Clean lines and clear, simple structures create a chic and easy aesthetic
You like to keep it simple. The clean lines of modern designs give you a sense of peace, and you’ve chosen a home that reflects your appreciation of the minimal. Keeping the landscape simple will provide the ideal indoor-outdoor experience.
Monochromatic Modern
One way to keep it simple is to edit the color palettes of both foliage and hardscapes. Here grey concrete with matching gravel allows attention to be paid to the texture. Likewise, a plant palette consisting of yellow-green to grey-green lends a sense of serenity by keeping a small garden uncomplicated by color contrast.
This particular garden serves as the outdoor foyer for a beachside cubist home with a white and brushed nickel exterior. The edited greenery feels vibrant next to the home’s austerity. If it were, instead, to wrap a mid-century modern or a home with a more rustic modern feel, the landscape itself may feel too structured and even cold.
While the relationship to the home impacts the success and enjoyment of every landscape, it is particularly important with modern homes. Because they are designed around indoor-outdoor relationship, consistency is much more important than it might be for an English Tudor or French Provencial. You will feel your landscape from the inside.
Add Wood for Warmth
The eating outdoor kitchen and picnic patio are equally simple, clean and modern. While the patio materials are all neutrals, they are not monochromatic, and the addition of wood adds additional warmth. This treatment is more appropriate for expansive spaces, mid-century and rustic modern architecture, as well as contemporary home designs.
Modern Needn’t Be Monochrome
By keeping patio, walk and drive materials clean and simple, landscapes with bold, vibrant, high-contrast foliage can also have a modern feel.
The foliage featured here is from our New (Bold) Look for LA plant palette instead of the New (Clean) Look for LA palette. It feels modern due to the way in which the foliage is grouped, and because each plant selected has an architectural structure.