Portland landscape design for inspired outdoor living
When was the last time you were 100% satisfied with the design of your home’s landscape? Maybe your interests or needs have changed, you want to upgrade, or your existing landscape team has been less than perfect. Whatever the reason, it’s time to love your yard again.
Tell us what you want from your landscape, and we’ll share ideas, advice, and guidance to ensure your landscape transformation is everything you imagined. You don’t have time to juggle designers, engineers, craftsmen, and maintenance crews, so let our all-inclusive landscape design company do it.
A complete landscape is made up of many connected elements, each contributing to how the space looks and feels. Your home’s landscape design should reflect you, from what’s underfoot to overhead and every part in between.
Our design approach blends collaborative creativity with practical planning, ensuring each element works together seamlessly. The result is a landscape that looks refined, functions beautifully, and meets all your expectations.
The best landscapes come from a clear process and close collaboration. From the first conversation to the final plan, your ideas and preferences shape the design.
Site Visits: Every inch of your yard is considered, from natural features to light, drainage, and circulation. We see how the landscape will meld with your existing architecture, environment, and community.
Engage in Detailed Planning: Site planning, master planning, and design concepts will be created and continually communicated with you so we can make adjustments as we go to ensure a perfect result.
A New Landscape: With vision, craftsmanship, and care, we transform your property into an extraordinary outdoor living space that you can’t wait to come home to.
Landscape East and West has designed outdoor living spaces for some of the most distinguished homes in Portland, Lake Oswego, and surrounding communities. Each project reflects the personality of the homeowner and the unique character of the property.
The Wells-Guthrie house in Portland is an intact example of the Arts & Crafts style from 1912. While the new owners wanted to preserve the character of the house, they also wanted to add their own design touches. Achieving the results they wanted required extensive renovations both inside and out. C&K Custom Remodeling was hired to tackle the home renovation and Landscape East & West transformed the landscape, while retaining the historic context of the property.
With the owners and C&K, we created a landscape plan to celebrate the site’s rich history and the character and grandeur of the house, while also encompassing the taste and function needs of the clients. The final design blends the enduring principles of Arts and Crafts design with a touch of serene Japanese design and Toasist material elements of metal, water, wood, earth, and fire.
Here are some highlights:
The new kitchen area features black granite countertops with Hestan appliances, including a refrigerator and grill. The deck is Accoya wood, and we built a cantilevered roof with exposed cedar beams and shou sugi ban white-washed larch ceiling.
We completely renovated the pool with new plumbing mechanics, plaster, and lighting. We added Landmark 2.0 porcelain tile that looks like variegated bluestone. The blue flagstone around the pool extends the color of the water and adds to the water element of the project.
Engineers evaluated the existing walls, identifying what could be preserved and what work was needed to bring the walls up to code while satisfying the Historic Preservation Department. We finished the concrete walls out front in a sand finish epoxy and used steel planters out back.
A cedar pergola was constructed as a cover for the hot tub, and vertical Japanese cedar slat screens were placed around the area for privacy by the fire table. We used shou sugi ban siding on the shed for the pool mechanics and constructed a Shinto-influenced Torii-style detail to the structures and gates.
A series of Corten steel planters was incorporated to break up the walls and add more planting areas. We added a Corten steel screen featuring a design inspired by the flowing contours of the nearby Willamette River.
For the living area, we used black granite cobble-paving intermixed with porcelain tile that mimics the look of bluestone and basalt slabs, similar to a pattern you’d find in a Kyoto sake bar. We used black basalt columns sawed into steppers to transition from levels in the yard.
Our clients wanted to respect and retain the giant sequoia, western red cedars, and a massive beech tree, so we worked with a tree preservationist. We added a mixture of plants for color and texture in the back and used blue flowers and wispy plants in front to symbolize flowing water.
The result is an outdoor living space that harmonizes with the home’s historical aesthetic, creating a graceful flow between inside and out. The clients are ecstatic and feel they live in a piece of artwork or a resort that was tailored specifically to their desires. They see themselves as stewards of the house and land to keep it functioning through time.
With more than 100 years of combined experience, you can be assured that no landscape project is too big, small, simple, or complex for us to throw our heart and soul into and leave you with a luxury landscape that exceeds your expectations.
Quality and Craftsmanship: We use sound design principles and quality material selections that will withstand and thrive in the Pacific Northwest environment. Your landscape should continue to improve as it ages.
Our intention is always to have your design investment match your vision. Final costs will depend on many variables, including structures, materials, plant choices, existing conditions, and more. We’ll provide you with a budget estimate early on so you won’t have surprises along the way.
The length of time the design phase takes depends in part on how quickly you can make decisions on what you want your yard to be and how you want it to look. Your landscape design consultant is always available to answer questions and guide you, but final decisions will be yours. Once the design is finalized, weather-dependent, we can begin construction. Typically between 30 to 90 days.
The short answer is yes, you can receive all of those items.
Yes, you can work with us on just the design, but we encourage you to use our installation crew, who work hand in hand with our designers to ensure the end result matches the plans.
We encourage you to be fully involved in the design process from start to finish to ensure your landscape matches your vision.
A thoughtfully designed landscape changes how you experience your home. It creates places to gather, relax, and enjoy every season. Landscape East & West has been in business since the 1980s, transforming yards in Portland, Lake Oswego, and surrounding communities from basic swathes of grass to outdoor living areas that are extensions of the home, meeting each client’s needs and matching their unique style.
Explore our portfolio and then let’s connect to begin designing your ideal outdoor space.
