The client’s home featured bold geometry — big, triangular roofs and a second-floor deck that created a thick line around the outside of the structure. In designing the pool, Skip Phillips took advantage of these elements.
Architectural mirror
The client’s home featured bold geometry — big, triangular roofs and a second-floor deck that created a thick line around the outside of the structure. In designing the pool, Skip Phillips took advantage of these elements.
The two-sided vanishing edge mimics the angles of the home’s roof, creating an integral visual connection between house and pool. To strengthen that visual bond further, Phillips added heavy stone coping around the pool to reflect the powerful stroke of the home’s overhanging deck.
The soft touch
While the lines of the house were very geometric, the structure also featured natural veneers which softened the look. “The home reads as a big cabin,” Phillips says. He wanted to similarly tone down the hard lines of the pool. But using natural materials on the flat surfaces wasn’t enough. He added two circular elements — a sunken wet/dry bar and a sundeck directly across from it.
In addition, Phillips specified a few boulders to be set around the pool and bar. This gave the design a more organic look. To fit with the modern aesthetic, the pool interior is completely finished in dark gray ceramic tile with a dark blue safety rim.
Raising the bar
The homeowner likes to entertain large groups, so a bar made perfect sense. In addition to the six stools on either side, it contains a 2,000-square-foot deck that actually doubles as a lower patio. Gene Brown, who built the pool, added umbrella holders as well. He created the stools with a wider cap, rather than simply filling a single Sonatube with concrete.
“People want to tuck their feet under,” Brown says. “And it’s more comfortable, being a little bigger on top.” To build the stools, Brown took a smaller Sonatube for the base, then formed the cap with a piece of larger Sonatube for the perimeter. He then used plywood for the top and bottom of the seat.
