Julie Orr Design

We hired Julie last spring to help us with a design for our backyard. We wanted to completely take out what was there and start over. Julie came out and met with us, and she listened to our ideas about what we wanted. She drew up a design which we modified a bit and added on to, etc. She helped recommend and pick out pavers and colors that would match our house. She also designed a custom outdoor kitchen that is now one of our favorite parts of the backyard. We were very happy with Julie’s work (we also used her contractor to build it out), and our backyard turned out beautifully. We would definitely recommend Julie.

Excellent landscape designer! I recently finished up a second landscaping project with Julie Orr Design. Both my projects were in the $ 40K range and involved demo, hardscape, new planting, new irrigation and lighting. Julie had a very efficient way of determining what I wanted the new landscape design to reflect when complete. This enabled Julie’s fee structure to be very reasonable — especially considering the detailed extent of her finalized plans. She really knows her plants and the range of hardscape options and truly understood the look I was trying to create. The finalized installation was exactly what I had envisioned and I’m thrilled with it. My Julie Orr front yard was featured on KRON4 TV news and I continue to get many, many compliments on both the projects she designed for me.
Julie showed up on time for appointments, kept to the promised schedule, worked seamlessly with the contractor and stood behind the plant guarantees. Very professional business person and a delight to work with.
I’m very happy I choose to work with Julie Orr Design and would definitely use this company again for a future landscape project.

I’m very disappointed with the unprofessionalism from Julie Orr Designs. We are looking to completely redesign our front and back yards and had spoken with Julie about three months ago on an initial phone consultation that was scheduled online. During the consultation, she provided me with the fee structure and captured some of our requirements. After confirming with my husband, we reached out the following week via email and phone hoping to kick off the project. Julie never responded to any of my emails or voicemails. After multiple tries, we finally gave up. Three months later, we wanted to reach out again (thinking there might have been some time constraints or challenges previously). Since there was no response on the email or phone, we scheduled online for another slot. Received confirmation that Julie will call, but on the specified date and time, she never did. I really don’t know why I’m being ignored multiple times — I am sure I have been courteous and respectful on our initial phone conversation, we have a good size open space that allows for creativity, our location is easily accessible between the peninsula and south bay and I am a pleasant person to work with (at least that’s what I have been told and I have been raised to respect and think of the good in people). I’m not sure what went wrong. But my experience so far with this company has been disappointing.

I highly recommend Julie Orr Design. Even though Julie had a busy schedule and had to come «out of her way» to meet with us she provided a great design for a very «tired» backyard landscape. We love it.
She also stayed the course in recommending a landscaping contractor who worked well with us and met our budget.
Thanks Julie.

We contacted Julie to do our design work for our backyard only, and ended up loving the look so much we continued onto our front yard. Julie is down to earth and very easy to work with; our 3 hour in home design meeting was so much fun! We found Julie to be quite knowledgable, and she seemed to fully understand exactly what we wanted — something that would look nice year round with little maintenance on our own part. She understood the colors we like, the look we like, etc. with relative ease. After our initial meeting, we made a lot of changes, all of which she again accomplished with ease. It was a true pleasure to then work with South Bay Design and Landscaping, recommended to us by Julie. We didn’t go with them automatically, we did shop around; but ultimately, we decided we liked their experience, professionalism, and timeliness, and honestly, just found Matt super nice and easy to work with too. Matt and Julie together make a great team, and they worked hand in hand to carry out Julie’s vision. The end result is a complete package, down to the gardeners that now take care of our landscaping… from start to finish, easy to work with, understanding of our needs and likes, experience and professionalism, beautiful landscaping that is very easy, warm and fun to live in and play in, and very little maintenance. Perfection!

Our landscape was a disaster, rotted and uneven, the leftovers of a Japanese-​style garden built in the Sixties mixed with some failed attempts to rejuvenate it, and we needed a complete, 360 degree, down-​to-​the-​dirt landscape replacement. Our wish list included a modern, clean space, contemporary style, ample room for edible gardening, an outdoor kitchen and a place to relax and enjoy our views of the surrounding East Bay hills. Julie listened to our ideas and assessed the landscape situation, including sunlight direction, views from outside and inside the house, proximity to neighbors, etc. Knowing our budget, she drew up two great plans which included hardscape, fencing, lighting and plants. We decided to merge some elements from both plans into one final design, and she met with us on at least four different occasions throughout the process to refine the ideas and offer guidance. She recommended offsite builders for a fire pit and outdoor kitchen in order to meet our budget yet still achieve the design goals. After an eight-​week build, the new landscape looks great and we couldn’t be happier with the results.

We hired Julie for an Express Garden design a year ago, and found her great to work with. She put in an enormous amount of time and effort on our project and had some fantastic ideas for making our yard a real show piece (neighbors still stop to admire!) We used her contractor, Southbay Design for the installation. Although they weren’t the quickest, they were such wonderful, courteous guys and clearly care about their workmanship. With the horrible freeze this winter we lost quite a few plants (can’t blame Julie for the weather however). We also recently hired Julie’s recommended garden service (Julia Powers). Julia mentioned our plant loss to Julie, and she came right out (at no additional fee) to recommend replacements. She clearly cares about her customers and about making your yard a place of beauty.

