reducing amount of lawn

I would recommend Beth Chatto's 'The Dry Garden' - if you visit her garden in Essex, you will find a whole area with no grass, but wonderful plants in gravel. It looks spectacular all year round with the type of planting she has. I recommend a visit, too, if possible. Good luck with your project.

I know of a person who (with tongue firmly in cheek) suggested that to have a naturalized garden one must find an old, previously well cared for garden that has been let go...and go from there! We gardeners tend to be an obsessive lot...but...you don't have to xeriscape to have a nice natural low maintenance garden... google
Ann Lovejoy... she has a garden design manual that would probably be helpful.