Your front yard is the first thing people see when they come to your home. That’s why it’s so important to have an attractive, welcoming landscape design. With a bit of creativity and planning, you can transform your front yard into an inviting oasis that impresses visitors and increases your home’s curb appeal. Here are 70 impressive front yard landscaping ideas to inspire your own beautiful outdoor space.
Simplicity is Key
Going with a simple, clean landscape design is an easy way to make your front yard look polished and put-together. Stick to just a few types of plants and materials for a cohesive look. Some ideas:
- Use a single type of green shrub or hedge across the front for visual unity. Boxwoods, arborvitae, and hollies work well.
- Plant a row of identical trees along the front, spaced evenly apart. Japanese maples, crepe myrtles, and magistrate palms make stunning focal points.
- Choose one type of flowering perennial to use en masse. Daylilies, black-eyed Susans, and gardenias make a big impact when planted in groups.
- Don’t clutter the yard. Allow negative space between plants and features so things don’t look crowded.
- Go for a simple hardscape if desired, like a stepping stone walkway, small patio, or short retaining wall.
Keeping your front yard design simple and streamlined is an easy way to make it look polished, intentional, and elegant. The uniformity and repetition of plants and materials creates a cohesive look.
Bold Focal Points
While simplicity has its virtues, don’t be afraid to incorporate something bold and eye-catching as a focal point. This could be:
- A striking sculpture or sizable container planted with ornamental grasses or small trees.
- An archway, pergola, or trellis covered in flowering vines.
- A raised planting bed for vibrant annuals and perennials.
- A cascading rock waterfall or bubbling fountain as a water feature.
- A large specimen tree underplanted with shade-loving flowers.
- An arbor, gateway, pillars, or other striking architectural element.
- A vibrantly colored front door surrounded by neutral greenery.
Drawing the eye to one standout feature prevents your front yard from looking flat or monotonous. Anchor the design with your bold focal point then repeat some of the colors and textures in the surrounding plantings.
Mix of Heights and Textures
Incorporate plants of various heights and leaf textures for visual interest. Contrast fine, dense foliage with broad, bold leaves. Combine low-growing grasses with medium shrubs and taller canopy trees. Aim for layers:
- Tall background trees like oaks, maples, and pines
- Medium shrubs such as azaleas, hydrangeas, and camellias
- Low-growing perennials like phlox, iris, and lavender
- Groundcover plants like vinca, ivy, mosses and succulents
- Ornamental grasses that add height while keeping narrow profiles
Playing with height and texture adds depth and dimension to the landscape. It prevents a flat, monotonous look. Mix things up with tall and short, broad and fine, mounding and spiky.
Walkway Accents
Define and highlight your front walkway with decorative touches:
- Line the path with matching planters or pots overflowing with flowers.
- Install post lanterns, garden torches, or pathway lights.
- Border the sides with low hedges, ornamental grasses, or colorful groundcover.
- Scatter stepping stones through the lawn up to the front door.
- Use decorative mulch like crushed seashells or lava rock.
- Add architectural interest with a trellised archway.
- Lay bricks, flagstones, or pavers instead of plain concrete.
Lighting and decorative touches transform a basic walkway into an inviting focal feature. It guides guests up to your home in style. Match materials and colors to your home’s exterior for cohesion.
Framed Entryways
Frame the entry to your home with eye-catching design elements:
- Plant matching trees or shrubs on either side to create an inviting “gate” effect.
- Install a pretty arbor or pergola over the walkway leading up.
- Anchor potted plants or urns on either side of the steps. Go for height and drama.
- Add short walls or decorative fencing to define the entry space.
- Install containers on your porch or stairs with cascading flowers.
Defining and framing the entryway draws attention to this focal zone. Match pots, plants, and materials for a cohesive look. Repeat colors from your front door and home exterior in the surrounding plants.
Welcoming Porch Style
Your front porch is an important part of your home’s curb appeal. Make it as welcoming as possible with:
- Rocking chairs, benches, and outdoor seating for guests.
- Hanging baskets, pots, and window boxes overflowing with flowers.
- Decorative mats, wreaths, and garlands on doors and railings.
- Warm lighting like lanterns, sconces, and table lamps.
- A small table and chairs for an intimate chatting nook.
- Personal touches like wind chimes, bird feeders, and whimsical décor.
A well-decorated front porch looks warm, lived-in, and inviting. Repeat colors from your indoor spaces to create a cohesive look. Change out décor seasonally for a fresh feel.
Multilevel Hardscapes
Incorporate interesting hardscape features like patios, retaining walls, and steps to add dimension:
- Terraced retaining walls that double as planters.
- A brick or flagstone patio for seating areas.
- Steps leading to different zones – porch, garden, walkway.
- Low walls around planting beds and dividers between spaces.
- Raised beds for increased planting depth and visual dynamics.
- Gravel and stone walkways that curve and meander.
