Build Your Own Outdoor Living Oasis With a Custom Tulsa Patio

Custom patios for Tulsa homes today are more than a just a spot to grill or place lawn chairs. Patios act as the foundation for functional outdoor living areas and are often the hub of summer activity for the family.  

These custom Tulsa patios serve as an extension of a family's indoor living space, and provide the perfect area for outdoor dining, relaxing, entertaining, and much more. Not only do they provide more functional living space, but they can also increase the value of your home and property. 

Although many people see patios as mere concrete slabs, patios in Tulsa can be custom designed using a variety of materials including pavers, flagstone, brick, stamped concrete, and cobblestone. These patio materials can be chosen to match the architecture and style of your home. 

While the patio can be built as a direct extension of your home, it can also be built away from the home as a completely separate area in order to create a focal point in the landscape. Also, instead of one large patio area, you could separate the patio into multiple outdoor living spaces based on how you want to use your outdoor living area. 

Patios become the foundation for a world of outdoor entertaining. They become the basis of a luxury outdoor kitchen or outdoor fireplace.  The design of the patio sets the tone for the outdoor environment, and the materials used can determine what theme the outdoor living space will have – whether modern, Mediterranean, Old World, Tuscan, etc. 

Outdoor kitchens and fireplaces have really become popular in Tulsa as places to gather, relax, and entertain friends. There are a variety of different styles of patios and outdoor living areas to choose from depending on their function. The Landscaping Network lists the four most popular patio styles as dining patios, bistro patios, living room patios, and sundeck patios. Whether you implement one style and function or incorporate all of them into your outdoor environment, good planning is key to an effective and inspiring outdoor retreat. 

Thus, having a Tulsa landscape designer help with the planning and building of the patio and outdoor living space can really prevent problems and create the most durable and most valuable outdoor environment. The landscape designers at Tulsa’s Oklahoma Landscape can design a patio to match your home, your landscape, and how you want to use the space. Thus, a well-planned patio and outdoor environment can considerably enhance your home and help you get the most use from your backyard area.  

Call Oklahoma Landscape in Tulsa today to see how we can help you create the perfect outdoor living space – starting with a well-designed patio area.

Tulsa Outdoor Fireplaces - Transform Your Outdoor Living Space

Nothing creates in your outdoor living space the warmth - figurative and literal - that an outdoor fireplace can. Many Tulsa residents are putting in outdoor fireplaces to their outdoor living areas as they see the increased flexibility and value they offer their space.

Outdoor fireplaces also permit you to extend your time outdoors both earlier in the spring and later in the fall. This accounts for why fireplaces are one of the most popular outdoor living additions. When the nights start getting colder, outdoor fireplaces create the perfect place for warm conversation in a relaxed atmosphere. Or to have an elegant dinner party for clients or a cozy night by the fire with family and friends. Extending your outdoor living season with a fireplace allows you to extend your time in your outdoor kitchen as well. An outdoor fireplace is the perfect counterpart to your outdoor kitchen, pool, or spa.

An outdoor fireplace can instantly transform any backyard into an upscale outdoor living space. A plain patio can transform into a sophisticated lounge area with the romantic ambiance of a stone fireplace. They can become the dramatic focal point of any outdoor area and really anchor the outdoor environment. Outdoor fireplaces turn regular outdoor living spaces into a kind of luxury resort retreat. By adding a sense of style and luxury to your outdoor space, this outdoor element can thus expressively increase the value of your home and property.

Outdoor fireplaces can be made using a variety of hardscape materials like concrete, stone, and brick and be custom-designed in a variety of styles to match the architecture of your home. From Mediterranean, Old World style, or with a Spanish theme, outdoor fireplaces can be as basic or ornate as you would like. Adjacent seating can be installed for pleasant  conversation or dining by the fire.

A stone, brick, or concrete wall can be added to the fireplace to create a “dividing” effect to different areas of your outdoor space. A pergola, roof, or other outdoor structure is can built to encapsulate the fireplace to provide protection from the weather. Thus, you can comfortably sit by the fire and watch snow cover the rest of your landscape.

These visual design elements offer a wide variety of uses in a wide variety of entertainment settings. Providing warmth, light, and sometimes cooking, depending on the design and fuel sources, outdoor fireplaces offer great flexibility.
Offering a distinctive ambiance and luxurious style, outdoor fireplaces were among the ‘most wanted additions’ in the 2013 Outdoor Living Trends survey conducted by the American Society of Landscape Architects.

