Exterior Design: An Emerging Market for the Landscape and Pool Industry
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The Content Team,
HALSTEAD.
Originally published on May 11, 2015. Updated on September 6, 2022.
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The 255% year-on-year Google search increase for weather-proof outdoor furniture is just one statistic that indicates the massive shift to viewing the outdoor space as an extended living space. While landscape contractors have long been serving this market, their services have been parallel to this emerging market that’s more comparable to interior design, hence the term exterior design. The relatively new field of exterior design offers the opportunity for landscape businesses to scale by providing expertise and services to an underserved market with high demand.
Coming home to a place we call our own is one of the most comforting, rewarding experiences. Our living spaces, indoors and out, form the backdrop for our lives. A quick look at the home goods and interior decorating market proves that big business knows it, demonstrating the mass potential to expand this trend into the outdoor living space.
Bringing Interior Design Fundamentals to the Outdoor Space with Exterior Design
Companies have reacted to the emotion-filled market for interior design quite well—there’s no shortage of places to shop for home goods and decor. Home services contractors are also abundant, if not over-abundant in some segments—providing plenty of options for homeowners looking to enhance their home interior design.
If someone is looking to outfit the indoor living spaces of their family’s new home, they call an interior designer. If they would like to build a walkway, paver patio, or new complete outdoor living area, they would reach out to a landscape architect or contractor. But while the latter is an easy way to get the foundation of landscape spaces designed and installed, rarely do these professionals cross over to the exterior design of the space.
So, once a landscape project is complete, homeowners find themselves with a beautiful natural stone patio, custom inground pool, or outdoor kitchen area accompanied by lush planting beds with shrubs and trees. However, their new outdoor spaces still aren’t complete—they lack the comforting personal design and decor expressions in their homes. They need outdoor furniture, pillows, rugs, potted plants, outdoor decor, lights, etc., all things an interior designer is adept at curating.
So What Exactly Is an Exterior Designer?
While interior designers focus on completing the interior of the home, exterior designers focus on the finishing touches of the exterior of both the home and landscape. They pay attention to the little details with an artful eye. Their services can include everything from the selection of patio furniture, fabric, paint colors, shutters, plantings, planters, roof styles, outdoor lighting, garage doors, and mailboxes.
Exterior designers know landscape architecture, construction, and interior design. They’re a small group of design professionals who tend to be hard to find because there are so few.
An Underserved Market Means Unlimited Opportunities for Landscape Contractors & Pool Builders
Since today’s homeowner has almost nowhere to turn for this service, advice, and expertise, it’s a demand that is largely unserved. While interior designers are starting to pay more attention to outdoor living spaces, their domain is still widely interior-based work.
Architects work with interior designers to ensure projects reach their full potential. So why do landscape design firms walk away from new outdoor living construction without offering exterior design services?
These services and products would be a small percentage of the homeowner’s total construction cost of the project, and many would be more than willing to pay extra to bring their new outdoor living space to their interior living standards. Are outdoor living professionals waiting for interior designers to step up and fill this untapped market?
This incredible opportunity to scale your business does not come along every day, and you’ll want to get your foot in the door before your competition does. The landscape and pool contractor’s role in this market is yet to be determined.
Exterior Design: Positioning or Partnerships for Landscape and Pool Contractors
There’s already an emerging exterior designer profession, with many working as solo service providers. There are two ways that landscape and pool contractors can approach this new market: positioning or partnerships. Both options mean extra revenue, happier, more satisfied customers, and the addition of professional photography showing fully furnished, livable outdoor spaces. This photography will come in handy as part of your portfolio—both online and off.
Establishing your landscape or pool building business as a full-service provider is a position that will set you apart from your competitors. If you offer in-house exterior design services, you’ll likely need to hire an exterior designer to fill the role. In contrast, a partnership means you can promote the full-service concept but outsource the exterior design services to an established designer.
Virtual Exterior Design Services
Yardzen recently began offering exterior design services online where a customer can upload a photo of their outdoor space or home exterior, and the Yardzen exterior designers will provide a fully custom design. Following this business model would allow you to outsource the work remotely, giving you better access to the limited exterior designers.
Their landscape design packages include everything from botanical only to a complete outdoor transformation. Designs may feature shoppable furniture and materials, a plant palette, 3D renderings, and CAD plans that their customers can present to a local contractor—they can also connect them with a network of contractors they recommend. You can take advantage of this referral system by joining their Pro Network, so you can be the landscape contractor where they refer their customers.
Brick & Batten is another virtual exterior design service. It provides designs that give home exteriors a facelift without any structural changes. They’ve positioned themselves as a business that fills the gap between an architect and someone who needs a cosmetic update.
As a landscape contractor, providing exterior design services without structural changes would simply mean giving the landscape a makeover, selecting and setting up patio furniture and decor, and adding home exterior renovation services to your repertoire—or outsourcing this work and offering it as a package.
In-Person Exterior Design Services
Kim Levell of Kim Levell Design has been offering her experiential exterior designer services for decades, long before the outdoor living trend. She is a go-to expert in the field, establishing her services in high-end design with an exterior focus in the St. Petersburg, Tampa, and surrounding Florida areas.
The in-person aspect allows the exterior designer to consider all of the senses when creating a design for an outdoor space. Levell’s process involves visiting the locations to get a feel for the area and envision how the space is used functionally and artistically. This approach adds a level of detail that isn’t achieved via a virtual process—with the ability to incorporate sight, sound, scent, and touch.
For example, on-site, an exterior designer could listen to the surroundings and determine that noise pollution takes away from the tranquility of the backyard paver patio and that the sun reflects off of a neighboring structure, creating a blinding light in one section of the outdoor living room.
Because of these concerns, the designer includes a water fountain in the design that provides the soothing sound of running water and helps block out distracting noise. They also arrange the patio furniture in the outdoor living area, so it is not within the light reflection path.
These critical details would be lost without an on-site visit, which would have resulted in customers who weren’t 100% satisfied with their brand-new outdoor space. Attention to these seemingly insignificant details will set your business apart from the competition and leave your customers highly satisfied with your company's work to enhance their outdoor living spaces.
What Does Providing Exterior Design Services Mean Tactically?
Whether you offer these services in-house or via a partner, the result is the same—creating livable outdoor spaces that are complete and ready for use. So how does this process look in the real world?
The process is likely much the same as what you are currently doing, except that you are adding the exterior design element—which will include textiles, furniture, decor, and possibly renovation services.
Offering 3D design and video renderings will be vital to making sales in this space. These highly detailed designs allow the customer to envision what their new outdoor space will look like. You can offer these services to the residential and commercial markets, opening up even more income potential.
Depending on the application, these designs will show everything from the specific plantings to the paver patios and walkways or poolscape down to the lounge chair fabric and paint colors used on the home or building exterior. It’s a fully customized and complete package that gives special attention to the unique personality and character of the outdoor space, making it a comfortable outdoor extension of the living area.