Landscape Design
Patio of the Week
Patio of the Week: A Blend of European and Japanese Styles
A new backyard with a fireplace, dining area, kitchen and Japanese garden is a welcoming space for a Virginia family
As this couple built their new home in northern Virginia, they had two different ideas about the landscape design. He preferred a classical European garden style, while she was drawn to the calm feeling of Japanese garden aesthetics. Landscape architect Joseph Richardson found a design for their yard that pleased them both, mixing straight and organic lines as well as traditional elements like boxwood with casual elements like lichen-covered boulders. The functions of the backyard include an outdoor lounge in front of a beautiful fireplace, a dining area with an adjacent grilling area and a play area for their two children.
The main axis culminates at the top of the stairs in the backyard. The flat grassy part of the yard was designed to provide the couple’s kids with a place to play soccer.
“One of our main concerns was that the yard sloped fairly steeply. We wanted a place where the kids could play and a spot where we could socialize with friends and family,” Winn says. Richardson terraced the yard to create flat functional spaces. The 36-inch-high retaining wall at the back of the property is composed of boulders, giving the edge of the yard a more rugged look than the formal patio spaces.
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“One of our main concerns was that the yard sloped fairly steeply. We wanted a place where the kids could play and a spot where we could socialize with friends and family,” Winn says. Richardson terraced the yard to create flat functional spaces. The 36-inch-high retaining wall at the back of the property is composed of boulders, giving the edge of the yard a more rugged look than the formal patio spaces.
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Richardson used a path to create a cross axis (a line that runs perpendicular to the main line) along the back of the house. It is in the form of a bluestone path that connects two more formal patios — a lounge patio at one end and a dining patio at the other. Along this path he gave homeowner Melinda Winn the landscape design she wanted — a prominent Japanese garden.
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The path is more casually composed than the patios, with long smooth bluestone pavers placed within a field of river stones. Thoughtfully placed, hand-picked boulders, soft grasses and perennials, a ‘Tamukeyama’ Japanese maple (Acer palmatum var. dissectum ‘Tamukeyama’) and a hand-carved Japanese lantern line the path. Placing ‘Wintergreen’ Korean boxwoods (Buxus sinica var. insularis ‘Wintergreen’) up against the house added a more traditional garden element into the mix. “It was important to add evergreens to the garden to provide structure to the garden during winter,” Richardson says. Also seen in this photo are copper landscape lights. The living finish of copper will patina to a beautiful green over time.
“While I like formal and balanced, my wife prefers a more organic look than I do,” Winn says.
“The Japanese garden was very important to Melinda — by placing it here, they can enjoy the view of it from both patios, making it a focal point,” Richardson says. “And placing it along the back of the house allows them to enjoy the view of it through the windows in the den.”
The Japanese sensibility comes in through several elements. “The path is irregular and shifts, and the Delaware river stones symbolize a meandering river,” he says. “The organic shape of this garden makes it contemplative.” In spite of the contrast in styles within the garden, he made it cohesive by using the same materials throughout.
Japanese lantern: Stone Forest
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“While I like formal and balanced, my wife prefers a more organic look than I do,” Winn says.
“The Japanese garden was very important to Melinda — by placing it here, they can enjoy the view of it from both patios, making it a focal point,” Richardson says. “And placing it along the back of the house allows them to enjoy the view of it through the windows in the den.”
The Japanese sensibility comes in through several elements. “The path is irregular and shifts, and the Delaware river stones symbolize a meandering river,” he says. “The organic shape of this garden makes it contemplative.” In spite of the contrast in styles within the garden, he made it cohesive by using the same materials throughout.
Japanese lantern: Stone Forest
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The topography of the yard presented a challenge. Richardson mitigated a steep grade change with a series of beautiful stacked-stone retaining walls. These are true stone walls all the way through, not concrete covered with a stone veneer. A blind mortar technique was used to hold the stones in place. “It provides a bit more stability within the wall without sacrificing aesthetics,” Richardson says.
He angled this 54-inch-high wall to allow for more room along the Japanese garden. “We took a gravity wall approach. The wall has a batter to it that allowed us to angle the wall approximately 1 inch back for every foot of height,” he says. “Building the walls the same way they would have been built 100 years ago gave them some age.” So does the character of the Pennsylvania field stone he chose for them.
After seeing how long this run of wall was, Richardson knew he would need to add large stones into the mix to add interest. All of the stones used in the project — the retaining walls, the boulders, the patio flagstone and the bluestone on the path — are from Pennsylvania, which creates a cohesive look. The wall is topped with a row of compact Japanese holly (Ilex crenata ‘Compacta’).
“I was concerned about a wall this close to the house creating a claustrophobic feeling,” Winn says. “But the way Joseph angled the wall back and used a variety of horizontally and vertically stacked stones in different sizes and colors broke up the wall and kept it from looking monolithic.”
Richardson also hand-picked the boulders and designated where each one should go on-site to get the right look. “You can draw them in the plan, but it’s important to place them on-site,” he says. “And we purposely hand-chose boulders with moss and lichen on them to add a feeling of age.”