The Tulsa outdoor fireplace designers at Oklahoma Landscape would be glad to design and build a custom fireplace for your outdoor space. We can coordinate it to perfectly match your home, lifestyle, and entertaining needs. Our custom outdoor fireplaces are built with quality design features and materials so that your family can enjoy them for many years to come. Check out our Outdoor Living Gallery for outdoor fireplace and fire pit design ideas.

Landscape Design Plans A Must For Your Tulsa Outdoor Environment

When developing their Tulsa outdoor environment, many homeowners may start by buying a grill for the patio or a porch swing. They may add items to their outdoor living space as they find them at gardening stores or change things about their landscape as they see new ideas.

Of course, starting small and finding new things as you go to add to a garden is fine, but without a particular theme or design in mind for the landscape, a yard could become a jumble of mixed-matched styles and items. This could leave the homeowner feeling a little disheveled, like there was always something missing in their outdoor living space, and then they’re on a never-ending search for what will complete their landscape design. 

Having a definite design style in mind when creating an outdoor environment will help to keep your landscaping projects focused and make your outdoor space a work of art. You can have a theme for your outdoor environment such as Mediterranean, Tuscan, or Asian-inspired. Choosing one of these themes not only will help you to have a more unified look, but will give you direction and purpose in your landscaping. 

It’s good to put your landscape design ideas down on paper. This will help you carefully plan out how best to divide your space, where to plant shrubs and trees, and help you anticipate any problems to your landscape plan. To help save water and maintenance, try to group shrubbery together by their watering and sunlight needs. Also, plan for the future in deciding where to plant foliage by determining how big trees and plants will grow when they mature. Will they block a view from window, or will their root systems have to struggle against other plants’ roots for nutrients as they grow? 

Determining how you will most often use your Tulsa outdoor environment will help you to better use the space you have. You may not be able to include every outdoor feature you would like in your space, so by drawing or writing out your plan, you can better see the amount of unfilled space and prioritize what you’ll include accordingly. Do you want an outdoor kitchen space or a fire pit? Would you like to have an outdoor dining area? Is a swimming pool a must? Knowing what you must have in your outdoor living space will help you know where to start when you begin building.  

Professional Tulsa landscape architects can help you to design and build your entire outdoor environment and can assist you in choosing a theme that will best match the architecture of your home and how you want to utilize your outdoor space. These professionals also understand how to use retaining walls and other hardscapes to prevent erosion and how to effectively divide your outdoor space into ‘rooms’ that mimic all the comforts of home.  

So before you dive into renovating your backyard this spring, think about how you want to use your space and carefully design a landscape plan and theme that will create a one-of-a-kind outdoor oasis.

Updating Your Tulsa Landscape Design - Increasing Curb Appeal

Is your Tulsa landscape looking somewhat uninspiring? It’s important to maintain and make improvements to our homes, but what about our landscapes? Actually, outdated or poor landscape design can make your home look dated as well. On the other hand, elegant Tulsa landscape design can be a cost effective way to raise the value of your home and add curb appeal.

How can you renovate your Tulsa landscape and thus update your home as well?

First, make sure your shrubs, trees, and plants are not taking over your home. Over time, plants and shrubs can grow until they are no longer in proper proportion to your home or cover your windows. Trimming and pruning these can help prevent them from overtaking your home and property.

You can also relocate a shrub to another part of your landscape to give the landscape a slightly different look – sort of like adding or moving a piece of furniture in your home. Adding new variations of flowers and plants in an assortment of different colors and textures can liven up your landscape. Especially around the front door, updating containers and adding new flowers to them can really spruce up the look of your home.

Adding interesting Tulsa hardscapes is another way to bring subtle charm to your outdoor space. A flagstone pathway creates an inviting way to lead guests through your garden. Walkways can be designed using an assortment of hardscape materials that can highlight the architectural design of your home. These pathways create a visual way to connect your landscape with your home and stylishly guide visitors to your home’s entrance. 

You can also use hardscapes to edge flowerbeds to create a more modern and sleek design in your landscape. Retaining walls are another hardscape that can really give your home a sophisticated design feel by effectively separating portions of your landscape into more practical spaces while also shielding your landscape from erosion, all while using materials that come in a variety of decorative styles and colors.

Adding or updating water features like fountains or waterfalls can provide an interesting focal point for your outdoor space.

If you want to really modernize your landscape, building an outdoor kitchen or fireplace with a nearby outdoor seating – ‘living room’ – area will significantly increase the value of your home and transform your landscape. Today, these areas can have all the conveniences of home in a contemporary Tulsa outdoor environment. Outdoor kitchens, fireplaces, and fire pits create the perfect spot for entertaining friends and relaxing with family just about all year round.

