Design & Planning Services
What design actually does.
Before anything gets built, we spend time on your property. We walk the site with you, look at how water moves through the yard, assess the slope and soil, and talk through how you want to use the space. That first site visit shapes everything that comes after: the layout, the materials, what gets tackled first, and what a realistic budget looks like.
From there, Kristin develops a concept design built around what she found on the ground. Not a template, not a catalog selection. A design specific to your property and your goals. Kristin works closely with Eric, who helps map out order-of-operations, engineering details, and timeline.
That combination matters more than most homeowners realize. If you find a designer who doesn’t understand construction, they can produce beautiful plans that are unrealistic or expensive to build, difficult to permit, and wrong for the site conditions. A contractor who builds without a proper design is guessing. When design and construction knowledge work together from the beginning, the project is better for it. There are fewer surprises, more accurate pricing, and a finished yard that works the way it was intended to.
Projects that feature our Design & Planning
When we started working with our clients in Burien, they had two new buildings on their property, but not much else. Kristin worked closely with the homeowners through several reviews and reworks to tailor their full-yard installation of plants and hardscaping to meet their exact needs and tastes.
Kristin was tasked with creating a remote design for a client in California. The client provided photos of the space, and a list of ‘wants’, and we were able to deliver a full design with measurments, material lists and estimated costs to be provided to a local contractor for installation.
Even a small project gets a full design workup with reviews. Kristin designed this xeriscape plan to replace sod in a front yard, making sure that every plant and boulder were just right for the new design.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Services / Construction & Build / Plants & Landscaping / Patios / Drainage Solutions / Retaining Walls / Irrigation / Permaculture / Curb Appeal Services / Outdoor Lighting / Lawns / Commercial Lanscape Installation / Full-Scale Outdoor Renovation / Decks / Paver Installation / Fences / Decks / Sustainable Drainage / Construction Costs / Synthetic Turf
Meet your Designer.
Kristin has been working as a designer for nearly two decades, bringing a background in design thinking that goes well beyond landscapes. That foundation shapes how she approaches every project — as a creative problem to solve with both function and aesthetic advantage in mind.
She holds a Permaculture Design Certificate from Oregon State University, which informs how she thinks about every project. Understanding how water moves, how plants relate to each other, and how a landscape functions as a system makes for better design across the board, not just in native gardens.
After six years designing across Seattle and the Eastside, what still drives the work is turning the specific constraints of a property into the most interesting parts of the design. Every site has its challenges — grade, drainage, awkward proportions, a house that’s hard to complement. The best designs don’t work around those things, they work with them. Clients tend to feel that when they see the finished work.
“Terreworks was wonderful to work with! Submitted a request online and they contacted me about my project the next day. Eric came out to scope out the project and Kristin came up with a beautiful design for the landscaping.”
– Chris, Ballard Neighborhood