Desert Crest Press

There is elaborate landscaping in Glendale and the towns surrounding Phoenix, and then there is a more subtle approach to welcoming the world to your front door. While many in the area prefer that lush green lawn and many leafy flowering plants in an opposition to our desert reality, there are those homeowners who prefer a xeriscape over suggesting this house stands in the verdant Midwest. Neither of these approaches are wrong by the way, its a matter of personal taste and opinion.

One thing that does make a huge difference in the attractiveness of xeriscaping landscaping in the front yard is the choice of sidewalk material, and the shape of this major walkway. Without the heavy green expanse of lawn areas and layers of greenery found in traditional landscape designs in other regions, it gets more difficult to sneak by with the standard builder’s concrete sidewalk. Why? Imagine this Glendale landscaping without the color and textural interest of the Phoenix pavers sidewalk. It would lose a huge portion of its curb appeal.

There are very subtle accents in this landscape design that frame this lovely paver walk way and give just the right amount of leaf and color to soften the walls of the house. Granted, over time, the xeriscaping plants used in this front yard will increase in size and mass, but will never take over the space completely. The landscaping rock that is such a fantastic combination with the color of the home’s masonry will always be visible.

In deciding what pavers would work best with any color of house, most people concentrate on what they see close up in individual blocks. However, no one will ever lay down in the sidewalk to inspect the pavers this closely once they are installed. When you have a mass of the block laid out on the ground, the whole look of them changes. You see more variety in color and texture directly in front of you than you do at a short distance where these blend and take on a totally different look. Notice this in the image that accompanies today’s post? The yellow you see at the curb blends in with the brown in this selection of Phoenix pavers giving off a color that you can’t see right in front of you. It is this blend that really makes the walk way really work with the color of the house.

Many would steer completely away from yellow as the right accent color to use in their Pheonix or Glendale landscaping with a masonry color like this on the walls of the home. The first notion is to use something more like red or orange due to the warm tone of the stucco. As you can see, the yellow is excellent, very vibrant and lively, making this xeriscaping have wonderful curb appeal. The lighter value of the Phoenix pavers walk draws so much more interest out of the contrasting landscaping stone and gives the desert plants in the arrangement carry far more impact than they would with a more subtle colored walk way.

Popularity: 9% [?]

The most common type of driveway paving has long been asphalt, as it is far less expensive than concrete. Something you might want to think twice about having as part of your Scottsdale or Phoenix landscaping – or anywhere near outdoor living spaces. There are  more cost effective paving materials that are lot safer to have in your yard.

Not only are Phoenix pavers better looking, they contain none of the toxicity that asphalt sealcoat introduces to your property.  Additionally, asphalt is a very high maintenance pavement to have on Scottsdale and Phoenix driveways. Yes, it is the least expensive option at first, but requires sealcoat applications no farther apart than every two years to prevent the paving from deteriorating.

With driveway pavers, there is no maintenance costs to worry about every couple of years, or even annually. The surface is ready to walk on or drive on the moment the Scottsdale or Phoenix landscaping crew drives away. It will look beautiful from day one and continue to do so for up to 100 years. No fading, sealing or cracks to repair. Phoenix pavers are ten times stronger than driveway concrete.

This past week, an alarming discovery was made regarding cold tar seal coating used nationwide on millions of miles of driveways, playgrounds, parking lots and streets. This is the most commonly used type of asphalt sealcoat and contains extremely high levels of benzo(a)pyrene. This chemical is so toxic that any business that dumped a barrel of it behind the building would instantly become defined as a  polluted industrial zone – violating all manner of environmental laws and be facing a mighty costly hazardous waste cleanup.

Worse still is the fact that as coal tar seal coat breaks down between fresh applications, the dust is tracked into homes and offices everywhere. So in all actuality, this toxicity doesn’t just stay outside in Scottsdale and Phoenix driveways, it blows around your Arizona landscaping, is tracked onto outdoor living spaces and into pools and waterways. Why we never question the safety of somethings is really surprising. After all, a substance that smells as bad as asphalt sealcoating couldn’t be good! The nose, as it were, should know when something is acceptable and when it isn’t.