From little improvements in flowers, containers, and landscaping to more extensive Tulsa landscape design additions, there’s an almost endless variety of ways to update the look of your landscape while also increasing the value of your home and neighborhood.

Adding Charm and Functionality - Tulsa Retaining Walls

Is your landscape having some erosion problems? Or do you have an uneven spot on your Tulsa landscape that makes it more difficult to use or creates unsightly dirt piles? These landscaping issues can often be fixed with a retaining wall. There are many benefits to these hardscape structures. Adding a retaining wall to your Tulsa property not only can protect it, but also create a beautiful landscape design.

Retaining walls hold back soil that might otherwise erode or move downhill on a landscape. These structures act as barriers, preventing erosion or a landslide that would cause significant damage to your home. Thus, for a sloped area, retaining walls provide the vital support your landscape needs.
These hardscapes help to mimimize flooding by reducing the flow of runoff water from rushing through your landscape to your home, garden, or the connecting city street. An effectively-designed retaining wall will complement your drainage and irrigation system to divert rainwater to the right places.

Tulsa retaining walls add functional value to your property by creating level areas where previously there were hills or slopes that made the land difficult to use and maintain. By adding a retaining wall, these problematic areas become usable space, perfect for a garden or a complete outdoor environment with a patio, pool, outdoor kitchen, and more. Tulsa homeowners can thus utilize more of their property by implementing these hardscapes. These walls can be used to divide areas of the property, adding dimension to the landscape.

This added dimension to a landscape is part of another benefit retaining walls offer – that of creating a sophisticated, polished look for the landscape. Organization often gives objects a sophisticated look. Having an organized landscape can do the same. Retaining walls not only help to “organize” your landscape, dividing areas, even having different layers of walls with different purposes and keeping things in place, but they do all of this in style. Retaining walls add a decorative architecture to your landscape, creating a contrast between nature and hardscape.  When done effectively, they can add beauty and charm to your landscape. These hardscapes can coordinate with the architecture of your home and outdoor living space to provide character.

Retaining walls can be made using a variety of decorative materials, each with their own look and feel. This artful variety of hardscape materials and the skillful and purposeful building of these walls is what adds character to the landscape. These materials can include natural stones, interlocking blocks, concrete, wood, bricks, and cinder blocks. When they are textured and aged, retaining wall materials can have an alluring Old World feel. They can also be smooth and symmetrical to have a more urban look.

However, for retaining walls to be effective, they must be skillfully built. Otherwise, these hardscapes could succumb to the pressures of weather, time, and other natural elements.

Retaining walls are an important part of artful and practical Tulsa landscape design. These add definition and charm while creating functional space and vital stability to a landscape.

Tulsa Low Maintenance Landscape Design - Xeriscaping and Water Conservation

We all would love more time. While gardening can be therapeutic, taking care of your landscape can take up much of your time, energy, as well as money. That’s why many homeowners are opting for low maintenance landscape design in Tulsa. Low maintenance landscaping is just that; it requires less maintenance as well as requiring less water. But this doesn’t mean that these landscapes have to be filled with cacti or have a desert-like feel. No, these landscapes can be very colorful all year round.

One important aspect of creating a more low maintenance landscape is using plants that are native to your local region. These plants are naturally more resistant to diseases and insects in the area and can survive better in the local climate. Native and drought-tolerant plants are less prone to be overtaken by weeds and often require less water. All of this translates to less maintenance. And it just makes sense that if these plant species can survive in the wild on their own, they will take far less maintenance than exotic plants that are used to a totally different climate. Oklahoma Landscape’s horticulturists can help you find colorful and lively native plants that will perfectly complement your landscape and home.

Choosing drought-tolerant plants is part of a landscape design known as xeriscaping or dry gardens. This doesn’t mean that no water is used, but that water conservation techniques are employed in the landscape design to reduce the need for water while still creating a sustainable and beautiful landscape. As with low maintenance landscape design, xeriscaping involves not only choosing plants that will thrive in the local climate and are resistant to drought, but also planting and grouping them in ways that will require less maintenance.

