Many people focus on the decor inside their home. However, your home’s exterior and landscaping offer many opportunities for you to enhance your whole space, to create a beautiful look and to get the functionality you want, either for when you’re relaxing at home or you are entertaining guests.
When you think of your home’s landscaping, you might immediately start thinking about items like patios, walkways, and plantings. But you have quite a number of additional options. Adding decorative walls to your home or to your landscaping can make a striking change to your property. Decorative walls can be both beautiful and functional, including free-standing walls and retaining walls. What makes a decorative wall is what’s right there in its name – the focus on the way it looks.
The hardscaping specialists at Triad Associates have designed and installed hundreds of decorative walls across the Haverhill community, ranging in size, material, purpose, location, and more. We can help transform your home’s exterior or landscaping with the right decorative walls. Our designers will work closely with you to better understand your goals for the space and your design vision and will make appropriate recommendations to help bring it to life. Here are some of the things that our designers will help you work through to design your decorative walls:
Overall Look
Before you can start designing any of your decorative walls, you need to think through what kind of overall look you want to achieve. Do you want to create a cozy and inviting look in your backyard? Do you want to create a sophisticated and luxurious entry to your home? Do you want to create a modern, upscale look, or do you want a warm, rustic look?
The answer to these and other questions will determine many of the choices you must make for your walls, such as their size, location, stone or other material type, color, and more. A designer from our team will talk with you at length to determine what kind of look you want to achieve for the space and any other goals you may have, then they will walk you through the specifics that will determine the end results.
Placement
The placement of your decorative wall will depend on what look you want to create and whether you need it to be functional, as well. For example, you may want to put a decorative wall around your patio area. However, if there is a hill near the patio, the wall may need to also hold back the soil.
The placement of decorative walls will impact the look of the space, but may also determine what kind of experience you have (will it get flooded because of poor drainage?), what kind of maintenance will be required (will you have to constantly wash the wall because of clay coming through behind it?), and so on. Our hardscaping experts will help you understand how placement affects these things and guide you to the proper placement to get the best look and overall outcome for your decorative walls.
Size
The size of a wall will also impact not only its look but also the look of the space. You will need to consider not only how tall the wall will be, but also how wide it will be and how thick. For example, a free-standing wall will have a much more imposing presence if it is two-feet thick, rather than six inches. A short, border wall will make more of an impact if it is 20 feet long, rather than just four feet.
Changing the dimensions of your wall will change the way it looks and functions. It’s important to consider size along with all the other variables of the wall. Our designers can help you visualize how changes in size will look in the space with things like 3D design software and sketches.
Type of Stone or Other Material
This is where the design process really gets fun for most homeowners. You have a wide variety of materials that you can choose from to create your decorative walls, depending on where the wall will be and its characteristics. You can use stone for just about any wall type, whereas wood would be recommended for free-standing walls or smaller retaining walls.
When you are looking at stone, you also have your choice of solid stone and manufactured stone veneer. Solid stone can be stacked or mortared to create the wall, while stone veneer can be added to concrete blocks. Both natural stone and stone veneer can have the same look, but stone veneer can save you a lot of money, depending on the kind you choose. Using natural stone or stone veneer can create a stunning look for your decorative walls.
You can also combine materials, such as different types of stone or stone with wood accents. Again, our design professionals can help you visualize your options with our 3D design software, sketches, and even materials samples that you can put together. You can explore options to discover beautiful design choices you may not have even considered.
Maintenance
Some materials and design choices will result in greater maintenance requirements than you may like. For example, it is going to be more difficult to maintain a wooden wall than it will be to maintain a stone one. You will have to repeatedly stain or paint and seal the wood, while with a stone wall, you will only need to occasionally pressure wash it.
We’ll work with you to create a beautiful decorative wall that will have the look you want without adding any more than necessary to your home maintenance.
Lighting
There can be a lot more to a decorative wall than a solid slab of stone or wood. You can create a unique and beautiful design for a decorative wall by adding other features. Decorative lighting is one of the top choices for enhancing a wall.
Lighting can be recessed into a decorative wall so that the wall itself almost seems to glow. Lighting can also be added to the outside of the wall with sconces and other fixtures, or it can be added to the landscaping or other elements around the wall. The type of lighting, fixture, and placement can all make an impact on the overall look that is created for the wall. The right lighting can transform the wall from a basic slab into a dynamic part of your exterior design.
Water Features
You can really elevate your decorative wall by adding water features or pairing them with the wall. For example, a decorative wall can be built around a freestanding fountain. Or small jets can be installed inside the decorative wall, pouring water down the front.
Water features can be simple or complicated, depending on how big the wall is and what kind of a tableau you want to create with it. The key to creating a successful design is to think about all of the elements in the landscape or your home’s exterior and make sure they are working together. Our design specialists will help you do that.
Landscaping Features
A decorative wall is often used as a border or divider for some part of the landscaping or hardscaping. You can accentuate it with landscaping. You can either plant flowers, shrubs or other plants directly in the ground, or you can put them in decorative pots that add a little flourish to the overall design.
You may want to work with a hardscaper and landscaper at the same time to ensure that all your elements are working together in harmony. A landscaper can also recommend plants that will work together to give you blooms or greenery all year long.
Comprehensive Design Scheme
Your home’s exterior includes a variety of elements, and they all need to work together to create a beautiful design. When you are adding a decorative wall – or any other element of your home’s hardscaping or landscaping – you need to consider everything in the space, including the style of your home, the materials used on your home’s exterior, hardscaping elements such as patios and walkways, any fence you may have around the property, and any existing landscaping. Your wall needs to work in harmony with all these other elements. Otherwise, it will just stand out – and not in a good way.
If you want to change the look of your space, you can start with decorative walls, but you should make a plan for a larger renovation. Otherwise, you should always plan any new design elements, like decorative walls, to work together with any existing elements.
Hire the Hardscaping Experts that Haverhill Residents Trust
The experts at Triad Associates are ready to design your new decorative walls or any other element of your home’s hardscaping. We’ll work closely with you to create walls that will enhance your home’s beauty while also elevating its overall design. We are committed to the highest level of craftsmanship and service in every job we do. Call us today to schedule a consultation and get started on your new design.