In Scottsdale or Phoenix, pavers in your driveway, sidewalks, courtyard flooring or for patios and pool decks is never going to be toxic or require this constant resurfacing. They are far more valuable to your residential asset value than many people assume. Imagine if the now alerted EPA decided that our streets, parking lots, playgrounds and driveways were now a threat to the environment that must be eradicated immediately. The paving industry did some hard lobbying to get coal tar sealcoating approved as safe to use. This toxic substance shouldn’t be in your Arizona landscaping, let alone in the street that runs by the curb where your mailbox stands.

Most people, myself included, really never gave asphalt much question. It’s everywhere, a part of daily life. However, after reading this news item found by chance, it would be hard to accept having sealcoated paving anywhere and most especially in my Scottsdale or Phoenix landscaping. Paver driveways, patios and pool decks are a many leveled benefit of values that goes far deeper and wider than their beautiful surface. From all angles, in any corner of Scottsdale and Phoenix, pavers the least costly and longest lasting material for your home.

Popularity: 12% [?]

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% [?]

Travertine pavers are a popular choice used by Paradise Valley landscape designers. Although made from natural stone, travertine is a specific type of ocean harvested limestone. Travertine can be cut to many sizes and thicknesses as is evident in the courtyard shown here. For this landscape design in Paradise Valley, the designer has chosen  cooling, silver colored stone pavers that contrasts beautifully with the lush green plantings.

Travertine is similar to flagstone and can be installed with either  mortar or in a sand bed like traditional paving stones. The decision of installation method varies according to the Paradise Valley landscape design needs and uses. Here the landscape designer has chosen a classic look. Shown are stone pavers cut with a honed chiseled finish. Tumbled finish travertine pavers are great for creating a more rustic and informal feeling.

As you can see, travertine can also be laid with patterns much like flagstone is set. Since travertine are natural stone pavers will have slight indentations on their surface. These indentations can be filled, if a completely smooth surface is desired. For the great beauty of that natural stone effect, many Paradise Valley homeowners have their Paradise Valley landscapers leave them just as they are.

Edges also can be either chiseled smooth as shown here or dramatically “tumbled,” where pavers are literally roughed up with abrasive materials to get the desired appearance. Travertine is a high-end product available in a vast selection of beautiful natural colors. As many patterns also are available providing Paradise Valley homeowners extremely attractive solid surface landscaping features as do flagstone pavers. Both possess similar features and selection by landscapers in Paradise Valley will depend upon the homeowner’s personal choice for appearance and cost as well as availability.

Use of natural stone is an exceptionally beautiful method to enhance your property and home. Home improvements engineered using travertine pavers will produce a lasting value. Although landscaping designs do change, courtyards, patios, pool surrounds and other Paradise Valley landscaping features constructed using natural stone pavers endure timelessly.

Popularity: 28% [?]

The strongest pavement known to man, yet paving stones are beautiful and add market value to your Arizona home.

No maintenance is what every homeowner wants to hear. That is just one of the smart landscape design improvements that pavers provide any home in Phoenix. You will love the look of your timelessly gorgeous new driveway, patio or pool deck. The only pavement in the world that can look so good and remain solid for up to 100 years. You certainly can’t say that about poured concrete!

Paving stones are four times stronger than bland old concrete surfaces. There are city streets, lanes and courtyard all over Europe built from this incredibly long lasting, and strong paving system that are almost 100 years old and still in great shape. Driveway pavers will never fade or need resurfacing baking for decades on end beneath the Arizona sun.

