Going to Build

Landscaping is a lot of fun and can be much rewarding in the end. That is, if the whole landscape design is perfectly harmonious to the architectural design of your home. But what if it is not? Or what if you are growing weary of that same sight for many years that seemed to have similar looks as all the others in your neighbor hood? Then, you might want to consider redesigning it.

You don’t need to get an overhaul or major repair. All you need to do is to take or move off some landscape pieces, say old trees and flowers. You can also opt out the tiles and prefer something that will yield a better, natural-looking landscape. Boulders are a good choice for this matter. Yes, you should try landscaping with boulders. It will bring out a whole new look to your yard and you will love the excitement that boulders can bring out of the entire landscape design.

If you are going to use boulders in your landscaping, be prepared with stronger men beside you though. Boulders are heavier than they look; thus, can be difficult to transport from one place to another. Having said that, it is therefore a must to carefully plan for the spots where they are going to be positioned. You might want to consider placing them in permanent positions.

The fixtures and elements that come with boulder landscaping will be better off if you place them in permanent positions too. If these are done in the right places, you will find that boulders can be great as a magnificent outlet for your creative instincts.

What boulder type should you use?

Boulders come in different sizes and shapes; therefore, you have to determine what type you should incorporate with your landscaping idea. If your place is not that big, using gigantic boulders will ruin the plan. In the same manner, using smaller boulders if your yard is spacious will result to the place swallowing them; thus, a ridiculous sight. The color is one aspect that must be carefully chosen as wrong color picks can end the landscape design not too pleasant at all.

Be wise to select the right ones then as you are going to use them for permanency. If you have got a certain mood, you can choose a monotonous color to treat that landscape mood right all year round. But if you are not certain what mood you prefer, you can alchoices select several colors of them. When putting the boulders, you can group each color family, or you can re-invent by mixing and matching together for a different look.

By the choice, boulders do come in a variety of shades, including vibrant yellow, red, calming white or fresh ivory, soft grays with streaks of green moss, and black. With these color choices alone, you have different options for your landscaping plan. And that is the good thing about boulders because they come in exciting colors that surely give you nice options to match your preference and taste.

Color has an exciting influence that plays up with the entire landscape design, so you can actually use your boulders as medium to sort out the different areas of the garden and transform them into a calming or energizing spot. Whatever it is that you prefer, landscaping with boulders will render an air of solidity which, of course, gives you that nice, rewarding feeling knowing you got it permanently fixed with your garden.

ive always been fascinated with light and lighting. the way it glows at night; the way it falls on wood to illuminate the figure and color ... its all good. weve done a few things with it here and there .. hanging lamps over a dining table, pool table lights, (scroll down), free hanging chandeliers ... mostly kind of little stuff. recently though we have been talking with the contractor on the job where we did the reclaimed chestnut cabinets and it seems there is a distinct lack of light over the couches ... what to do? a hanging chandelier? theres a wire up there, but its a loooong way to the ceiling.as you can see in the photo below. it seemed to sam and me that the next best choice was to make something between the beams about 9 up that would mainly light the couch and coffee table area, in other words, where you need the light. click the photos to enlarge them ...
sam had the idea of using square steel tubing to support the custom glass shades from our friend andrew at manchester hot glass that we could use to direct the light downward and mostly eliminate seeing the bulbs up there. we discussed dimmers...
we scratched it out on paper, did a little cad drawing roughly to scale, but none of our workings seemed to come across as something as exciting as we thought it could be ... i decided to get out of the office and make a model. we got the measurements from beam to beam and wall to wall from matthew, the contractor and we reduced it all to 1/8th scale. the 8 x 8s became 1" x 1"s, (convenient), and the 3 x 3 steel tubing became 3/8ths by 3/8ths, and the 2.5 square tube connectors became 5/16ths square ... nice round numbers.
we divided the 6 space into 5ths, subtracted the thicknesses of the tubing and arrived at a spacing of roughly 12" between the horizontals .. also convenient. i dotted them with yellow glue and nailed them carefully with the micropinner .. a few pins poked out but i trimmed them off or pulled them through .. we then sprayed the grid with flat black and constructed the half lapped 1 x 1 frame ... it was about at this point that we realized we woudl have to create access in the tubing frame to make the electrical connections and rout the wires from shade to shade. adding the wood caps on top after the fact seemed like a logical option that would also add interest to the fixture ... i had to mockup the shades so i spun a dowel on and angle on the edge sander, cut it to length, drilled it and the frame on the drill press and hammered them home with 1.25 x 17 brads ... pretty slick...
i added the 8 foot posts, but it was still kind of hard to visualize the full effect.
well, theres always photoshop ... the first step was to get rid of the open area above the model by photographing it against a piece of black foam core ... that was a start.then i realized i could put it near the edge of the counter and photograph it looking up with the foam core on top .. viola .. now were getting there.
then i robbed the shade image from andrews website at manchester hot glass and dotted them onto the photo over the wood cones ... now were talkin ... i sent the two images above and the shade photo at the top of the post off to the clients and were going to get together on it soon ... models and mockups and photoshop to the rescue again ...
these clients are used to my photoshopping from the last couple projects we did together. above is the before image, created by photoshopping a cabinet from my website into their space, and then, below,executing the photoshopped image ... visualization ... graphic communication ... its not overrated.
more model posts here

Hope you all had a great weekend! We finished and submitted our upcycle project for Creating with the Stars!! I cant tell you which project is ours, but I hope that you love it as much as I do!! :)


Stop by East Coast Creative to vote for your favorite project between now and Tuesday at 10 PM EST. Votes will be tallied on Wednesday, and the top 9 will move on to next week.

I was busy last week, so Ill have lots of fun projects/tutorials to share with you a little later this week!

Finally a little weekend wrap up. We had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Novo. They have the best outdoor patio on the creek and of course great food! 


We also love going here, because Annabelle can come too. She loves duck hunting (see its tail to the right of the middle railing?)


Finally, Sunday was such a pretty WARM day. Weve been having a lot of rain and cool days recently, so it was nice change!


Dont forget to stop by East Coast Creative and vote for your favorite project (it only takes a minute :) Let me know if you can pick mine out of the crowd (of course I cant reply until a little later :)

I cant wait to share the project and tutorial with you after voting ends on Wednesday!