolas built freestanding on patios or pool decks. When considering the layout of your outdoor living spaces, keep in mind that a traditional spot for Phoenix ramadas is attached to the house.

This gorgeous open air living room would be instantly classified as a porch to many people, but it is definitely a Southwestern ramada design. These welcome shade roof structured can be fashioned as ‘trellis ramadas’, and look a great deal like the pergolas found in the North and East. A ramada can also have trellised sides and be adorned with scrambling flowering vines, much like the structures known as arbors.

Obviously, this lovely shaded space is without question a solid roofed ramada. Designs like this one are a welcome extension of the Arizona home, allowing easy access to both the indoor rooms and the patio or pool deck beyond. From Phoenix to Scottsdale, ramadas that are a prominent part of Arizona patio designs will shelter outdoor fireplaces, dining or relaxing seating and built in BBQ grills. All of these shade structures, even with Glendale ramadas, feature open air relief from the sun for more comfortable outdoor living spaces.

This particular Phoenix ramada’s features do not differ much from many other ramada designs. It is open to the air on three sides, allowing any available breeze to move through it freely. The flooring of fired Mexican tiles is an extension of the home’s patio pavers. As with many solid roofed ramada designs, a central ceiling fan is in place to assist with cooling.

Comfortable chairs for dining or lounging surround the long outdoor living space table. What better spot to enjoy the game or a great movie? The back wall is equipped with a big screen TV for just that reason, a feature becoming really popular in Arizona patio designs.

On the far end of this lovely Phoenix ramada’s floor plan is where the outdoor fireplace’s situated. Unlike most people’s Arizona patio designs with a wood burning or gas fireplace included, this one is floor to ceiling and looks like it belongs in a traditional parlor. Beautiful and surprising, this fireplace is treated with natural white marble mantle and front, along with an ornately framed mirror hung above it on the adobe masonry wall.

The opposite end from the outdoor fireplace in this gorgeous Phoenix ramada design’s layout is a small growing space with shade loving plants, a potted tree and a richly carved, deep brown Spanish chest. No matter where you look while inside this Spanish tile roofed outdoor living space, it is both opulent and relaxed.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Turning your backyard into a beautiful space for entertaining and relaxing is on top of every Scottsdale or Phoenix homeowner’s list of most desirable Arizona landscaping improvements. With the Phoenix landscape designer, your backyard landscaping can go from drab to stunning in just a few short weeks.

The first step is to decide what the needed activities any outdoor living space’s areas will house. For some this project will include the pool deck and pool landscaping too. For others they wish is more towards wonderful patio designs with built in BBQ grills and outdoor fireplaces or fire pits.

Even a small backyard can be turned into a sensational oasis to enjoy many hours of time year around with family and friends. One thing you can count on with well designed and properly installed outdoor living spaces is that you will have very minimal maintenance to do on the majority of the area. Patio designs from natural stone paving or pavers are beautiful and long lasting here in our desert climate. Adding outdoor fireplaces or fire pits extends the weeks of the year that your outdoor living area is a pleasant escape. Warmth from both of these take the chill off the air in the cooler months of the year, allowing you more exposure to fresh air in comfort.

This particular recently finished Phoenix landscaping project we’ve added to this post is modest in proportions but huge on stunning impact. A terraced effect was used in the natural stone patio design’s layout that gives added interest you can’t get from a flat expanse. This built in BBQ grills central placement allows for excellent traffic flow and the addition of more outdoor furniture in the future for large gatherings. A tile top was chosen by this homeowner to finish of their beautiful new outdoor cooking and bar dining ell.

The outdoor fireplace’s design adds extra seating for times when company is present. Its situated in its own separate area to create a new space that will see a great deal of use for this family. Facing the patio fireplace with the same stone as was used in the base on the built in BBQ grill’s design adds instant composure and balance to the entire outdoor living space’s look. By using adobe stucco and stone accent like this, the stone is not over powering and a much lower cost is involved in getting all the feature elements desired in your Phoenix landscaping for backyard living.

A beautiful design for outdoor living spaces is a combination of many things. Each individual homeowner’s vision of what they want to do in their Arizona landscaping is surprisingly unique. The best results and least stressful home improvement project like this will be found in working with a Phoenix landscaping company that is skilled in stone masonry, and licensed to complete every necessity. Be sure you find a contractor who can handle things like electrical wiring and BBQ or fire pit gas lines, and is licensed to perform this work by the state of Arizona.

Popularity: 21% [?]

