“Our clients wanted a landscape that feels timeless, effortless and thoughtfully designed—you notice it the moment you step outside,” says Jayson King, founding principal of Landform Design Group. With the garage rebuilt, exterior refreshed and gardens reimagined, King and his team created a Millcreek home that’s elegant, inviting and seamlessly accessible. First conceived as a low-maintenance, enduring landscape, the remodel blends lush plantings, modern materials and ADA-compatible features into a setting that’s as practical as it is beautiful. The project is showcased in our print feature Design Takes Root. Here, we share additional photos that reveal the layers of design and careful details that make this reimagined property unforgettable.
Photos by Grey Giraffe
The approach to the home unfolds with a distinctly modern cadence. Where a white picket fence once stood, Landform Design Group’s Jayson King has drawn a sleeker line—“floating bar” fencing that seems to hover above the earth, its support hidden beneath the surface. The entry itself plays in asymmetry: a board-formed concrete bench anchors one side, while a brick wall with an inlaid address lends weight to the other, together framing the path with a sculptural sense of welcome.
To ease the site’s uneven terrain, Landform Design Group introduced masonry and concrete walls that shape level patios and walkways. Serving both purpose and poise, the walls define outdoor rooms, conceal lighting and utilities and offer built-in seating that grounds the landscape in thoughtful design. A new garage, built around the original structure, pairs a fresh roof and repurposed doors with a heated driveway and walkway, ensuring safe year-round access.
Clever screening elevates both form and function, with a traditional fence reimagined as a “floating bar” design. Anchored invisibly below ground, its clean vertical lines create a boundary that feels at once sleek and modern.
On the back patio, a custom board-formed concrete fountain brings movement and calm. Three spouts, precisely aligned with the windows opposite, release gentle streams into a pebble-filled basin. By day, the water offers a quiet rhythm; by night, it glows from within, casting luminous reflections across the textured wall. “We added board-formed concrete to give some variety and desire for low maintenance on walls,” King says.
The transformed backyard layers function with ease and style, featuring a streamlined outdoor kitchen, inviting lounge and an ADA-accessible heated walkway that leads to a firepit terrace anchored by a generous Nisho hearth. A rich interplay of materials—brick, board-formed concrete, Thermory decking, drainage pebbles and lush plantings—adds texture and rhythm, giving the space its striking new character.
The expanded front patio, level with the entry and framed by a refreshed landscape, is outfitted with sleek modern seating that invites pause. By morning it offers a serene perch for coffee; by evening—bathed in soft light—it becomes a welcoming retreat for lingering and unwinding.
The firepit deck comes alive at night around a generous Nisho hearth, its flames casting a warm glow across the patio. Swivel chairs flank the firepit, turning easily to mingle with the nearby dining area, creating a flexible space that encourages both conversation and cozy retreat.
Brick, stone, wood and concrete come together with carefully composed plantings and lush gardens, enhanced by subtle grade shifts, strategic lighting, screening and refined finishes. At every turn, the landscape demonstrates thoughtful design, where beauty and function coexist seamlessly.
Structured plantings, black pebbles and modern rod fencing set against clean concrete foster the striking, low-maintenance landscape.
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