http://www.lucaslagoons.com/MEDIA/exterior-design-series-introduction-lucas-congdon.html - Award winning Exterior Designer Lucas Congdon of Lucas Lagoons is accumulating all his tips, tricks, and how to's into a fun and exciting video series to watch and enjoy. Lucas's knowledge in Exterior Designing has been developing over the past fifteen years and continues everyday while he designs and installs beautiful landscapes, grotto water features, lagoon style pools, and outdoor kitchens. Lucas Congdon is putting together this video series for everyone, whether it's building your own lagoon, building lagoon pools for others, or to discover tips, tricks, and ideas for anyone thinking about their own exterior design plan.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
http://www.lucaslagoons.com/MEDIA/exterior-design-series-introduction-lucas-congdon.html - Introduction to The Exterior Design Series by Lucas Congdon
http://www.lucaslagoons.com/MEDIA/exterior-design-series-introduction-lucas-congdon.html - Introduction to The Exterior Design Series by Lucas Congdon
Saturday, May 15, 2010
How to incorporate the Exterior Design with your home
When choosing location of features for your exterior design, first find the places that they will be most viewed from within the home. Also consider views that you may want to block or dead spaces that never get used or that are just plain boring. When possible, find exterior flooring that goes with the interior flooring. This will create a flow from the inside to the outside of the house, making them feel as one, and giving an expansive feeling to the home.
Using the footprint of the home is a great way to bring the exterior design and house together. In this picture, the walkway to the main entrance was boring and the footprint of this part of the house had no purpose. Now it has been transformed into a koi pond with spilling urns, planted palms and bromeliads in the pond, along with a custom wooden bridge to cross over the pond for the front entrance.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Terrain and Architecture: Two main aspects that Influence Design
There are two main aspects that will influence your Outdoor Design:
Terrain & Architecture
Terrain
What I am best known for is my ability to create a Lagoon that feels as if it has always been on the property and the house was built around it. In nature, waterfalls occur as water travels down a mountain, which then collects in lakes or pools of water in the stream. Waterfalls are always surrounded by thriving vegetation because of the moisture it produces and positive ions. These natural facts are crucial to pay attention to when creating a natural environment inspired by nature. So many lagoon style pools use fake rock with little to no vegetation and chlorinated water giving a very sterile and artificial look. It is important to use berms or elevated planters behind the waterfall to replicate the mountain that the water has collected on and is falling from. Using ionization to keep the water clean is not only healthier for you, it also makes the plantings around the waterfall thrive as they would in nature. Using additional berms around the landscape also helps tie the rest of the yard into the natural Lagoon area.
Architecture
Perhaps natural is not your thing and a more architectural look is what you want. In this case finding architectural details from the house can be a great inspiration to the pool design. In this picture the traditional keyhole shaped archways of the Moorish designed house was reflected in the elevated pools and spa. The pool also encompasses some of the columns of the house to bring the two together as one seamless design. Travertine, in a golden tone, was used outside the home as well as inside and to complement the Florida sunsets viewed nightly.
If you decide to go for a natural look, it is always a great addition to the design to add other natural elements to the architecture of the house. This can be done using stone veneer on inside or outside walls, veneering outdoor kitchens, creating a small water feature by the entrance of the home, or additional stone walkways or patios.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
How to create your own "Overall Design Objective"
Answer the following questions on a piece of paper and then combine your answers to create your own “Overall Design Objective”. Basically, these are ideas to help get you started designing your garden, and you can always change them anytime throughout the process.
1) Is this a full time or vacation home?
2) What is the overall function of your exterior design?
3) How much maintenance will you be able to handle? Will someone else maintain it?
4) Do you want lighting? Extravagant and colorful? Or simple?
5) Do you want water features? What size? Rushing water or calm?
6) Do you need parking or storage areas?
7) Do you want space for entertaining or a play area for the kids?
8) What is the overall budget and how can this be broken up into stages if needed? (different stages would be Front Yard / Side Yard / Back Yard)
Later in this blog, we will be going into detail about laying out the plans for your front, side, and back yards. The Overall Design Objective is more about creating a foundation and the feeling you want to create within your outdoor design. In the previous post, “Creating your Overall Design Object”, the first paragraph is an example of an Overall Design Objective if you would like to look at one. Enjoy and have fun creating your own design objective and look forward to the next posts about the steps for planning your Front Yard.
1) Is this a full time or vacation home?
2) What is the overall function of your exterior design?
3) How much maintenance will you be able to handle? Will someone else maintain it?
