Adrian Simunovic speaks to Shiona Thompson from AM 900 CHML about planning your landscape lighting for utility and pleasure. Visit the CHML Home and Garden site to hear past podcasts.
Audio Transcription
Good Saturday morning. I’m Shiona Thompson filling in on the Home and Garden Show for Jamie West. You know in one way or another this entire show is about being out of doors and enjoying it to the extreme. That brings us to our next guest who is Adrian Simunovic of Paradise Decks and Landscape Design. Adrian’s joining us on the line right now — how are you doing?
How are you?
I’m awesome, and one of the things I’ve always wanted to ask you — and I’m going to get it out of the way right off the top: do you ever get calls from people who’ve started their own deck and said “Do you know what? Big mistake, I need some help.”
More often than you can imagine. There are those homeowners that are bound and determined to complete it and we are often called when the project is complete in the homeowner’s mind but often in the spouse’s mind the deck is not complete.
Ah yes, the meeting of the minds and how often that doesn’t happen.
That’s right.
So I’m guessing then that you get the call from the spouse that’s not completely happy and what’s the next step in the process after that? Maybe getting them together and having the conversation they should have had in the beginning as to what it is they really want?
Yes, so I think we touched on this a previous conversation Shiona, that so much begins with planning, and often homeowners will approach deck design and construction without real planning. They believe they’ve planned — they’ve sketched something out on the back of an envelope and they run out to the local lumber store and they purchase a bunch of material and they start with the best of intentions but they haven’t considered so many things that you might not even think about: elevation, whether you’d be obstructing windows, and those sorts of things. If you’re not designing every day, if this is not something you do every day you’ll often make those kinds of mistakes. Now I’m not saying homeowners — and there are many handy homeowners — and they can build their own decks but I think it’s important that you have to look at the entire project. You have to not just consider the deck itself but how it’s going to impact the yard and the home.
And you also have to take in the local building codes.
Yes, and that is often an unfortunate mistake that people make. There are bylaws that govern, for instance, lot coverage. So, in the city of Hamilton, depending you how you’re zoned and where you live in the city of Hamilton there are certain restrictions on how much of your deck can and home together can cover your lot as a percentage. People will often build a deck too large, and the city has the unfortunate task of informing you of that, and you have to scale it back, cut it back, or apply for a variance, which could become costly.
And in the planning phase of your project, if you had dealt with the city and found out what the bylaws were in your area you wouldn’t be faced with that problem.
That’s right, and it’s a simple call. The city officials are happy to help you and inform you of what certain restriction are. Often what homeowners do is they will sketch something out of their planning. The city official will quickly put up their location on a lot or a city map — this is all accessible by computer — and very quickly they can tell them whether or not that particular design will be in compliance.
Yeah, and what may have fit in one municipality may not be to code in another municipality.
That’s correct. A lot of these rules are written based on the size of lots so obviously if you live in an area with much larger lots, the lot coverage restriction will not be as onerous.
Well Adrian, it sounds like it goes back to that old construction adage of measure twice, cut once.
That’s right. The bylaws and the rules governing the construction of a deck and footing sizes and all those sorts of things: that’s all important, but probably more important is to consider all of the design elements and …I can’t tell you how many times Shiona I’ve gone into a back yard where they’ve constructed a fairly sizeable deck and the customer says: “We want to put a pool in and we don’t know where to put it now. What should we do with the deck?”
It’s going to be a covered pool: it’s going to be under the deck.
Yeah. So it just goes back to this whole point of planning and contacting. The city is just part of that planning process.
And again you know sitting down with the two homeowners and saying: “What is it you really want and what is possible with the size lot that you have?”
Exactly. Reconciling a wish list with what’s even possible. Often people will have grand ideas of what they want their deck to be and what types of features they hope to have on the deck but not in every case is that possible.
One of the things that I really like in exploring your web site is that it highlights all of this from planning right through to the finished product including landscape design. Your firm really covers it all.
