A popular request we get for our garden design Warwickshire service is to provide contemporary garden design or also contemporary landscape design.
A contemporary style garden aims to update your outdoor space with a fashionable and useful design using carefully selected materials and plants.
The balance of planning, materials, and plants plays an important role in establishing the tone for your garden. Smooth asphalt, architectural planting, and a limited colour palette are excellent methods to accomplish this look.
Contemporary landscape design is frequently one of the simplest designs for garden designers to apply and, when done right, works well in most scenarios.
It’s crucial to distinguish between contemporary and modern design.
Modern garden and landscape design can be described as minimalist. In general, a modern garden space focusses on architecture and materials rather than plants in order to establish structure and minimal aesthetics.
Contemporary garden design is more diverse in style, using only a few select plants and a mix of on-trend mainstays to create a stunning and highly practical outdoor setting.
Contemporary garden style is typically more practical and easier to manage than a normal modern garden, which is sometimes barren and so basic that it requires a lot of maintenance to sustain its appearance.
Our garden designers will explain design recommendations for establishing a contemporary-style garden, reducing the amount of maintenance necessary, and increasing the feel-good aspect of your outdoor space.
Layout Options for Contemporary Gardens
When you think contemporary garden design, you think straight lines, and you’re correct. To begin developing the design, combine rectangles and bold squares for essential regions; these two perform well together. Connect the gap by overlapping each shape. A rectangle patio, for example, is connected to a secondary square seating area at the garden’s top by a straight pathway.
While straight lines are essential in a contemporary garden, curves can be included while still maintaining the design.
Curves and circles provide a good sense of fluidity. One idea to incorporate curves into your garden is to create a circular seating area around a firepit for all-inclusive entertainment. (Think: Love Island vibes).
The ‘gaps’ that remain after installing your grass, patios, and other seating spaces can be filled with low-maintenance planting or ornamental gravels.
Paving Options for a Patio
When renovating your garden or landscape, keep in mind that it should match your home. So pavement selection is critical.
Smooth sandstone and porcelain paving are popular choices for contemporary gardens due to their clean, sleek appearance. Both paving options are comparable and easy to maintain, with porcelain coming out on top due to its low porosity as a man-made product. However, porcelain is more expensive.
Choose huge paving slabs put in stack bond (grid-like design) or stretcher bond (as used to build brick dwellings). The homogeneity of all huge pavers screams modernity. When achieving an ultra-sleek contemporary style, avoid using various sizes of pavers.
Other Material Suggestions to Complement the Design
Once your patios are designed, the rest of the garden must match. White rendered walling is a common choice for built-in seating or raised beds in contemporary garden designs. Render produces a crisp, clean finish and is quite popular among home renovators. Grey rustic walling is ideal for updating your garden without overdoing the contemporary style. And timber plays an important role in this style since it adds texture and intrigue without overpowering the design.
Colour Palette Suggestions
Contemporary does not imply that you must use grey or white for everything. You may still get an updated look with buff and natural tones, which is vital to consider if your home was built with rustic red bricks.
Traditionally, contemporary gardens utilise uncompetitive colour palettes for vegetation. Mostly greenery, with accents of white, purple, and pink.
Whatever colour palette you pick, whether grey paving and understated planting or buff paving and zesty oranges and red, the crucial element to remember is to employ no more than five hues to avoid an overly cluttered look – an aesthetic that is not compatible with current design gardens.
Plant Selections
Our garden design Warwickshire service never forgets that it is still crucial to evaluate what you will plant. This is because planting may make or break the atmosphere of your garden depending on what you choose. The ideal specimens to choose are architectural and low-maintenance.
Phormiums, windmill palms, low grasses, box hedges, and mound-forming evergreen shrubs like Pittosporum and Hebe are ideal for modern settings. They retain the contour of the garden and require little upkeep.
Low hedging is vital for delineating space and dramatic shapes, as well as strengthening the design’s architectural components.
Enhancements for Your Contemporary Garden
Select basic accessories in a same style. A contemporary garden style has basic, clear spaces. This does not imply that you should sacrifice personality; instead, integrate elements that represent the design of the area.
Rattan garden furniture is never a bad choice. To set the mood, decorate the space with a geometric garden mat and wicker tea light lanterns. Why not hang festoon lighting from your fence or pergola, if you have one. There is a wide range of garden accessories available nowadays, but keep them all in the same style to get a contemporary impression.
Our garden design Warwickshire offers a complete service from 2D and 3D drawings to show you what we are proposing to the actual landscaping implementation.
