Find your outdoor design direction.
Eight Arizona-tested directions. Pick the one that matches how you'll actually use the yard — then we design around it. Each style page covers signature features, materials, budget range, and the kind of lot it suits.
Three filters that cut the list fast.
Pick by how you live
Entertainer with weekly gatherings? Family with little kids and a dog? Empty-nester who wants resort calm? The right style starts with how you'll actually use the yard.
Pick by lot & light
A small north-facing lot needs different choices than a half-acre west-facing yard. Each style page calls out where it works best — and where it doesn't.
Pick by budget honesty
Every style page lists a realistic budget range for AE-quality execution. Use it to filter before falling in love with a render.
Browse the eight directions.
Modern Arizona Backyard
Clean lines. Cool materials. Desert restraint.
Rectilinear pools, porcelain pavers, frameless glass, engineered shade, and lighting that does the talking after dark. Designed to feel like an extension of a modern desert home — not a separate yard.
Resort-Style Backyard
Vacation feel, 365 days a year.
Custom pool with raised spa, baja shelf, fire bowls, travertine deck, palm and shade structure, outdoor kitchen with bar — designed end-to-end like a private resort.
Family-Friendly Backyard
Built for kids, pets, weekends.
Soft turf zones, durable pavers, shade where you need it, simple safe pool, grill island, and lighting your kids can play under after dinner.
Entertainer's Backyard
Host nights, lit just right.
Outdoor kitchen as the anchor, defined dining and lounge zones, real ambient lighting, fire feature for evening hangs, and audio that sounds like a system — not a phone.
Low-Maintenance Desert Backyard
Beautiful, usable, nearly zero upkeep.
Hardscape and turf zones designed for Arizona — no grass to mow, no soil to dust up, full shade where you sit, and a misting system for the brutal months.
Luxury Pool & Spa Backyard
The pool, designed like architecture.
Custom pool with raised spillover spa, baja shelf, glass tile, fire bowls, sheer-descent water features, premium decking, and frameless glass fencing.
Small Yard Outdoor Living
Every square foot doing two jobs.
Townhouse, casita, and zero-lot-line yards designed to feel bigger — defined zones, vertical features, layered lighting, plunge pools or spas where a full pool won't fit.
Large Lot Backyard Resort
When the lot deserves a master plan.
Half-acre and up — designed in zones with circulation between them. Pool + spa, outdoor living, dining, fire, sport, and landscape that frames the whole property.
Style is half the picture.
See the Materials Library for the finishes inside each direction, the Project Gallery for real AE builds in each style, and the Pricing Guide for how to budget against your scope.
Not sure which style is yours?
Take the 60-second quiz — we'll point to the two or three directions that fit how you live.