That’s right, and we feel that — again to this point of planning — it’s very difficult to consider just a deck without thinking about the other features that you hope to have in your landscape plan. Plantings are so important: what types of trees you hope to plant, what types of perennials and shrubs are all important but again it has to be looked at in the totality. You have to consider the concept, the total concept. I think we are doing a disservice to our customers if we just come in and design a deck without asking them first: What are your plans? How do you hope to use the yard? Do you entertain a lot? Will the deck be large enough to satisfy that condition? I think it would be remiss of us not to think about everything when designing a back yard.
And also future plans. Maybe you just want to do the deck and a bit of landscaping now with plans down the road to put in a pool.
So true. And many, many customers, I mean let’s be honest: they don’t always have the money to pay for everything all at once so we have to phase the construction. If we’re going to phase the construction then we have to do it in a logical sequence and that logical sequence normally is to start with the dominant features, the big anchoring features that are going to figure prominently in your yard. Things like a pool or a deck or even a large patio.
As I mentioned I’ve been poking around your web site and that’s parardisedecks.com. Some of the things that people are thinking is that it’s more than a deck, it’s an additional living space. People are treating it like an additional living room, maybe there’s a little kitchen off to the side, maybe there’s a hot tub there as well.
I think that company owners such as myself and people who do this kind of work can really credit a lot of the programs that are on television now, a lot of the web sites that people are able to navigate where I think today homeowners have a much better appreciation of what’s possible. The ideas or the types of features that people are incorporating into their back yard design has evolved so much. It’s gone from a very simple square or rectangular deck or patio in the back yard to things such as you just mentioned which are: covered pavilion areas, outdoor kitchens and fireplace areas. People really have brought the indoors out and they are using those spaces just as they would the interior of a home.
Or you go away on vacation as I just did and you come back and it’s, you know, I want a little bit of that Caribbean feel in the summer. We’re going to take a short break and we’ll come right back with that topic of conversation. This is the home and garden show on AM900 CHML. We’re talking with Adrian Simunovic of Paradise Decks and Landscape Design and he’s here to offer you any information or any help that you might need at 905-6456-3221. We’ll be right back on AM900 CHML.
Shiona Thompson filling in for Jamie West on the Home and Garden Show here on AM900 CHML and we’re in the midst of a conversation with Adrian Simunovic who is the owner of Paradise Decks and Landscape Design and we were talking about creating that vacation feel in your back yard. Maybe you saw something when you were down in the Caribbean over the winter and you want to create that same kind of feel and ambiance in your back yard and enjoy that all summer long. What are some of the inspirations that people have been drawing on that you’re seeing recreated, maybe some trends that are coming up Adrian?
Definitely the Caribbean feel. There are owners that have asked us to create the tiki-torch straw hut type cabana feel with a bar underneath, they want to recapture fond memories of being in the Caribbean and they want to recreate that ambiance as you said in their back yard. So that is not uncommon, there are people who are trying to create that effect. There are those aesthetics that lean more towards a contemporary sleek feel, where they want long linear elegant lines, glass rails. A much more contemporary feel because they were in a very chic hotel in Manhattan and they really enjoyed the feel from that and drew inspiration from that and so they want to create that contemporary feel in their back yards.
I was going to say the say is the limit but that’s kind of a bad pun for this topic I think. I was just in Paris, noticed the city of lights and to extend that feeling and to use that outdoor space to its fullest extent and certainly it’s getting warm enough finally to enjoy evenings outside. Lighting is a key component of that.