Multilevel hardscaping adds depth, contours, and visual flow to the landscape. Elevation changes make spaces more complex and engaging.
Wooded Naturalism
Embrace existing mature trees to cultivate an established, woodland look.
- Prune trees to open up views and highlight specimen trees.
- Mulch heavily between trees to reduce grass.
- Underplant with shade-lovers like hostas, astilbe, and impatiens.
- Add woodland ephemerals for spring blooms before canopy leafs out.
- Stick to native plants suited for wooded settings.
- Add woodland accents like log steps, gravel pathways and timber arbors.
- String lights through branches for a magical effect.
Working with mature trees means less work planting and establishes an instantly lush landscape. Enhance the woodland ambiance with plants and décor suited to shady spots.
Evergreen Structure
Evergreens like pine, spruce, hemlock, cedar, cypress, fir, and juniper keep their foliage year-round for permanent structure:
- Plant towering evergreen trees as bold vertical accents anchoring the yard’s corners.
- Install a stately row of identical evergreens along the front or property borders.
- Use smaller evergreen shrubs and hedges to frame entryways, beds, and walkways.
- Choose narrow evergreens like arborvitae to flank steps, gates, and the driveway.
- Go for dwarf varieties in specimen pots on the porch or planting beds.
Evergreens enduring foliage provides solid bones to build the rest of the garden around. Their classic shapes work in both formal and natural designs.
Water Features
The sight and sound of water has an instantly relaxing effect. Consider adding:
- Tabletop fountains or birdbath basins
- Koi ponds or lily ponds
- Rustic waterfalls tumbling over rock formations
- Bubbling water features
- Rain chains instead of downspouts
- Recirculating watercourses and babbling brooks
Water features come in endless forms, from formal tiered fountains to meandering streams. The gentle gurgling provides tranquil background noise. Site them near seating areas to maximize the impact.
Fire Features
Fire features add flickering ambiance and warmth. Stylish options include:
- Stone-bordered fire pits surrounded with seating
- Chimineas for that southwest adobe look
- Modern fire bowls and fire columns
- Rustic metal fire cages on pedestals
- Stacked stone fireplaces and outdoor hearths
- Tiki torches lining pathways and patios
Fire allows you to enjoy your landscape day or night. Group seating around fire installations to create an intimate gathering space. Portable fire pits can relocate seasonally or for events.
Fun Hardscape Materials
Step up your hardscaping with unique, decorative touches:
- Mosaic stone patterns and detailing
- Engraved stone inserts and medallions
- Colored or stained concrete or pavers
- Patterned brick designs like herringbone
- Pea gravel and crushed rock pathways
- Fluted concrete planters or aggregate stepping stones
- Ornate metal gates, trellises, and arbors
Creative hardscape materials make spaces feel personalized and fun. Go bold with vivid pavers or engraved inserts. Save money by doing accents, borders, and bands in special materials.
Colorful Planters
Decorative planters infuse color and whimsy. Brighten up your front yard with:
- Vibrant Annuals like petunias, marigolds, and geraniums
- Vivid glazed or painted terra cotta pots
- Color-blocked window boxes and hanging baskets
- Urns and jars upcycled into planters
- Mismatched repurposed vessels like watering cans and buckets
- Concrete planters painted in bold hues
Planters provide flexibility to switch out plants seasonally. Go for a uniform look with matching containers or embrace wild abandon with a mix of repurposed vessels overflowing with flowers.
Physical Dividers
Use lines and structures to divide your front yard into separate “outdoor rooms” for more functionality:
- Low fences or borders between lawn and planting beds
- Hedges, trellises, pergolas, or rows of shrubs to separate spaces
- Pathways guiding you from zone to zone
- Raised beds for a contained area for vegetables and herbs
- Dining spaces, fire pits, and porches for specific functions
Defining specific spaces gives you versatile areas for different needs like entertainment, gardening, play, and aesthetics. Use dividers like fences, paths, and hedges to delineate the zones.
Shady Retreats
Don’t overlook shade when planning seating areas:
- Patio umbrellas or retractable canopies
- Wooden arbors covered in leafy vines
- Tall shrubs and trees planted strategically to maximize shade
- Patsy string lights for illuminating shady spots
- Careful use of shade tolerant plants like hostas and astilbe
Shady respites allow you to escape the harsh sun and heat. Position them near the home for retreat, or farther back in your landscape for seclusion. Furnish with shade lovers and lighting.
Colorful Gardens
Go bright and bold with masses of vibrant perennials and annuals:
- Wide swaths of daisies, coneflowers, zinnias and marigolds
- Vivid combinations like oranges, reds and purples
- Flower varieties that resemble bright fireworks explosions
- Exotic flowers with unique shapes and colors
- Tropical plants like hibiscus, birds of paradise and bougainvillea
A vivid mix of flowers has a celebratory, festive feel. Combine colors and textures for excitement. Mass plantings make the biggest impact. Go for simple designs so colors take center stage.
