A thorough review of our experience working with Bacqyard to design a one-of-a-kind landscaping pair-a-dice.
Why We Chose Bacqyard for Our Landscape Design
There were so many landscaping design companies to choose from including doing it entirely ourselves, but we decided to go with an expert, specifically Bacqyard for several reasons:
1. Their design and 3D renders are among the best out there.
I’ve done my fair share of IG and Pinterest stalking and Bacqyard’s landscaping designs and 3D renders are among the best that I’ve seen. We have a pretty high bar when it comes to design and aesthetic and since this was going to be for a very unique, one-of-a-kind home, we wanted to work with a team who was not only up for the creative challenge but had the skills to execute as well.
2. We had a toonnnn of non-traditional ideas and Bacqyard had experience designing beyond the typical landscaping elements to more fun/unique ones.
Our Pinterest board for landscaping ideas is wild to say the least.
Creativity is something that we do not lack and sometimes our ideas can be so out of the norm that we wonder ourselves if it’s even feasible 😅, but Bacqyard understood our vision and incorporated all of our ideas better than we could’ve ever imagined!
3. Their team has been AMAZING to work with from day one.
From the first time we reached out to work with them to starting the design process and completing it, we’ve been nothing but impressed by their professionalism, responsiveness, customer service and attention to detail. Not only were they responsive from the beginning about our crazy ideas, they were equally excited to help us bring our vision to life. Before we even did any designing with Bacqyard, we already had a positive experience speaking with their partnerships and support team.
We had considered several other landscaping companies both local and far away to work with for the Tiny Dice House but we’re so glad that we ended up working with Bacqyard. Their enthusiasm, creativity, and design skills were the perfect match for us.
That said, we wanted to share a full breakdown of the entire process (as well as the final renders!) of working with the Bacqyard team and hope that you find it useful when considering designing your own dream yard!
The Process of Working with Bacqyard
Step 1: Showcasing Our Unique Space and Vision
Submitting Project Info
Before Bacqyard matched us with a designer, we created an account on their platform and proceeded to complete the preliminary quiz where we had to answer a thorough list of questions about the space, our vision, design preferences, etc.
We then had to submit property photos from various angles of the yard (Bacqyard does a great job of providing instructions on how and where to take these photos).
In addition to property photos, we were prompted to share any inspirational photos, Pinterest boards, etc. that we had that would be helpful for their team to get a sense of what we envisioned.
Lastly, we also submitted any plans, plat maps, dimensions and additional info that would be a helpful guide for them to start with.
*The more detailed you can be here, the easier and better it will be for your designer and the subsequent steps!
Getting Matched and Choosing a Designer
Once we completed the quiz and submitted property and inspo photos, we were quickly matched with three available designers from the team that matched our preferences, along with their soonest availability. We got to browse their portfolio of previous landscaping designs and choose which designer we wanted to work with.
Initial Zoom Call with Designer
Once we chose our designer, we proceeded to schedule an initial Zoom call to go our project details and ideas. Our designer, Carolin, was very easy to communicate with – especially with such a unique and creative project – and we felt super confident that she would be able to capture our vision beautifully.
Step 2: Sit Back & Let Bacqyard Work Their Magic
Bacqyard shares the first design draft
The easiest part of this all was letting Bacqyard do their design magic after getting all of the info they needed from us.
Given all of the unique elements of our landscaping vision, the first draft took a few weeks to complete, but the team did a fantastic job with this! They went above and beyond and even gave us TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT versions/designs to review!
We were BLOWN AWAY by how comprehensive both designs were – it was like looking at a modern Disneyland in our backyard that was beautiful and not tacky (which was a big thing we were worried about).
Version 1:
Version 2:
The amazing first drafts made it so much easier to work from there to narrow down our must-haves vs. nice-to-haves and what would be reasonable for our budget.
Bacqyard uploaded everything onto their portal so all we had to do was log in and then we got to view the 3D renders, which they provided tons of, a detailed plant list, and my favorite feature – the 360 tour (where you get to click and drag around to get a true 360 view of the entire landscaping)!
In addition to the portal, we utilized Google drive as well since we had a lot of renders that the team wanted to include beyond the portal.
We just loved how seamless of a user experience reviewing all of this was.
Making Revisions
It took us a few days to review the designs and think about what revisions we wanted to make. We shared that feedback directly with the team via email and a few drawings/sketches on our end to help better explain what we wanted changed. You can use the portal to make feedback directly as well, which was very convenient.
We did several rounds of revisions for our design because we couldn’t make up our minds about a few things and kept having new creative ideas we wanted to implement. Bacqyard was incredibly patient and accommodating with us throughout this process!