He angled this 54-inch-high wall to allow for more room along the Japanese garden. “We took a gravity wall approach. The wall has a batter to it that allowed us to angle the wall approximately 1 inch back for every foot of height,” he says. “Building the walls the same way they would have been built 100 years ago gave them some age.” So does the character of the Pennsylvania field stone he chose for them.
After seeing how long this run of wall was, Richardson knew he would need to add large stones into the mix to add interest. All of the stones used in the project — the retaining walls, the boulders, the patio flagstone and the bluestone on the path — are from Pennsylvania, which creates a cohesive look. The wall is topped with a row of compact Japanese holly (Ilex crenata ‘Compacta’).
“I was concerned about a wall this close to the house creating a claustrophobic feeling,” Winn says. “But the way Joseph angled the wall back and used a variety of horizontally and vertically stacked stones in different sizes and colors broke up the wall and kept it from looking monolithic.”
Richardson also hand-picked the boulders and designated where each one should go on-site to get the right look. “You can draw them in the plan, but it’s important to place them on-site,” he says. “And we purposely hand-chose boulders with moss and lichen on them to add a feeling of age.”
On this end of the path, Richardson created a cozy outdoor lounge space around a fireplace. The fireplace serves double duty as a retaining wall that wraps the corner of the lounge patio. Inside, he added a more traditional element into the rustic fireplace by using the slim edge of the firebricks in a herringbone pattern. Capping the fireplace with coordinating Pennsylvania bluestone added more straight lines to its design.
Browse outdoor lounge furniture
Browse outdoor lounge furniture
Richardson added a box for wood to the left of the fireplace. The wood-burning fireplace has a gas line that makes getting it started easy. Once the fire catches on, the homeowners turn the gas off.
This is the view from the lounge patio down the side yard toward the front of the house. While Richardson rendered the path through the Japanese garden solely in blue Pennsylvania bluestone, he used full range Pennsylvania bluestone on the patios and this path. “Full range” means there are many different colors of bluestone in the mix, including grays, blues and lilacs. (Yes, the name “bluestone” can be deceiving). This path down the side yard is more formal — rectangular flagstones placed in a straight line, in the full range of bluestone colors. But placing them in the Delaware river stones ties this path to the Japanese garden path.
On the opposite end of the Japanese garden is the dining patio. It is located off the screened-in porch and the kitchen. A lower stacked-stone retaining wall helped Richardson create a flat area for this part of the yard. He softened the wall by planting a row of Hicks yews (Taxus x media ‘Hicksii’) in front of it.
Screening the views of neighboring homes was also part of the project. Here he used fast-growing ‘Green Giant’ arborvitae (Thuja ‘Green Giant’) to gain privacy from the house next door.
Screening the views of neighboring homes was also part of the project. Here he used fast-growing ‘Green Giant’ arborvitae (Thuja ‘Green Giant’) to gain privacy from the house next door.
An outdoor kitchen was also on the homeowners’ wish list. It includes a wood charcoal Kamado grill, a gas grill and storage and countertop space. The sides are covered in stucco. The countertops are honed granite. “Honed or leathered granite is great for outdoor use. It’s not porous, it doesn’t stain and the finish won’t show water and dirt like a polished finish would,” Richardson says.
To the right of the outdoor kitchen is a built-in bench. This adds additional seating for gatherings and introduces some warm wood into the material palette.
To the right of the outdoor kitchen is a built-in bench. This adds additional seating for gatherings and introduces some warm wood into the material palette.
The steps that lead up to the grassy play space are a mix of the Pennsylvania fieldstone and the smooth bluestone in blue. Richardson softened the top of the stairway with dwarf fountain grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Hameln’). One detail worth noting is the integrated downlight in the wall. It was installed into the rock using a core drill, then they excavated the dirt behind the wall to install the wiring. They installed another light for the stairway into the built-in bench. Other lighting includes uplighting in some of the trees as well as the copper landscape lights along the Japanese garden path.
Everyone in the family enjoys spending lots of time in the yard. “Sometimes they say a major in architecture should have a minor in marriage counseling,” Winn says with a laugh. “Joseph did a great job of melding our points of view and giving us both what we wanted.”
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Everyone in the family enjoys spending lots of time in the yard. “Sometimes they say a major in architecture should have a minor in marriage counseling,” Winn says with a laugh. “Joseph did a great job of melding our points of view and giving us both what we wanted.”
See more photos of this home
More on Houzz
Browse thousands of patio photos
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Shop for your outdoor spaces
Patio at a Glance
Who uses it: Mike Winn, owner of a design-build firm, his wife, Melinda, and their two children
Location: Northern Virginia
Size: About 6,000 square feet (557 square meters)
Landscape architect: Joseph Richardson
Landscape contractor: Wheat’s Landscape
“It was important to me when we designed the house there would be a view straight through the front door out the back doors to the backyard, and Joseph picked up on this and ran with it,” says homeowner Mike Winn, who owns Winn Design+Build, which designed and built the house. Richardson grounded the design with an axial plan, which is a formal way to organize a garden.
An axial plan, commonly seen in formal French landscapes (think Versailles), is organized around a strong straight line, or axis. The centerline on this property begins at the front landing. The median continues through the front door to the back doors, then extends across the patio and up a set of stairs leading to a flat play area. This line reinforces the connection between indoors and out, and between the front yard and backyard.