Featured Hardscape Project

Entry Courtyard & Hardscape Renovation

This entry renovation was highly collaborative from the beginning.

The clients played a major role in the design direction and preparation, and time spent working through layout and material options led to a combination of paving, masonry, dark stone caps, planting areas, and retaining elements that met the site’s practical needs while creating the more elegant and welcoming arrival the previous entry lacked.

Finished entry courtyard with large-format stone paving, curved stacked-stone retaining walls with dark caps, and layered planting leading to the front door — A highly collaborative entry renovation shaped with the clients from concept through preparation. Time spent exploring layout and material options led to a combination of paving, stone, dark caps, planting, and retaining elements that met the practical needs of the site while giving the home the elegant, welcoming entry the previous approach lacked.

Collaborative Design

The clients played an active role in shaping the layout, materials, and overall character of the finished entry.

Grade + Structure

Retaining and planter walls helped organize elevation changes, define circulation, and create planting opportunities.

Material Fit

Paving, stacked masonry, dark caps, and planting were selected as a coordinated system rather than as separate finish choices.

Masonry & Grade

Retaining and planter walls under construction with stacked stone veneer over concrete and paving stones staged nearby — Early masonry work showing the retaining and planter walls taking shape before the finished caps and paving were installed. The wall layout helped define the entry, manage grade changes, and create usable planting space without making the approach feel boxed in.

Good hardscape is not a surface. It is grade, circulation, and planting worked out together before the first stone is set.

Completed Entry

Finished large-format stone paving at the main approach with dark-capped masonry walls leading to the front door — Finished paving and wall work at the main approach. Large-format stone, dark wall caps, and layered masonry create a cleaner, more substantial entry while keeping circulation direct and comfortable.

Materials

Close view of the finished paving pattern beside a stacked-stone wall with contrasting dark stone caps — A closer look at the finished paving pattern and contrasting wall caps. The material combination was selected with the clients to balance durability, visual weight, and a more refined arrival experience.

Finished retaining wall and planting edge where the stone paving meets the surrounding garden — Finished retaining and planting edge showing how the hardscape transitions into the surrounding landscape. The goal was not just a new surface, but an entry that feels intentional from the driveway all the way to the front door.

Services Consulting

Hardscape Renovation

Finishing the Property, Solving the Drainage

The front of this property had already been improved, while the older gravel driveway remained unfinished.

The next phase was to complete the larger site with a defined hard surface while solving the drainage issue that came with the upgrade. A channel drain was incorporated into the finished driveway and routed to a dry well so runoff could be managed as part of the design.

Existing gravel driveway with a compact track loader regrading soil beside the garage — Before: an older gravel driveway remained after the front of the property had already been improved. The next step was to finish the larger site while solving the drainage issue that came with a hard-surface upgrade.

Finished paver driveway with a linear channel drain running along the house edge — Completed driveway with a defined paved surface and integrated drainage. A channel drain collects runoff and directs it into a dry well rather than allowing water to move across the finished area.

Wide view of the finished paver driveway leading to the garage, tying into the rest of the property — The finished driveway ties the back of the property into the improvements already completed at the front, creating a cleaner, more unified site while managing runoff as part of the design.

More Hardscape Work

Different Properties, Different Priorities

Some hardscape projects complete a long-term property plan. Others completely change how the space is used.

Finished stamped paver driveway wrapping around a blue home with a raised planter bed alongside — Final hardscape phase completed about a year after a full-property landscape installation. The driveway became the last major piece, tying the renovated home and surrounding landscape into one finished approach.

Backyard renovation with a large paver patio, flagstone paths, and a curved mulched planting bed — Part of a complete property landscape renovation, this project transformed a smaller, multi-level outdoor area into the broad, open social space the clients wanted.

Curved paver patio with a stone border and umbrella at the front of a green house in Santa Rosa — A long-time local client asked Living Earth to travel to Santa Rosa to pave the front and back of their second home—another example of trust carrying from one property to the next.

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