Luxury Swimming Pool and Outdoor Living - Project #1

In this post I'm going to share the very first project that I designed when I quit my job and started Hearthstone Environments with another partner. It was a scary time in 2012. The economy was hinting at turning around but still far from it. Nevertheless, I was fearless and my adventure began.

I had a friend that wanted a small simple pool. Luckily for me, small and simple grew and grew and grew until we had designed an extravagant backyard paradise. In a way I feel like we took a part of Hawaii and dropped it in a small parcel in a forgotten part of Atlanta.

I'm proud to say this project was featured in HGTV and won an APSP International Silver Award. Not a bad way to start out!

A view from the front of this luxurious piece of work. Actually this is what the front looked like when the house was bought. What it transformed into is quite amazing.

First, we analyzed the lot and thought, "man this is going to be tough". Fortunately, I was able to team up with a talented Landscape Architect who said "hey, why don't you buy the house beside it too." That random thought was where all the fun began. So the owner bought the lot next door. Now we had two old row houses 25 feet apart at different elevations and different angles.

It took us a year to get through permitting. We were forced to combine both lots and once we completed that process we were informed that you can't have two residences on one lot. We were non-conforming.

Bright idea #2 - "Why don't we just combine the two houses?" And so it began, we combined both houses with a central indoor/outdoor entertainment room. Most people would have bulldozed and built a McMansion, but we did not want to destroy the fabric of the neighborhood with a big eye sore.

The result - Two houses become one and we fit the style of the neighborhood. The private indoor/outdoor porch to the front bedroom was quite an interesting feature.

Now onto the backyard. What does every man need in the backyard? A grotto, palm trees, exotic materials and of course a dinosaur!

View #1

View #2 (Firepit/Seating Wall)

View #3

View #4

The Grotto was fun to build. Rather than stack a bunch of rocks on top of each other, we poured a structural concrete shell then used real boulders as well as faux concrete rock carvings to build a grotto unlike most others you may be used to seeing on pools.

Every Grotto needs an back passageway

And Italian Mosaic Tiles

And a Dinosaur. If you don't notice at first glance, the ceiling of the grotto beholds a T-Rex fossil.

We had fun, not only with the grotto, but the choice of materials and the juxtaposition of natural spaces and the exotic built environment around it.

Here we used a purple mosaic tile against a natural flagstone and a custom PebbleTec/BeadCrete Blend. If you want people to think you are crazy, show up with expensive purple tile that you imported from the other side of the world. As you can see however, it subtlety blends the natural stone with the contemporary pool.

Waterfalls and more waterfalls. We wanted a large shallow ledge above the pool to extend the water falling from the grotto. From the center of the shallow end you almost have a 180 degree waterfall surrounding you.

The "lighthouse" between the pool entry and the upper shelf is one of my favorite features. It's a welcoming way to make a difficult transition between two pools and frames the grotto ahead.

The interior of the pool was a custom blend of 100% glass beads from BeadCrete. It's the only one like it in Atlanta for sure! If you look closely you can see millions of blue, green and red glass beads in a sky blue plaster mix.

We didn't stop with the pool. We wanted the upper shelf and the grotto to feel like you were entering shallower sandy water. We added glass beads and sea shells to add to the glimmer. Also, notice the detail in the hand carved stone.

Some additional photos:

Thanks for taking the time to review the first pool I designed when I branched out on my own. It's still one of my favorites, but each new project is an opportunity to explore new ideas, spaces, materials and challenges.

If you're interested in working with me please don't hesitate to contact me. I can work around the world, locally or consult with you on a project via email/skype/etc. And I know we're in the crypto world, so I work for Bitcoin, Steem, Ether, you name it as well.