Depending on how quickly you reviewed the design and provided feedback, the process for each round of revision took about a week or two. Bacqyard was incredibly patient with and accommodating of all of our random and nitpicky changes and last minute new ideas before we settled on our final design!
Step 3: Be Wowed by the Final Design & Deliverables
Final Approval and Getting Official Landscaping Docs
Once we approved our final design, Bacqyard provided us with the official documents that we could provide to our landscaper to implement the full design. This set of deliverables included the full list of plants and quantity of each, measurements for all parts of the design, and CAD docs to build out the design.
Again, we loved how this part was super seamless just like everything else in this process! We were notified that our official documents were ready and we could just download them directly through the portal. Bacqyard even shared them with us in a Google Drive for easy access and this made sharing all of the docs with our landscaper easier as well.
And now… here is our big reveal aka our final 3D renderings!
Before Photos:
Version 1:
Version 2:
Version 3:
The Final Version:
While we absolutely loved the first versions of the design that literally included everything we could've ever wanted to incorporate, we settled on a final version that was more narrow in scope and therefore, more feasible to build and budget for. It still included all of the fun, playful elements and giant board games that we wanted as well as several "wow" and iconic pieces.
All in all we LOVED the final design and can't wait to bring this pair-a-dice to life!
Our Final Thoughts
If we could give Bacqyard a million stars, we would. Honestly, we couldn’t have worked with a better team for Tiny Dice House to bring our landscaping design and vision to life. With it being such a unique and creative project, we really wanted to work with a team that shared the same creativity and had the technical skillset to execute on the design as well. Bacqyard went above and beyond, exceeding our expectations and delivered a truly jaw-dropping design.
Here are the all things that Bacqyard deserves 5-stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for:
- Design Sense and Aesthetic - this is super important to us and was what immediately drew us to Bacqyard when we were browsing through their portfolio of past projects. We love Bacqyard’s sense of style and ability to marry indoor and outdoor living in a modern, minimalist, fun, and beautiful way.
- Customer Service - their team was always super responsive with any questions or feedback we had. We were always able to get in touch with the team immediately if we needed something or wanted an update. For a project as big and expensive as landscaping, this really made the customer experience feel personalized and important.
- Creativity - we were blown away when we saw the very first design that Bacqyard put together for us. It had fun, creative elements that we hadn’t even thought of ourselves and we have no shortage of creativity. Not only were their designs beautiful, modern and playful, it also lended naturally to the landscaping so it didn’t feel forced or like it didn’t belong.
- Render Quality - they say a picture is worth a thousand words and boy, did Bacqyard’s 3D renders deliver! Their ultra-realistic, high resolution 3D renders (and 360 tour!) made us feel like we were fully immersed in the space already! It made explaining our crazy concepts to our landscaper and contractors so much easier as well. We knew we absolutely needed to have high quality renders for this project and Bacqyard truly provides some of the best renders.
- Feedback Process - I was initially worried about how to convey all of our crazy ideas and nitpicky changes to little details here and there to Bacqyard, but the feedback process was so seamless and easy that it became an enjoyable part of this whole experience. The team was great at understanding exactly what changes we wanted even when we were word-salading our feedback. 😅Being able to download the renders and add comments to it via Canva or any other tool and share it back with the team was super helpful. I was also impressed at how their backend portal allowed for you to request all these edits to very specific parts of the design as well.
- Quick Turnaround - From the initial submissions to the first draft to making several rounds of revisions and edits to finalizing the design, our whole process took over a month to complete but it honestly would’ve only taken a two weeks if we hadn’t changed our minds so much about adding new features here and there. 😅 We were the bottleneck here while the whole team at Bacqyard was always super prompt in responding and delivering new drafts (it typically took a week for each new draft to be completed, which is a really quick turnaround for a large project like ours that covered an acre of landscaping).
This whole experience from start to finish was an AMAZING and SEAMLESS customer experience. For the price point as well, the quality and deliverables you receive with Bacqyard exceed sooooo many other companies and contractors we’ve worked with in the past. And trust me, we’ve talked and worked with hundreds of contractors at this point.
The ONLY downside working with Bacqyard is that it is done entirely online and via photos so getting the exact slope of our lot perfect was hard, which is totally understandable so we might just need to make some minor tweaks here and there on the ground when we actually implement the design. Nonetheless, Bacqyard did a great job accommodating the elevation changes in their design despite this limitation and not having seen our yard in person.
We know that our landscaping project was a one-of-a-kind type of design and project and with that said, if Bacqyard was able to nail our design so perfectly, we’re confident they could do the same with any yard of any size and complexity! Without hesitation, we would recommend them to anyone who wants to invest in the backyard of their dreams and look forward to working with them for any future projects we have.