This ranch style home needed an update that would take advantage of the expansive views of Cerro San Luis and the Edna Valley and provide an indoor outdoor lifestyle. The retro-ranch theme of this garden update plays off the home’s architecture and the client’s love of early modern furnishings. Retro 50’s circular shapes are designed throughout the landscape creating a fun, modern outdoor mood.

New rounded concrete entry steps lead the visitor to the first circular entry threshold. This same circle theme is reflected in each of the door thresholds in half circles and a three quarter circle at the corner of the home where two new commercial glass sliders were installed to further the outdoor connection. The front main patio and the back patio also incorporate this circle theme in their ameba shaping. In both patios, circle planter voids are cut in the concrete. These voids are lined with glass pieces and uplit; each become changing light beacons at night. A pre-cast concrete seat wall with circle blue glass inlay, mimics the front patio shape and provides a viewing seat to enjoy the expansive view.

The house colors that included an olive body and orange eaves helped drive the decision to paint the walls a bright blue. Once the bright blue wall color was chosen in-depth research was done to create the garden planting that would be complimentary and visible against the wall. Some of the plants that where selected to complement the blue wall are Salvia “Mexican Lime Light”, Canna “Tropicana”,Yucca “Bright Edge”, Papyrus and Kniphofia. Circular concrete stepping stones lead us into the back outdoor patio space. Here a Corten steel water feature’s shape incorporates the borrowed landscape of Cerro San Luis Mountain, by mimicking the slope of the mountain peak. The water feature’s color also complements the blue wall with an orange Plexiglas insert that glows by day and is up lit at night.