A simply stunning woody rambler that presents Arizona homeowners with a variety of applications. Very easy to grow, Podranea ricasoliana is very tolerant of xeriscaping landscaping conditions. A native of South Africa, Pink Trumpet Vine is no shrinking violet in the heat of summer heat around Phoenix. Landscape design uses are numerous, but you’ll want to be sure to place this drought tolerant beauty in a spot where you can enjoy the gorgeous blooms.

You’ll find this to be a rapidly growing plant that will quickly develop and fill it’s appointed space. The foliage is handsome and glossy rich green, making it an attractive addition to any Phoenix landscape design even during the months it is not blooming. In frost free climates, Pink Trumpet Vine blooms year around. This may create a little envy for flower lovers, but the plant would get so huge in such an environment, it would outgrow the available space in today’s smaller yards. Here in this area of Arizona, you can plan on this lovely plant to become about 15 feet tall. Without training and judicious pruning, it can also grow as wide as it is tall.

Podranea can be used as a ground cover in large open spaces, or trained into a shrub if desired. The most common used for this vine that climbs without tendrils is to soften or cover courtyard walls and fences. It can be espaliered to conserve limited space in your courtyard, but the least amount of maintenance would be found when planting Pink Trumpet Vine on the outside of the wall. It will quickly reach the top and spill a heavenly scented spring display of pink blooms to cascade over your courtyard walls and into your outdoor living space in spring, and sometimes again in fall.

This plant is often used to create some privacy along open fencing or to hide unsightly chain link fences. It will develop into a hedge in only a few short years, though it will not be evergreen in our frost prone winters. Should a colder than usual winter happen along, a Pink Trumpet Vine killed to the ground will grow right back from the root. It won’t be long and it will have repaired to it’s former full glory. Far more rugged and resilient than it looks while in bloom, this low maintenance vine tolerates the extremes of our desert climate very nicely.

So many of today’s outdoor living spaces are surrounded by privacy walls that need softening. This makes using the Pink Trumpet Vine very popular in Phoenix landscape design for pool landscaping, privacy hedges and decorating courtyard walls. Unlike a vine with tendrils, this one won’t damage stucco, though does require some type of support to scale smooth vertical surfaces.

Popularity: 15% [?]

If you’re going to have a sidewalk in any yard, it will be the path that leads to the front door without question. While some homes have other walkways to the backyard or patio, no matter how humble… every Arizona home has a front walk. Remodeling a sidewalk used to mean you had new concrete installed. For today’s homeowner in the areas in or around Phoenix, pavers have changed sidewalk utility to versatility and beauty.

It isn’t just the ability to have a paved surface that mimics cut stone that makes pavers so popular. In cold climates the many joints and engineered base of these preformed concrete units mean never having to repair unsightly cracks in sidewalks, driveways and patios. We don’t have permafrost that sets into the ground here in Arizona, but the long lasting and never diminishing quality of paving stones still present us with incredible value and low maintenance surfaces.

Not long ago, the straight and narrow sidewalks that lead to the front door were acceptable. Most Arizona homeowners today prefer a unique paved approach to their home’s entry.  The really nifty thing about Phoenix pavers is they give you many options even in a small space. You don’t have to have the same look as every other residence on the street or in your development. This is especially an issue in condominium developments where all the homes will be very repetitive in design.

How do you make a traditional sidewalk interesting with plain, utilitarian poured concrete? It can be done, but requires extra work in forms and not all concrete contractors care to mess with the intricacies. Additionally, it would take a lot more days to create a sidewalk like the one in this post’s photo with poured concrete than it does with paving stones. Nothing has to set and cure when you have a paved surface made from Phoenix pavers. Once the top fill between the units is compacted its ready for use of any type or weight.

Designing sidewalks today means your Arizona home can have all kinds of interesting shapes. It can be wide and sweeping, meandering or geometrically dramatic. No one wants steps in sets anymore and Phoenix pavers allow for graceful curves, scattered steps and just about any other variation you could want. They come in a variety of colors and also can be laid in many different patterns.

Consider how the average poured concrete sidewalk would be formed in a front yard as narrow and close to the street as the home above. There’s no space here for a sweep or curve, yet working with paving stones, Desert Crest was able to make this small front sidewalk makeover very pleasing to the eye. It is still short and straight shot to the front door. Yet, it has lots of style and interest not possible with poured concrete. The finished look of this curb appeal landscape design adds great depth where none is normally found in such a narrow swath of ground.

You can get a lot more creative with hardscape elements in your landscape than many people imagine. First though, someone has to have an original idea and the knowledge to engineer it and make it a feasible reality. Working with a contractor whose landscape design and installation skills cover all facets of hardscape makes getting more than just a standard sidewalk easy. Anyone can lay Phoenix pavers, but it takes great creativity and good hands on experience to come up with something uniquely beautiful in difficult spaces.

Popularity: 19% [?]