Building a backyard showroom

Kevin Wilkerson finally has the backyard of his dreams. For three years, the owner of Innovative Stoneworks and Landscaping in Kingman, Arizona, has been working on a huge, 4,550 square-foot project that he designed and installed with the help of his team.

“It’s kind of like the mechanic’s car is always broken down kind of situation,” Wilkerson says. “I could never finish it because my company is so busy.”

Innovative Stoneworks and Landscaping has about 40 employees working 50 hours a week, Wilkerson says. That made it hard to find time to finish the huge project that spans 4,550 square feet.

Including a pool, entertainment center, outdoor kitchen, fire pit and fireplace, the project took three years to complete. There are 14 speakers with subwoofers built into the benches (all controlled by phone or remote control) and an overflow pool. Wilkerson says the backyard contains all of his coolest ideas.

Wanting something a little different from the traditional Arizona backyard with palm trees and curvilinear lines, Wilkerson went with a nearly 100 percent evergreen plant and tree palette. “I just wanted to be different,” he says. “That’s why I went with a totally modular design with no palm trees. I wanted it to almost look more like a California backyard, not like palm desert, but a more modular, contemporary deal.”

Read the full story from the February issue here.