I’m so glad that you’ve touched on lighting Shiona. If I had to identify one area in design that is sadly neglected. It’s something that for whatever reason homeowners overlook. Lighting is imperative. It’s absolutely essential to the creation of an inviting space. People really forget how often the outdoor deck or the landscape is used in the evening. In fact, I might even argue that you use your outdoor living space more often in the evening than you do during the day. In the evenings after work to walk into your back yard and enjoy the back yard you have to have lighting. The lighting itself has come such a long way. So many people have motion detector spotlights that illuminate the entire back yard but it’s completely wrong for the effect that we’re trying to create. You want a soft, subtle, ambient glow. Often you want indirect light — you don’t even necessarily want to see the light and what we’ll do is we will hide that light in behind valences or behind the bull nose of the stair to illuminate the tread but you don’t actually see the light itself and it creates this warm, fuzzy, inviting cocoon that really invites people into their back yard.
Well that’s true. You don’t want to make it feel like your party is being raided by the police or that you’re in the middle of a construction zone — everything is illuminated but it’s all illuminated the same way.
I don’t wish to make any slights against our electrical friends, you know there are many electricians out there that do lighting for us and by our direction do lighting but they’re more inclined to really want to light the place up. I think it’s just in their genes. They want to try and create as much light as possible and we’re having to tone it down a little bit. I’m going to share a story with you Shiona from a customer of mine who told me once that their outdoor landscape had changed their lives, and I thought wow that’s a bit over the top but I asked her what she meant by that and she said now that we have this lighting back here we just spend more time out here, eating, and as a family. Less time in front of the television. Just spending time together has improved our relationships and I think a well designed landscape with beautiful lighting can do that. I’m biased obviously because this is what I do but I really do believe that.
And I think there’s also two phases to this because you do need some lighting in the evening for safety because you need sidewalks lit up and you’ve got to know where the stairs are but it also is creating that feeling and that ambiance.
And it can serve both purposes. You can illuminate the walkways as you said and make the treads illuminated so that you can clearly see as you walk up the stairs in the evening but at the same time create an absolutely magical effect where it just makes such a beautiful and inviting environment.
If it’s done properly it draws you into that entertainment space.
That’s it precisely Shiona.
What are some of the options that are out there because I know solar lighting has come a long way in the last several years.
It certainly has. There is so much selection now. We use a lot of LED lighting because it tends to be a quieter light and it last much, much longer than the standard incandescent light. The types of landscape fixtures — task lights and up lights where you illuminate trees or illuminate your pathways and the various finishes they have copper patina finishes. Black maybe to match some of your other fixtures that are mounted on the wall of your home. That’s important too — to try and tie in all of your lighting. It’s a bit incongruous when you have, for instance, stainless steel landscape fixtures and you’ve got matte black wall fixtures or sconces. That’s important I think too is to try and stay within a particular theme when selecting fixtures.
And again that all come back to the issue of planning that we touched right off the top.
Yes, and to help and aid in that planning process there are various manufacturers of lighting with literally thousands of fixtures. In fact it’s often a very difficult decision for customers because there is so much selection, there is so much to choose from. The availability of these types of fixtures and even the cost of them has come down considerably. Previously it could become quite expensive to do a complete landscape lighting plan but with the increased popularity of lighting the prices have come down and you can do a very nice lighting plan quite affordably.
It can be an overwhelming process and that’s where expertise such as yours really comes into play.
We’d like to think so, yes.
I guess the first step really is to jump on your web site and check some things out. There are some great options there, a wonderful photo gallery so that people can get that create process started in their own minds even before they sit down and talk with you. Where is the web site and how can people access you?
It’s paradisedecks.com and there is contact form. That’s the easiest way to get hold of us. We will respond and message you back and try to set up an appointment. We are, I will warn you, absolutely flooded with requests right now as you can imagine. We’re in the midst of our season and we will respond right away but you might have to wait a little bit until we can actually get out to see you.
Wonderful. So great to talk to you Adrian. Wonderful ideas.
Thanks Shoina.
Adrian Simunovic, the owner of Paradise Decks and Landscape Design was our guest. When we come back we’re going to be talking about a little “R” and “R”, and one of the R’s is renovations. That’s coming up on the Home and Garden Show on AM900, CHML.