We hired Julie to do an Express Garden design for our huge backyard a year ago. I found her through the great reviews on Unilocal.We were so excited and had great expectations.
Well, it was disappointing. Julie came out and spent 2 hours with us. She did a simple design for us, mainly picking plants since we already had some ideas about our landscaping. It was nice to have a PDF for a landscaper to follow. But here was the big problem, we didn’t go with Julie’s landscaper (a pretty rude and cocky young man). We found a landscaping company on our own.
It’s now a year later. A lot of the plants Julie chose aren’t doing well in the Belmont’s clay soil, especially under our oak trees’ canopy. I remember raising the question with her about one type of plant in particular that I was worried about and she stood by her decision even though we had over 35 of them. We wanted rusty colors and a drought resistant garden. We got a green and gray backyard with plants that don’t want too much sun but don’t like shade either… so lots of dead plants to replace…
Her $ 800 fee wasn’t worth it.
I felt bad for one of the previous reviewer below, named Joanna, when I saw Julie’s arrogant & presumptuous answer.
— Julie, I wish you cared about ALL your customers. Creating peaceful havens and beautifying nature, should be a labor of love, shouldn’t it?

Julie designed a new back yard that we installed this summer. We love the design, and the final product is gorgeous. Julie was great about listening to and understanding what we were going for. She interpreted our needs and wants, and came up with a design that addressed them perfectly.
Julie went above and beyond to help us with the little hiccups and details that occurred during the project installation, like helping us to fix the color of a stucco wall that was off after the first attempt.
We thought her pricing was good. Julie is very personable and easy to work with. She gladly accommodated our crazy schedule. We fully recommend working with Julie!

Had Julie come out to do an Express Garden design for our backyard a year ago. I found her through all the great reviews on Unilocal.Well, it was OK, but not great. She came out and did a simple design for us, mainly just picking plants since we already had some landscaping. Spent about 2 hours with us. It was nice to have a PDF for our gardeners to follow. It’s now a year later. The backyard plants are nice, but nothing special. They haven’t really bloomed or grown into the garden that I wanted, not as colorful. They are easy to maintain like I had wanted, but not sure if for my situation, her fee was worth it.

Last year Julie developed a gorgeous plan for our backyard — the results were so great that we didn’t think twice about asking her to come up with a plan for the front yard re-​landscaping. Julie developed a beautiful design for the front that reflected not just improved curb appeal, but our style as well. The plant selections are gorgeous and considerate of drought conditions, and really enhance the look and appeal of our house. The entire front yard looks spacious, plants are meticulously placed and the entire design is a cohesive work of art! You will be well served by Julie’s sense of style, knowledge of plants and eagerness to capture your style. She is extremely creative and has a wealth of knowledge.

I am thrilled with how my project turned out. It entailed a complete makeover of my front and back yards. (See photos). The project included hardscape, outdoor kitchen, Louvretec roof, firepit, lounge area, lighting, speakers, heaters, and garden (new lawn, flowers, trees, and irrigation). Julie designed everything, I am super happy with the end result. Julie was very easy to work with and full of great ideas from the big picture level to the small details. It was a pleasure to work with her and I felt I got real value for money (as evidenced by the joy we get out of using our new backyard and the comments from friends and strangers). I have no hesitation in recommending her.

My husband and I love the new yard that Julie helped us with. We have a very long driveway, 3 side yards, plus a back yard that were in desperate need of updating. Julie worked with us to keep the design within budget. She was super flexible and patient about the changes we made to the plans. When the plants arrived, Julie did the final placement before planting. She also helped us pick out our flagstone, pavers, and lighting, plus the containers for our porch; and she even met us at a nursery to pick out the plants for the containers. Julie definitely provides first class, detail-​oriented service. The landscape work was done by Southbay Landscaping and we’re extremely happy with the results.

Julie is very experienced, knowledgeable and creative landscape designer. She really helped bring my vision of a fluid transition from a static wood deck down to a curved garden, slate path and grass patch come true. She also worked very well with our landscaper, getting down in the dirt with them to ensure the positioning of our slate was exactly how we wanted it. Her plant selections were a perfect blend of right for soil, native and eye pleasing. And our Meyer lemon tree is pumping out fruit like nobody’s business.
Highly recommend her for any size landscaping job.

We just reached the end of a project to completely redesign our front yard and back, replacing the driveway and walkways and all existing grass and shrubs. We wanted to replace the lawn with drought-​resistant landscaping, and make the walkways safer and more convenient. Julie worked with us to understand our goals and preferences, provided plans, and recommended a firm to execute the work. The project has just ended and we are very pleased.

Julie provided an Express Garden design service for our back yard redesign. Julie came to our home and worked with us to quickly understand what we were looking for from a landscape layout and plant perspective. Within a few hours Julie provided — on the spot — an AutoCAD generated PDF of the design, as well as a detailed inventory of plants tailored to our needs. We were then able to provide these documents to the landscaping company as a useful project planning and costing reference.
We’re very happy with Julie’s work, and the final product that was produced from it.

Julie’s Express Garden Design service was perfect for us as we did not want anything very complicated. Over the course of 3 hours, Julie came in, walked with us around the yard, listened to our idea, brainstormed some various options, then drew up the final plans. She was also able to recommend a local contractor to do the work and even returned on planting day to oversee the final layout. Thanks Julie!

«I know when I refer my clients to Julie they will be graciously, professionally and creatively taken care of by her expertise. My residential remodeling clients have been extremely happy with the results of her designs and the process to complete them. I look forward to many creative years of working with Julie and will not hesitate to refer her to all my clients to complete their outdoor living environments.» Patrice Greene, DzignIT

We worked with Julie for our residential front landscaping project.
We haven’t really worked with a designer before and had originally planned to do everything ourselves. Well after staring at weeds for too long and struggling to come up with our own plan, we gave Julie a call.
She was great to work with. She was able to listen to our ideas and incorporate them into coherent plan. She even was able to help make things work as our thoughts changed about major elements of the plan. We are extremely pleased with the end result and would highly recommend Julie!

Julie is helping me start a «demonstration garden» at my home in Redwood City to show the world how beautiful sustainable landscaping can be! We’re just getting started, but her ideas and visualization are fantastic and she weighs all the (sometimes minute) factors to create the proper garden for your environment.