Straight-edged

Landscape design is often strongly influenced by interior trends, and at the moment a central focus of many residential customers is the aim to create indoor living spaces outside. With that desire comes the need to develop an imperative sense of comfort and ease of living in well styled decorative exterior settings.

In New Zealand, paving stones are part and parcel of many outdoor settings, whether it be underfoot in seating areas or patios, along driveway areas, around pools or as stepping stones to create a pathway through a grassed or garden area.

Until recently though, the choices and ranges of paving stones available in New Zealand have been somewhat limited. While paving stones are typically a relatively inexpensive part of an overall landscape design, their price was reflected in the limited choice.

With the release of Firth’s new Designer Range pavers, New Zealanders’ options for differing styles of paving has substantially increased, and along with it, the ability for people to create patterned and mosaic-look designs with locally-made products has been realised. “The Designer Range offers consumers a high-end look and feel, supported with the highest quality in dry end paving, allowing consumers to create styled and decorative outdoor settings,” Firth’s Bernice Cumming says.

“The Designer Range is a premium honed paving range, opening

the door for clients to create a terrazzo feel. Because the traditional edges are taken off in the honing process, these pavers have straight, clean edges so have the advantage of a tile-look. This means people can achieve a really upmarket look using pavers that could only otherwise be created by using tiles.”

The Designer Range by Firth also introduces the use of coloured pavers, offering a choice of four colours, as well as the option of a square or rectangular paver. With this new range, designing a space with pavers is only now limited by your imagination.

As Cumming says, Kiwis have always been relatively safe in their use of concrete pavers, generally only choosing shades of grey or black. “That’s something that’s changing now, with a lot of people wanting to inject colour into their designs.”

Traditional straight lines and square areas are on the out too, as monochromatic, irregular, pixelated patterns become more popular. “We are seeing a lot more people creating their own designs and using colours and shapes to create different patterns and effects.”

While pavers are a feature in themselves, paving is something that should always complement the overall landscape design. One benefit of using locally made pavers like those of the Firth Designer Range, is the knowledge that they will always easily complement other features because they are local. “The pavers are all New Zealand made and are inspired by the New Zealand landscape and the natural environment around us,” Cumming says. “That’s why they always work well with other landscaping elements, especially if they are also local to an area.” The locality of the aggregates is amplified with the terrazzo finish, which exposes the stone within each paver.

The Designer Range pavers are 50mm tile-look pavers and are suitable for most applications aside from load-bearing areas such as driveways, where 80mm pavers are recommended.

If you’re in the market for a paver that will enable you to create a unique, high-end design for your outdoor space, get in touch with Firth to discuss the Designer Range. Visit Firth on ArchiPro here.