Sophisticated Combinations
Not into bright, bold colors? Try more refined combinations:
- Cool mixes like silvers, blues, lavenders, and whites
- Pastel pairings in soft pinks, peaches, powder blues
- Monochromatic schemes with different hues and tints of one color
- Analogous harmonious colors like orange, yellow and red
- Black foliage like loropetalum, elderberry, and some smilax varieties
Subtle, toned-down color schemes exude sophistication. Unify with one dominant color then incorporate soft accent shades. Monochromes look posh and elegant.
Sunny Borders
Brighten up your home and yard’s perimeters with hot, vibrant edges:
- Bold tropical plants like crotons, cordylines, and colocasia
- Warm shades like orange or yellow cannas and lantana
- Red flowers galore using kangaroo paw, geraniums and zinnias
- Bright variegated foliage like hostas, houttuynia and caladium
- Vibrant sweet potato vine groundcovers
High impact borders make your home feel lively and welcoming. Anchor them with architectural plants like cannas then fill in with color. Go for big foliage and prolific flowering for maximum color.
Textural Foliage
Beyond just green, foliage comes in amazing colors, sizes, shapes and textures. Try:
- Fine wispy grasses, spiky yuccas, and bold bananas
- Delicate ferns mixed with elephant ears and gunnera
- Red Japanese maple leaves and golden creeping jenny
- Cascading ivies, upright boxwood globes and tufted carex
- Lacy flowering vines, succulents, and fuzzy lamb’s ear
Foliage plants add year-round interest, especially once flowers fade. Contrast fine textures with big and bold. Mix different leaf shapes, variegations, and trailing habits.
Dramatic Tropicals
Tropical and subtropical plants impart drama with huge, architectural leaves:
- Towering bananas, low-growing bird of paradise, and spiky yuccas
- Huge taro and elephant ear leaves in purple or black
- Giant rhubarb-like gunnera leaves
- Sturdy palms like sago and windmill for volume
- Tree-sized tree ferns and cycads for prehistoric allure
Tropicals have that “wow” factor. They quickly establish a look. Use their bold leaves like architectural accents. Underplant with equally exotic flowers and foliage.
Durable Succulents
Succulents like sedum, echeveria, aloe and agave thrive in heat while needing little water once established:
- Mix succulents with cacti and other drought-tolerant plants
- Mass in colorful sweeps for big visual impact
- Use as living groundcovers, borders or accent plants
- Plant in urns and containers for portable color
- Choose cold-hardy varieties like sedum, sempervivum and some yuccas
Succulents give you vibrant color with minimal maintenance. Use en masse for bold swaths of texture. Be sure to select types suitable for your climate.
Natural Meadow Style
Capture the beauty of a natural meadow or prairie with drifts of native grasses and wildflowers:
- Airy native ornamental grasses like switch grass, muhly and river oats
- Drifts of daisy-like echinacea, rudbeckia, coreopsis and verbena
- Loose, informal style instead of manicured beds
- Keep layouts simple to emulate natural patterns
- Minimize mulch, turf and hardscape
A meadow garden achieves a relaxed, effortless style. Stick to plants native to your region for success. Site in full sun and allow plants to reseed for natural effect.
Gravel Gardens
Gravel offers an attractive, low-maintenance alternative to lawns and mulch beds.
- Use pea gravel, river rock and crushed gravel
- Delineate with metal, stone or concrete edging
- Allow some grasses and perennials to intermingle
- Accent with boulders, steps and decorative rock formations
- Plant drought- and heat-tolerant varieties suited for lean soils
Gravel helps drainage in poor soils. Its neutral color lets plantings pop. Combine with evergreens, grasses, succulents and wildflowers that appreciate lean, well-drained conditions.
Ornamental Grasses
Grasses offer year-round visual interest with their elegant shapes and golden fall color:
- Big bluestem, switch grass, and pampas for height and structure
- Low-growing purple fountain grass and blue oat grass
- Clump-forming miscanthus, carex, and panicum
- Grass-like rushes and sedges for texture
- Grass plantings instead of turf lawns
Grasses thrive in sun and require minimal care when established. Mass plant or use as specimens. Combine clumping and vase-shaped varieties for multi-season interest.
Architectural Plants
Make a statement by using plants with bold shapes and striking forms:
- Spiky yuccas, cordylines, and dracaena
- Huge rhubarb-like gunnera leaves
- Towering vertical cacti and succulents
- Weeping umbrella plants like aralia and cypress
- Tropical banana trees, cannas and elephant ears
Unusual plants with unique shapes grab attention. They become focal points around finer textures. Use symmetrically for strong formal designs.
Potted Palms
Container palms make moveable tropical accents for patios and entryways. Good options include:
- Compact sago palms with dense fronds