Due to their stunning good looks and excellent reputation for never needing repair or refinishing, paver stones installed for any use in your Phoenix landscaping will instantly increase your property’s curb appeal and market value. Unlike clay pavers, paving stones will never flake and erode with passing time. Tough as nails and long on looks, it is almost impossible to destroy pavers. Compared to the cost of maintaining all other heavy duty type of paving, paving stones are the least costly per square foot. All that resealing and resurfacing adds up over the span of years and decades.

Pavers in Phoenix,will always be best investment  for your home. The special mortarless installation procedure locks the entire surface of paving stones driveways, patios and pool decks securely in place. There is never a chance of cracking, sinking, heaving, separating or shifting due to the interlocking joint sand and compaction used to install them. It’s pretty surprising that something this beautiful could be so utilitarian in strength, but that’s exactly what you get from this special paving material.

You will love the colors of paving stones available to match the Southwestern style and color of your Arizona home. Due to the versatile patterns that pavers can be laid in, they make it possible to enjoy unique textures and high interest. Adding them to your Phoenix landscape design provides a welcoming driveway, sidewalk to greet visitors. For courtyard flooring and in your outdoor living rooms, they remain low maintenance in sun or shade and in every climate. Professionally installed paving stones are a smart investment for any home or commercial property today.

Popularity: 45% [?]

Focal point natural stone walls with adobe coping blend beautifully in this Arizona landscape design.

The easiest way to traverse grade changes is exactly the way most builders treat them, sloped rather than steps. Homeowners in Arizona will find that there are some problems with keep landscape stone and the soil where it belongs on the fast, cheap and easy way to deal with inclines or declines in property grading. Adding character and low maintenance beauty to your Phoenix landscaping calls from retaining walls and steps.

Home improvements like this require you to work with a mason first and a Phoenix landscaper to renovate your planting areas and lawns after the hardscape is completed. It makes a great deal more sense to hire a masonry contractor that is just as talented in landscaping as they are working with adobe and stone. You will have a lot less hassle dealing with one company as opposed to two and your landscape construction will be completed far faster.

Coordinating natural stone used in retaining walls with smoother, more uniform pavers for the sidewalk and steps can create some very high class, beautiful landscape design features. Not only that your Phoenix desert landscaping

Understated elegance and exceptional use of color. A semi-private Phoenix courtyard landscape design that is clean and very well coordinated.

ground cover stone won’t be rolling out onto the neighborhood sidewalk. The entire appearance of your Arizona home will be much more clean and maintained if your xeriscape stone isn’t spilled out onto the sidewalk, creating a hazard for people strolling by.

Leveling sloped ground in larger areas on your Phoenix property, your will gain a lot more useful space for outdoor living rooms. This front courtyard provides stunning use of natural stone walls and pillars in the perfect color to create just the right amount of décor drama with this Arizona home.

Wide steps leading into the semi-private shaded courtyard provide a grand, sweeping welcome to all visitors. Night time safety and added attractiveness is provided by the outdoor lighting blocks in the paving stones steps. The most wonderfully effective landscape contractors in Phoenix have an excellent eye for color. This is extremely important to having your Arizona landscaping turn out beautifully.

The finished effect here is understated elegance that makes excellent use of the dark trunked mature tree at the back of the front courtyard as a dramatic focal point and welcoming shade in just the right location. The masonry stone walls, xericaping rock and the paving stones sidewalk and steps all blend so beautifully. Add the well placed desert plants and you have a professional landscape design anyone in Phoenix would be proud to call home.

Popularity: 97% [?]

Colorful and low maintenace natural cut stone sidewalks are perfect for Phoenix adobe homes.

While it is important to have good overall curb appeal, the feeling of welcome and beauty should increase the closer a visitor draws to your door. The art of approach in Phoenix landscape design is far more than having the right selection and placement of plants. Consider your front yard, or any part of your landscape, as you would a room inside your home. The closer you get to the front door, you should imagine people entering an outdoor foyer by following the sidewalk.

