Want to add some unique and personalized touches to your outdoor space? Hiring a skilled mason may be the perfect solution. In this blog post, we'll explore some ways that a mason can customize landscaping features to suit your style preferences in the Newton, MA area.
Related: 5 WAYS A MASON MODERNIZES OLD-WORLD CHARM TO CREATE A GRAND OUTDOOR SPACE IN THE NEWTON, MA AREA
Thinking Holistically
Before you begin considering specific masonry features, it’s helpful to take a step back and work with your general contractor to consider your overall landscape design. Walk your property and take an inventory of your current scheme. How would you describe your aesthetic? Is it authentic and rustic? Sleek and modern? If you have any existing stonework, what kind of stone and materials have been used? Thinking through these questions will help bring clarity to your vision and the work your mason will be doing. Your mason will have design ideas as well.
Your contractor and mason will also help you consider what is doable and what makes the most sense when it comes to maximizing your outdoor space. Taking your time to think holistically will pay dividends as your masonry features are considered, designed, and built. Here at the outset, you have a golden opportunity to take into account the totality of your property: your front yard, your back yard, and side yards as well.
As you consider your design scheme, that’s also a perfect time to think out loud about what masonry features might be missing from your landscape. Again, take time to walk your property to get a full picture of what currently exists and what you envision adding.
If you’re happy with your current scheme, that scheme will dictate materials, colors, shapes, sizes–nearly every aspect of the masonry features you plan to add. Let’s say, you have changes you want to make, now is a good time to make them, so everything syncs aesthetically and functionally.
Stone Work
Stone features like walkways, retaining walls, patios, fireplaces, and more stand at the center of a mason’s wheelhouse. Using your agreed-upon design scheme, your mason can help you think through the types of stone that would work best and for what features. The key is making sure that everything fits into a cohesive whole. As your mason considers how best to customize your features, you will have choices to make.
Sometimes your stone choices will be the same for several of your features. An example of this might be a fireplace and a patio that it sits on. Other times your choices may be complementary. Brick pavers for the patio but a natural stone for your fireplace. Sometimes, you may add visual interest with contrast. Whether it’s your choice of stone, stone shapes and sizes, their properties–and the overall design of the feature, a skilled mason can get the best out of all of these variables to give you a customized, cohesive landscape.
Additional Specific Features
Once you nail down features that will anchor your masonry design, you can begin to hone in on additional specific features that will further customize the look, feel, function, and experience of your property.
You could add an outdoor kitchen, tailored to your style preferences, making sure that your outdoor kitchen works with your patio and fireplace. Taking a cue from work done on other features, your mason can build a stunning, customized water feature. When you consider walkways and driveways, your paver choices should sync up with your paver choices for your patio and fireplace.
Related: OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW: HOW A MASON CAN REFRESH YOUR NEWTON, MA AREA LANDSCAPE
