Fire & shade lounge
The part of the yard that gets used after the pool is closed.
A seating area is used in the two hours around sunset, so it is specified for that: something overhead for the late sun, a face on the fire element at eye level, and a surface that is comfortable in bare feet.
Louvered aluminium cover
Dappled at noon, closed when it rains.
Aluminium blades that rotate from open to closed, so one structure gives you dappled shade at noon and a rain roof in February. The most mechanically complex thing in this category, and priced accordingly.
Smooth stucco / plaster face
The quiet face behind a linear fire element.
No veneer at all — the block wall is rendered and finished flat, usually to match the house. The quietest and cheapest face here, and in a modern scheme frequently the right one.
Saw-cut score pattern
Turns a plain slab into a drawn floor for almost nothing.
Not a finish so much as a drawing. Cutting the slab on a deliberate grid controls where it cracks and turns a field of concrete into a composition, for the cost of a morning with a saw.
Large-format concrete slab
Fewer joints under furniture that gets moved.
Fewer, bigger units with tight joints. Reads flat and modern, shows base settlement more honestly than small pavers do, and is heavy enough that handling is part of the labour cost.
New Zealand flax
Vertical line and non-green colour after the flowers are done.
Upright strap leaves in bronze, burgundy or striped cream. Gives vertical line and non-green colour in a bed without flowering, and it is one of the few accents that reads from across a yard.
Colour families — no photo held