An artistically designed outdoor foyer doesn’t begin at the front door; it should present a direct route to the entry in a most pleasant way. You have a ceiling formed by the sky, walls created by your house and plantings along with flooring. Outdoor flooring can be stone cover so popular in xeriscape, lawn and mulched bed cover, but also includes the pavement type used for Phoenix sidewalks. In the public area of your front yard and outdoor foyer, it is the sidewalk that makes the most important flooring.

Phoenix sidewalks can be constructed with your choice of paving materials, though cut natural stone sidewalks are

Budget wise exposed aggregate sidewalks offer good landscape design texture.

far more preferable to Arizona flagstone. Plain old poured concrete is utilitarian and very unimaginative. The better choice for your sidewalk approach to the front door would be a more creative method of aggregate finishing for better textural interest, pavers or cut stone paving.

Many times, the art of approach is left unfinished in Phoenix landscape design with nothing to soften the hardscape element of sidewalks. Plant textures, the softness of their greenery and even tasteful use of sculptural pieces create more appeal to welcoming guests to your home. From the curb, paying attention to these details will easily direct new visitors immediately to the front door. Pheonix sidewalks aren’t highways; selecting the materials used in this part of your landscaping should be treated with as much care in as you would the colors in the area rug just inside the front door.

Paver sidewalks are less costly than natural stone sidewalks, yet each holds great value in enriching the effect of your landscape design. The coloring in the overall look of a finished paving stone installation will be more subtle than the more variable tones of cut natural stone tiles. Some Phoenix homeowners will prefer their front sidewalk to be more in the background than natural stone walks would be. For some Arizona homes, paver sidewalks may not be the right accent to the house’s architecture.

Studying photos of the different paving styles in actual finished projects is the best way to know you have the right look in sidewalks to compliment your Arizona home. Framing Phoenix sidewalks adds focal points of interest and beauty to enhance the overall view and experience that welcomes and entices all who approach the door.

Popularity: 48% [?]

Building outdoor kitchens is part of patio design that is as unique as you are.

If there is one thing that people living in Arizona can benefit from all year long, it’s having a patio design that has room for building outdoor kitchens. For some homeowners, custom built barbeques need only be simple outdoor kitchen gas grill islands. For those who enjoy whipping up a gourmet dinner in the great outdoors regularly, an outdoor kitchen barbecue means having everything handy … including the kitchen sink.

Appliances and accessories for today’s outdoor kitchen include stainless steel inserts of all kinds to outfit a complete patio kitchen. Planning your outdoor dining area adjacent to the stone outdoor grill is perfect for the Phoenix lifestyle. Weatherproof outdoor kitchen appliances include covered cook tops, refrigerators, freezers and wine coolers to create patio design kitchens just right for outdoor chefs. You can select from different sizes of outdoor kitchen gas grills and also add a smoker to your cooking station. For the wonderful flavor of wood fired pizza and artisan breads, you can enjoy old world cuisine baked in your own outdoor pizza and bread oven.

Beautifully compliment Phoenix home styles with natural stone barbeques custom built the artisan way.

Stone topped outdoor kitchen gas grill islands can be crafted from natural stone, pavers for garden walls and stucco to create the perfect complement to your home and patio design. Storage cabinets can be added for storage beneath all custom built barbeques. Many Phoenix patio designs attach a bar that can double as serving space too.

The perfect Phoenix outdoor living room enhancements are patio designs that include an outdoor kitchen, stainless steel inserts and storage doors are an instant hit. Situating your stone outdoor grill and kitchen beneath the cooling shade of a rustic trellis ramada will provide welcome relief from the Arizona sun.

Patio design can feature natural stone flagging or pavers for patio for long lasting beauty and utility in our mild climate.Working with an experienced landscape designer will make building an outdoor kitchen much easier and the finished project far more professional looking and enjoyable to use. You’ll be able to add landscape lighting and extend the use of your new outdoor living room any time of day or night you choose to.

Popularity: 86% [?]