A good designer gains their client’s trust by providing exterior plans with various options and styles, but often that’s not enough for the client to help them choose a direction. You can solve an indecisive client’s woes and get the engines running again by offering a couple of ideas that blend styles and materials from the original options in order to satisfy everyone’s tastes and preferences.
Outdoor toy to match the landscape
Perhaps the homeowner loved the idea of incorporating some fun outdoor activities into their exterior landscape and because one of the clients used to do gymnastics, they are excited about a trampoline. They are concerned though, that a trampoline can have a huge footprint, obscure views and not coordinate with the sophisticated exterior of their home. One new and unique way around this is to install an inground trampoline as opposed to a traditional trampoline. These are often designed by landscapers and instead of the big, unattractive and view-obscuring safety nets, they are installed with flat crash pads around the edges to catch falling children, or their parents!
This option keeps a fun-for-all-ages toy in the yard but avoids the cumbersome real estate a traditional trampoline requires, retaining a sleeker and more refined look on the family property.
Mixing materials
The client absolutely fell in love with some of the cherry wood features in your designs, but they also were taken with the idea of using stone veneer and brick for a rocky grotto vibe.
No problem! Mixing materials on the exteriors of homes and around the property is trending, and you can get some great results by combining styles, colours and textures to align various tastes.
You can use stone veneer on low walls around a new pool, and use horizontal red cedar batten to complement a grey stone veneer. Some landscaping shrubs or ferns can add natural greenery to the space and now you’ve created a mixed look to satisfy the client’s varied style choices.
Using multiple stone veneers
One of the main issues for your client may be that they adore two of the stone veneer options in your designs. The solution here is simple – piggyback on the mixing materials trend and consider using two stone veneer options on the exterior of the home. Your client can, in fact, have it all.
Two stone veneers made by Shouldice Stone – Estate Stone and MJ Saratoga Brick, provide a satisfying and interesting combination. Estate Stone, Shouldice Stone’s most popular residential stone, features units with multiple heights and has texture and enough versatility to fit various structural styles and design tastes. MJ Saratoga Brick stands out with a smooth surface and looks more like a traditional brick. Using the two side by side on a structure works well as the textures play off one another and since they both come in warm earth tones, they blend well together for a beautiful and stately look.
By combining Estate Stone and MJ Saratoga Brick on various parts of a home or wall, your client will get the best of everything they like from the original designs and will end up with an attractive and refined exterior. You will have led the way through indecision all the way to a satisfying conclusion to their brand-new look.
Have a look around the Projects section of the Shouldice Stone website to see how pairing different materials and combinations of stone veneers might work together in your future projects!
