Front Yard Landscaping

Are you ready for an incredible front yard landscaping before and after? We’re so thrilled with the new front yard and I’m sharing all of the details right here.

The front yard was the last piece of our 1950’s ranch-style home renovations, and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out! I’m so excited to share all of the details of how we updated a drab, dated space into something fresh and modern.

Tiled Front Patio

The major eye-catching piece of our front yard is the beautiful tiled patio! When we worked with Villa Lagoon Tile last year on our backyard tile patio, I had it in the back of my head that it could be so fun to echo that tile in the front yard landscaping somewhere.

Villa Lagoon was kind enough to send some extra tile for the front patio and I was so happy to work with them again! I’ve recommended this tile over and over to friends who have asked about it.

The color and pattern you see here is called Man Overboard, in the Malibu shade. I love the Man Overboard tile because you can arrange it so many different ways to create a multitude of patterns.

The cement tile has been so easy to keep up in the backyard (and that patio is under an extremely messy tree). It cleans beautifully if you install and seal it well. And Villa Lagoon is so helpful with installation instructions and troubleshooting.

We decided to extend the tiny front step that was original to the house, make it wider for safety, and wrap it around the full porch.

A schluter strip on the edges of the stairs helps visually separate each step so you can see where to safely step.

I love how the tiled patio turned out, and how the pattern looks as it flows down the steps!

More Yard Ideas

If you’re loving this, you’re going to want to see all of our other outdoor landscaping and DIY ideas too!

I’ve pulled together some of our best home improvement yard projects for you to check out. Be sure to pin your favorites so you don’t lose them!

• DIY Modern Pergola for the Backyard
• DIY Outdoor Kitchen Design (Built with Redwood!)
• DIY Wooden Playhouse for Kids
• How to Wrap Porch Posts for a Modern Look
• Outdoor Tile Patio (And the Full Backyard Reveal!)
• DIY Backyard Patio

Front Yard landscaping Before and AFter

Just to give you an idea of where we’re coming from, here are a few before and afters! Here’s the house when I bought it in 2005:

While we were saving money for the big renovation, we did a paint job that I almost immediately regretted (except for the yellow door, I’ll always love that!):

Here’s the house after we resurfaced it:

And here’s the final product!

Wrapped Porch Posts

One of the pieces that was dating the look of the front of our home was the porch posts with upper corbels. I like the posts but we wanted to update them with a more crisp, modern look.

To achieve that goal, we used redwood to wrap the posts! I love this project for a few reasons.

First, it bulks up the posts to make them look more substantial and hefty. It’s also a relatively easy woodworking project; you just need to measure carefully as you cut your wood.

Finally, I love that it does minimal damage to the existing structure and there’s almost no demo involved, other than removing the corbels. If you ever decide you don’t like it for some reason, you can pull it down with no issues.

We have another big post coming up with a full tutorial on how to wrap porch posts!

Updated concrete paths

Our previous cement paths were original to the house (about 70 years old). They were quite narrow and cracked with age.

Our goal was to widen the paths and smooth them out for safety. We also wanted to extend the paths all the way around to both side yards, so that there was a paved path that leads around the entire house.

Finally, we wanted the path to lead into a seating conversation area at the front, for front yard entertaining and easy coming and going.

I love the flow of how it all came together. We chose gently curving paths with curving joints as well, and did a light texture stamp on the natural colored concrete.

Seating area

The paved seating area takes the place of a previous planter where we always had trouble getting anything to grow. The space is used much more efficiently and often now!

The tiled patio steps down into the seating area so that it creates a nice flow from house to yard. It’s great for front yard entertaining.

Play Area

To the side of the yard, we wanted a flat area for games, playing, or overflow entertaining. It just so happens to be the perfect size for a ping pong table!

The ping pong table was one of Ryan’s dreams and his major contribution to the front yard landscaping ideas. I have to admit I was skeptical, but it has been so fun!

It’s funny to learn how many people love ping pong or want to play. (And how very competitive people get!)

Planters and Plants

We had always envisioned our front yard landscaping to have some more tropical-feeling plants, with a mix of more drought-tolerant plants.

I really love how it all came together! Lots of different hardy grasses, birds of paradise, ferns, and a few specialty plants like foxtail agave all come together to create a fun mix. We did all of the planting by hand.

We finished the planters with a black bark to bring a modern look to the landscaping in the front yard.

Another big post about choosing plants is coming soon!

Yard furniture

In our seating area we reused our adirondack chairs from the backyard. I also found these low folding chairs that are super comfy!

We reconfigure this area frequently for different front yard entertaining needs, so I like that the furniture is light and easy to move.

Bringing a Front Yard Landscaping Design to Life

I have to give a big shoutout to Yardzen for helping design our front yard landscaping! We had been stuck for a long time trying to fit everything together and they really helped clarify our vision.

If you have specific goals in your back or front yard landscaping but can’t quite figure out a final design, I highly recommend reaching out to them. They can take your ideas along with a few photos and videos of the area you want to update and send you a beautiful design and renderings to work with.

It helped us a ton!

So what do you think? Do you have a favorite part? Drop any questions in the comments! xoxo