4) Do you want lighting? Extravagant and colorful? Or simple?
5) Do you want water features? What size? Rushing water or calm?
6) Do you need parking or storage areas?
7) Do you want space for entertaining or a play area for the kids?
8) What is the overall budget and how can this be broken up into stages if needed? (different stages would be Front Yard / Side Yard / Back Yard)
Later in this blog, we will be going into detail about laying out the plans for your front, side, and back yards. The Overall Design Objective is more about creating a foundation and the feeling you want to create within your outdoor design. In the previous post, “Creating your Overall Design Object”, the first paragraph is an example of an Overall Design Objective if you would like to look at one. Enjoy and have fun creating your own design objective and look forward to the next posts about the steps for planning your Front Yard.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Creating Your Overall Design Objective
Step 1: Creating Your Overall Design Objective.
What do you want?
I want an exterior design that says I have great taste and style that everyone will consider unforgettable. I want the property to feel inviting, relaxing and tropical, but not over planted and busy. I want it to be sustainable and low maintenance as possible. I love how a property can come to life at night with lighting effects and the sound of water. I need parking for five cars and a spot on the side of the house to park a boat where it will not be seen. I want the yard to be kid friendly and fun, but be sophisticated and spacious for entertaining large groups of people a couple times a year.
Decide who will be using the space the most and how many people. Is this a full time home or a vacation home and how much maintenance will the design require to always look it’s best. What is the overall function of your exterior design? It may need to be as low maintenance as possible with a minimalistic feel, but have some artistic features so that the design is not boring. Whatever your goal is, define it. When making every decision, ask yourself if that will give you your end result. What is your overall budget and how can this be broken into stages if needed? A quick answer to that question in most cases is start in the back and work your way to the front because of access issues, unless you have separate rear access to the property.
Step 2: Front Yard- Curb appeal, grand entrance, define property lines, paver driveway, focal point trees or palms, up lighting, small water feature to tie in larger feature in back, stone veneering around entrance. Target budget:
Step 3: Side Yards- Gates and paths to back with lighting. Privacy hedges, burms, fences on property lines. Additional parking or storage behind fence to one side. Garage, shed or play area? Target budget:
Step 4: Back Yard- Outdoor living space with lounging area, outdoor kitchen, play area for kids, beach area with hammock. Fire pit and tiki torches. Lagoon style pool with grotto waterfall, hot tub, slide, swimup bar, swim lane and sunshelf. Large deck area for entertaining. Heavily landscaped property lines for privacy with up lighting and path lights to various areas. Grass area between deck and burms to play ball etc. Target budget:
This is all an overall view of the factors you should think about in your outdoor design. This is an example to use as a guide and fill in your own ideas for your outdoor design. This is only the beginning, everything can be changed, but you always need a foundation to start from. This blog will continue to go into detail for each of the steps to creating your overall design.
What do you want?
I want an exterior design that says I have great taste and style that everyone will consider unforgettable. I want the property to feel inviting, relaxing and tropical, but not over planted and busy. I want it to be sustainable and low maintenance as possible. I love how a property can come to life at night with lighting effects and the sound of water. I need parking for five cars and a spot on the side of the house to park a boat where it will not be seen. I want the yard to be kid friendly and fun, but be sophisticated and spacious for entertaining large groups of people a couple times a year.
Decide who will be using the space the most and how many people. Is this a full time home or a vacation home and how much maintenance will the design require to always look it’s best. What is the overall function of your exterior design? It may need to be as low maintenance as possible with a minimalistic feel, but have some artistic features so that the design is not boring. Whatever your goal is, define it. When making every decision, ask yourself if that will give you your end result. What is your overall budget and how can this be broken into stages if needed? A quick answer to that question in most cases is start in the back and work your way to the front because of access issues, unless you have separate rear access to the property.
Step 2: Front Yard- Curb appeal, grand entrance, define property lines, paver driveway, focal point trees or palms, up lighting, small water feature to tie in larger feature in back, stone veneering around entrance. Target budget:
Step 3: Side Yards- Gates and paths to back with lighting. Privacy hedges, burms, fences on property lines. Additional parking or storage behind fence to one side. Garage, shed or play area? Target budget:
Step 4: Back Yard- Outdoor living space with lounging area, outdoor kitchen, play area for kids, beach area with hammock. Fire pit and tiki torches. Lagoon style pool with grotto waterfall, hot tub, slide, swimup bar, swim lane and sunshelf. Large deck area for entertaining. Heavily landscaped property lines for privacy with up lighting and path lights to various areas. Grass area between deck and burms to play ball etc. Target budget:
This is all an overall view of the factors you should think about in your outdoor design. This is an example to use as a guide and fill in your own ideas for your outdoor design. This is only the beginning, everything can be changed, but you always need a foundation to start from. This blog will continue to go into detail for each of the steps to creating your overall design.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Outdoor Design by Lucas Congdon
My name is Lucas Congdon and I am the President of Lucas Lagoons. My company builds water features, specialzing in free standing grottos, lagoons, landscaping, outdoor kitchens, tiki huts, fire pits, and so much more. I always work with natural rock and create landscapes that give that feeling of having your own tropical paradise in your backyard.
