Redwood Outdoor Living & Design

Redwood Outdoor Living & Design does not swing the hammer. The East Walpole firm masterplans resort-style backyards — pools and spas, outdoor kitchens, pavilions and pergolas, gathering and planting spaces — then acts as the client's owner's representative through the build, managing the trades rather than being one of them. Brian Mulvehill founded it and runs it as Principal. The site says he came out of UMass Amherst with a landscape architecture degree and set Redwood up after founding and leading the design-build division of another local firm, and the company puts itself at 25 years in business. Its Houzz page shows a Sherborn modern outdoor-living project and puts typical jobs between $30,000 and $2 million, which tells you the scale this firm is built for: a whole backyard planned at once, not a patio patch. Houzz lists landscape and garden design, hardscaping, patio and pool design, custom fire pits, water features and outdoor lighting among the work it takes on. The named service area covers the western and southern suburbs — Walpole, Westwood, Needham, Wellesley, Dover, Medfield, Dedham, Brookline, Newton, Weston, Sudbury, Wayland and Concord, plus Foxboro and Cohasset. If you are planning an entire backyard and want one person holding the drawings and the schedule while separate contractors do the building, that is the arrangement on offer. Settle early what the design and management fee covers against the construction contracts you will sign with the builders, and ask to see the firm's own projects closest in scale to yours.