Custom Home Builder - Nottinghamshire Building Company Logo

Luxury Garden Design Ideas to Elevate Your Custom Home

Company: The Nottinghamshire Building Company | Author: Rick Brown | Publish Date: 14/05/2025 | Read Time: 7 minutes

landscaped garden in custom built home with stepping stones and arranged plants.

A luxury home doesn’t end at its walls. The space that surrounds it—the garden, terrace, patio, or lawn—plays just as crucial a role in creating a property that feels exceptional. At The Nottinghamshire Building Company (TNBC), we specialise in delivering high-end custom homes and substantial extensions across Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. But increasingly, our clients are thinking bigger—outside the box and outside the house.

If you're planning to build your dream home or are in the process of designing a luxurious extension, your outdoor space deserves equal attention. To inspire you, we’ve compiled a series of advanced garden design ideas that will help transform a typical plot into a sophisticated outdoor retreat. Drawing insight from leading landscape trends while building upon what our own clients ask for most, these concepts go far beyond simple aesthetics.

Garden Design Ideas for Your Custom Build Home

CONTACT THE NOTTINGHAMSHIRE BUILDING COMPANY

Multi-Zone Outdoor Living

Luxury gardens today function more like outdoor homes than traditional backyards. That means creating distinct areas for dining, relaxing, cooking, and entertaining. Think: an open-air kitchen complete with a pizza oven and bar counter, a covered dining area with infrared heaters, and a secluded firepit lounge with built-in seating. Zoning your garden in this way creates flow and purpose across your outdoor footprint.

Pro Tip from TNBC: Consider connecting each area with large-format stone or porcelain pavers, giving continuity to the space while resisting slips and stains.

patio and decking area in landscaped custom built home

Seamless Indoor-Outdoor Transition

Modern homes thrive on open layouts and natural light, and that should extend to the exterior. Floor-to-ceiling glass doors, level thresholds, and matching flooring can blur the line between inside and out. The result? An extended living space that’s both visually expansive and functionally flexible.

Homes we’ve built in West Bridgford and Belper have used aluminium-framed sliding doors to flood the interiors with light and provide direct access to landscaped terraces, allowing families to enjoy the garden year-round.

Elevated Landscaping with Architectural Features

Gone are the days when a garden just meant grass and flowerbeds. Tiered levels, retaining walls, and water channels can give your garden architectural substance. Incorporating elevation changes and structural forms like stone planters, raised walkways, or cantilevered seating adds a dramatic and curated feel.

For example, one of our recent projects in Derbyshire integrated a concrete water rill that sliced through a stepped garden design, reflecting light and adding movement to an otherwise static layout.

RELIABLE & PROFESSIONAL

COMPETITIVELY PRICED

QUALITY WORKMANSHIP

EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS

Statement Planting with Low-Maintenance Appeal

A luxury garden should be striking—but manageable. That’s why structured planting is increasingly popular. Opt for textural evergreens like buxus domes, architectural grasses, and ornamental trees such as Japanese maples or Amelanchier. Planting in clusters or along linear borders creates rhythm and flow, echoing the symmetry often found in upscale interiors.

Automated irrigation and smart lighting systems can take care of maintenance while allowing your garden to shine after dark.

Curving path in custom built homes landscaped garden

Bespoke Outdoor Lighting

Lighting is often the forgotten hero of a well-designed garden. Soft uplighting on trees, strip lighting under steps, or pendant lamps over outdoor dining areas all contribute to a mood that adapts from day to night.

In one of our custom new-builds near Mansfield, integrated garden lighting was programmed through a smart home system, enabling scenes to change from a calm dinner atmosphere to a lively gathering with a single tap on a tablet.

Luxury Materials that Match the Home

Choosing materials that complement the home’s palette creates harmony across the entire property. Natural stone like granite or slate, sustainably sourced timber, brushed steel, and handmade clay pavers are frequent picks for upscale gardens. A well-chosen material palette ties your outdoor space to the architecture of the home, making everything feel intentional.

When building extensions, we often help clients plan these choices in tandem, so the final result is cohesive right from the foundations to the fencing.

Water Features That Define the Space

Whether it's a mirrored pond reflecting the sky, a sculptural fountain, or a minimalist cascade, water adds a sense of calm and sophistication. These features also serve as focal points around which other elements can be built, from seating areas to planting beds.

At a property we extended in The Park Estate, Nottingham, a circular water feature was positioned as the central anchor to the garden design visible from nearly every room on the ground floor.

CONTACT THE NOTTINGHAMSHIRE BUILDING COMPANY

THINKING ABOUT A NEW BUILDING OR RENOVATION PROJECT?

Contact The Nottinghamshire Building Company

Outdoor Wellness Zones

As more homeowners look for ways to improve lifestyle at home, outdoor wellness is becoming a major theme. From cedarwood saunas and outdoor showers to yoga decks and plunge pools, these features offer a resort feel within your private space.

We recently integrated a glass-fronted garden sauna in a custom build in Southwell. The unit was carefully aligned with the sunset direction and shielded by tall grasses for a blend of privacy and immersion in nature.

landscaped garden in custom built home with windy path.

Smart Tech for Outdoor Spaces

Technology is enhancing gardens just as much as interiors. Automated irrigation, motorised pergolas, Bluetooth-enabled speakers, garden WiFi, and even weather-reactive lighting systems are now easily incorporated into building plans. And when they’re embedded from the start as we do at TNBC the result is elegant, clutter-free, and future-ready.

Garden Rooms with Year-Round Purpose

Finally, dedicated garden structures—like home offices, art studios, or gym spaces—are growing in demand. But these aren't your average sheds. With cladding that matches the main property, full insulation, and high-end finishes, these rooms add genuine usable space and value.

One of our favourite recent additions was a zinc-clad garden studio in Ashbourne, positioned to take advantage of natural views and provide a peaceful workspace away from the main home.

Why Landscaping Should Be Part of Your Build Strategy

Too often, outdoor planning is left as an afterthought. But with so much potential to influence how your home looks, feels, and functions, your garden deserves equal focus during the planning phase. At TNBC, we support clients through every stage—from architectural layout and materials selection to structural landscaping and finishing details. This integrated approach leads to outdoor spaces that feel like a natural continuation of your home, rather than an add-on.

If you're planning a new home or large-scale extension and want your outdoor space to be just as extraordinary as your interior, we’d love to talk.

To discuss how we can help you shape your luxury home inside and out Call us now on 07411 664543 or email us at dave@nottsbuilding.co.uk.

Other Useful Blogs & Links

Derbyshire CC Planning Permission Advice
TMaximise Natural Light in Your Custom Home
Groundworks for Custom Homes