Effective planning is vital for your Tulsa landscape to become a low maintenance garden or xeriscape. Grouping plants together that have similar watering and sunlight needs will make it easier to care for them. Noting the terrain of your landscape and the way rain drains can help you prevent erosion by using terraces and other landscape features to reduce soil loss. In shaded areas where grass is hard to grow, ground covers and flowers that thrive in shade can be used to replace turf. Grass on slopes can be replaced by low-maintenance ground cover to reduce difficult lawn mowing. Analyzing and planning areas with more traffic can help you decide whether to introduce a ground cover or even a hardscape like a walkway or patio that will greatly reduce maintenance by replacing turf. This does not mean replacing your entire lawn, but simply designing turf areas in a more thoughtful way to maximize their effectiveness by balancing practicality. For instance, large, open spaces may be more practical with turf, but narrower, shaded areas where grass doesn’t grow well may need more native plants, rocks, and shrubs.

Planning also involves ensuring your soil is well-nourished so as to reduce the need for water. Aerating the soil and using a good fertilizer or compost can help improve your soil, helping it to retain the water it needs for plants and grass to flourish. Using mulch around plants can help prevent weeds and erosion while also helping the soil retain its moisture.

Drip irrigation systems can be used to maximize the effectiveness of irrigating while conserving water. With this type of irrigation, water loss due to evaporation, surface runoff, and wind is virtually eliminated. A slow, steady application of water directly to the plant’s root system is the best way to ensure plant health and vitality. In general, drip irrigation applications use 30 to 70 percent less water than an overhead irrigation system, and plants grow to maturity about twice as fast.

A low maintenance landscape doesn’t have to dull, but can be vibrant, full of colorful plants and using a variety of themes and designs. These landscapes can reduce watering costs, time in maintaining, reduce pollution, and increase the value of your home with sustainable landscape design practices. Oklahoma Landscape can design the best low maintenance landscape for your home so that you’ll have more time to “find yourself outside.”

Tulsa Outdoor Fireplaces and Fire Pits - Practical Outdoor Living Design Elements

Fire pits and outdoor fireplaces in Tulsa allow us to enjoy our outdoor environment well into winter and can be an aesthetically engaging design piece for our outdoor space. These are quickly becoming one of the most popular outdoor living features for homeowners. They were among the most wanted additions in the 2013 Outdoor Living Trends survey conducted by the American Society of Landscape Architects. What are the major design and practical differences between fireplaces and fire pits?

Both outdoor fireplaces and fire pits in Tulsa provide warmth, light, a source for cooking (depending on design and fuel sources) and entertaining, as well as a relaxed atmosphere and cozy ambiance for your outdoor environment. They both can use mostly the same fuel sources – wood, natural gas, and propane – and can be built with a variety of aesthetic materials such as stone, brick, concrete, stainless steel, tile, and copper. These can be coordinated to match the style of your home and your outdoor environment.

Deciding on whether an outdoor fireplace or fire pit would be better may depend on a few preferences such as your entertaining style. Like a campfire, fire pits allow for people to gather all around them, which encourages storytelling and laughter and is often better for a larger group.

Although fire pits are often circular, they can be constructed into a variety of shapes such as linear, square, or custom-shaped and can have a wider rim or table feature to allow for easier dining. Outdoor fireplaces provide a more intimate ambiance with cozy seating next to the fireplace that may allow for a more romantic setting.

An outdoor fireplace often becomes the focal point or anchor of your outdoor environment. An entire wall can be attached to the fireplace, helping to “divide” the outdoor living space. An outdoor structure or roof can be built around the fireplace allowing for shade and protection from the elements as well as other decorative features that add a coziness to your outdoor space. The size and height of a fireplace can also add protection from wind, and with a chimney or ventilation system, guests can enjoy the glow of the fire without bothersome smoke. Thus, outdoor fireplaces provide a distinctive ambiance to an outdoor living space that cannot be ignored.

Fire pits create another mood or environment that can be equally charming based on your entertaining style and landscape needs. While these can become a centerpiece for your outdoor living space, they also offer a more subdued design style that doesn’t overwhelm the other elements of your outdoor space or the property itself.  With open seating, guests can fully enjoy the scenery that surrounds them an converge at a central spot that allows for everyone to join in the fun.

Both of these outdoor living features offer great value to your outdoor environment and home itself. They can increase your property value and provide a lasting investment. Oklahoma Landscape’s design specialists can help you determine which landscape feature may coordinate best with your outdoor space and home, or whether both may be captivating entertainment spot for guests all year round.

For more information, visit http://www.oklahomalandscape.com.

 

  

Additional sources:

http://www.concretenetwork.com/outdoor-living-rooms/firepit-vs-fireplace.html

http://www.landscapingnetwork.com/fire-pits/

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