If you have a historic home, you want to preserve its cultural significance with complementary landscaping. This could mean choosing plants as well as hardscape materials that honor the home’s history; and designing the landscape in an attractive and traditional manner. Here are our tips for finding the right paving solutions and stones to suit historical architecture in Sussex County and Bergen County, NJ.
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Choosing the Right Materials
When designing a hardscape that honors your home’s historical significance, you want to use materials that would have been used when the home was new. Fortunately, even if you want to modernize the look - such as using a more modern color palette - there are plenty of choices.
As you look around at historic homes similar to yours, you may notice common patterns such as the use of brick or natural stone in certain colors. To some extent, material choices were dictated by the region (for example, home builders in New Jersey would have used locally sourced stone rather than imported stone). This gives each region and each home a wonderful uniqueness.
If you can, research the landscaping techniques and materials traditionally used in your area, in the architectural period of your home. Here are some choices that could work for you.
Brick
Brick can be your go-to choice for most historic architectural homes. Clay bricks are some of the original building materials used worldwide and can be found in wonderful earthy shades unique to their region of origin. The beauty of brick comes from its unique color variations based on the clay used in its making. All clay bricks, even from the same batch, will have color variations. Even if you choose a concrete alternative, you can find bricks in blended colors that closely resemble original clay bricks.
Concrete bricks can also be found in non-traditional colors, which is an opportunity to modernize the look while staying true to its origins.
Aside from the traditional herringbone, running bond, and basket weave patterns, brick is also ideally suited for artistic inlays and accents - and like the “little black dress,” brick pairs well with virtually every other hardscape material.
Because of its size and durability, brick can be used in virtually any residential application, including driveways. This is a great solution if you want to unify your hardscapes!
Bluestone and Flagstone
Historic homes in the mid-Atlantic and northeastern parts of the USA sometimes feature bluestone, which is a gorgeous blue-grey type of sandstone quarried in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and to a lesser extent in eastern Canada. Each stone is completely unique which makes it a character-filled choice for walkways and patios.
Likewise, flagstone is a common hardscape material. It is used to create more casual spaces when left uncut, but it can be “dressed up” for more formal hardscapes if it is cut and shaped.
Concrete pavers made to look like bluestone or flagstone can be a good alternative; to achieve the authentic bluestone look, you could blend two or three paver hues on site.
Granite
Granite has also been used for hundreds of years and it’s a durable material that will stand the test of time. Granite features a natural mix of dark and light specks that combine to form subtle shades ranging from tan to jet black. Granite pairs well with the historical aesthetic of many homes.
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