Hawkstone Outdoor Design was founded in 2019 to transform outdoor living across Jacksonville through thoughtful design, expert craftsmanship, and lasting client relationships. Since then, we’ve grown into one of the region’s most respected design-build firms—known for creating stunning, fully customized spaces that reflect how our clients live, gather, and relax.
From full backyard transformations to elegant hardscaping, outdoor kitchens, and custom structures, we approach every project with care, creativity, and precision. Our team brings decades of combined experience to every detail—from the first design sketch to the final stone set in place.
We’ve earned industry recognition, including multiple Best in Show awards, but our greatest reward is the trust our clients place in us—and the spaces we bring to life.
Hawkstone has earned industry recognition—including Rookie of the Year (2020) and Best in Show in both 2024 and 2025—and is led by a Certified Pool Contractor (CPC).
We guide you through every step of the process, offering expert advice and creative solutions to ensure your outdoor space is exactly what you imagined—and more.
From Duval County to St. Johns and beyond, Hawkstone brings expert design and quality craftsmanship to outdoor living spaces across Northeast Florida. Whether you’re in Jacksonville, St. Augustine, or any of the surrounding areas, our team is dedicated to creating beautiful, functional outdoor environments that bring your vision to life.
Wondering if we cover your area? Reach out to see how we can transform your outdoor space.
Hawkstone Outdoor Design is driven by the hands-on leadership of Steven Ballantyne, Owner, Consultant, and Project Manager. With over twelve years of experience in the construction industry, Steven’s passion for building and his attention to detail are at the heart of every project.
Starting from a young age, Steven learned the value of craftsmanship alongside his father, developing a love for building that would shape his career. Over the years, he worked his way through all phases of construction—from field labor to project management and design. This wide-ranging experience has given him a comprehensive understanding of the nuances involved in bringing outdoor spaces to life.
Steven is personally involved in every aspect of Hawkstone’s projects. He works directly with clients, listens closely to their needs, and ensures that each design reflects their unique style. His hands-on approach means that he is actively overseeing all stages—from initial consultation to project completion—guaranteeing quality craftsmanship and a seamless experience. He ensures that each project runs smoothly, on time, and within budget. He is committed to providing personalized service, offering expert advice, and maintaining the highest standards of quality throughout the process.
Outside of work, Steven enjoys the outdoors, whether surfing, sailing, or exploring local trails with his dog, Nugget. His love for nature and outdoor living is woven into the work he does at Hawkstone, where every space is designed to be both beautiful and functional.
Our owner is involved in every step of the process, ensuring that each project meets his high standards. As a consultant and project manager, his hands-on approach guarantees attention to detail and a personal commitment to your vision.
As a locally owned business, we understand the unique needs of our community and the local environment. Serving Jacksonville and the surrounding areas, Hawkstone is proud to bring expert outdoor design and construction to the region we call home.
We believe in delivering exceptional results, no matter the size or scope of the project. While we work within your budget, we never sacrifice quality. Every material, design choice, and build is executed with care and craftsmanship that will stand the test of time.
From the initial design consultation to the final touches, we offer a complete outdoor living experience. Whether it’s a small update or a full backyard transformation, our team manages every aspect of the project, so you don’t have to worry about a thing.
Our commitment to customer satisfaction goes beyond the project’s completion. We always follow up promptly and ensure your space meets or exceeds your expectations. We take pride in our work and in the lasting relationships we build with our clients.
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside of it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to