This blog will be an overall step by step layout of everything involved to create your own, unique, outdoor design that works best with your personality, needs, and architecture of your home and property.
Common question in Outdoor Design: Where Do I Start?
When first visiting a new property I start to make a mental note of terrain, surrounding landscapes and architecture. These three things may influence the exterior design of the prospective property. The home’s exterior will be the backdrop and center of the design. It is very important to consider every element of its architecture when creating your plan. The inside of the home is equally important because that is where you will spend the most time viewing your exterior design. A well planned exterior design will have that incredible "WOW" factor but will still blend into its surroundings and not stick out like a sore thumb.
I love a timeless look that feels as if it has always been there and will never be dated. For this reason, I love using natural materials such as stone because it is timeless and will last forever. In Florida, where I am located, there is not much terrain to speak of, so creating elevations with berms, waterfalls, foliage etc. creates a uniquely different design. Incorporating surrounding plants, palms, and trees into your design will help tie into the surrounding landscape. Creating focal points with more unusual specimens makes it more visually pleasing and unique. The architecture of the home should be considered when selecting plants to put around the house, especially trees and palms. If you have a single story house, you may not want to plant palms that grow very tall or they may appear to dwarf the house, unless you use understory palms to help layer the landscape down to the home. Colors and textures of plants, pavers, mulch etc. want to compliment house colors and textures. Plan on where you may want to showcase certain architectural elements of the home and where you may want to break up dead spaces or create privacy.
You may be asking, where do I begin? Much like writing an essay or a story it is very helpful to start with an outline and then move on to an overall plan with your objectives in mind. This blog will walk you through the process of creating your outline and plan to make sure that nothing is forgotten along the way. Even if your exterior design has to be done in stages, this blog will eventually contain everything you need to know to help you create an overall outdoor design plan first. This ensures nothing will have to be redone in the future and bring flow to the design.
Learn more about Lucas Congdon with Lucas Lagoons at http://www.lucaslagoons.com
This blog will be an overall step by step layout of everything involved to create your own, unique, outdoor design that works best with your personality, needs, and architecture of your home and property.
Common question in Outdoor Design: Where Do I Start?
When first visiting a new property I start to make a mental note of terrain, surrounding landscapes and architecture. These three things may influence the exterior design of the prospective property. The home’s exterior will be the backdrop and center of the design. It is very important to consider every element of its architecture when creating your plan. The inside of the home is equally important because that is where you will spend the most time viewing your exterior design. A well planned exterior design will have that incredible "WOW" factor but will still blend into its surroundings and not stick out like a sore thumb.
I love a timeless look that feels as if it has always been there and will never be dated. For this reason, I love using natural materials such as stone because it is timeless and will last forever. In Florida, where I am located, there is not much terrain to speak of, so creating elevations with berms, waterfalls, foliage etc. creates a uniquely different design. Incorporating surrounding plants, palms, and trees into your design will help tie into the surrounding landscape. Creating focal points with more unusual specimens makes it more visually pleasing and unique. The architecture of the home should be considered when selecting plants to put around the house, especially trees and palms. If you have a single story house, you may not want to plant palms that grow very tall or they may appear to dwarf the house, unless you use understory palms to help layer the landscape down to the home. Colors and textures of plants, pavers, mulch etc. want to compliment house colors and textures. Plan on where you may want to showcase certain architectural elements of the home and where you may want to break up dead spaces or create privacy.
You may be asking, where do I begin? Much like writing an essay or a story it is very helpful to start with an outline and then move on to an overall plan with your objectives in mind. This blog will walk you through the process of creating your outline and plan to make sure that nothing is forgotten along the way. Even if your exterior design has to be done in stages, this blog will eventually contain everything you need to know to help you create an overall outdoor design plan first. This ensures nothing will have to be redone in the future and bring flow to the design.
Learn more about Lucas Congdon with Lucas Lagoons at http://www.lucaslagoons.com
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