Example of a beach style pool house design in New York

Completed in 2013, this Dallas modern Mediterranean residence features a circular driveway motor court, entry fountain and a private courtyard with a zero edge pool and spa with wrap around golf course views. The house features a wrap around covered porch that overlooks a private putting green and walking paths. The swimming pool features an all tile finish that creates dramatic reflections day and night.

West University Landscaping

Exterior Worlds Landscaping & Design

It started with vision. Then arrived fresh sight, seeing what was absent, seeing what was possible. Followed quickly by desire and creativity and know-how and communication and collaboration. When the Ramsowers first called Exterior Worlds, all they had in mind was an outdoor fountain. About working with the Ramsowers, Jeff Halper, owner of Exterior Worlds says, “The Ramsowers had great vision. While they didn’t know exactly what they wanted, they did push us to create something special for them. I get inspired by my clients who are engaged and focused on design like they were. When you get that kind of inspiration and dialogue, you end up with a project like this one.” For Exterior Worlds, our design process addressed two main features of the original space—the blank surface of the yard surrounded by looming architecture and plain fencing. With the yard, we dug out the center of it to create a one-foot drop in elevation in which to build a sunken pool. At one end, we installed a spa, lining it with a contrasting darker blue glass tile. Pedestals topped with urns anchor the pool and provide a place for spot color. Jets of water emerge from these pedestals. This moving water becomes a shield to block out urban noises and makes the scene lively. (And the children think it’s great fun to play in them.) On the side of the pool, another fountain, an illuminated basin built of limestone, brick and stainless steel, feeds the pool through three slots. The pool is counterbalanced by a large plot of grass. What is inventive about this grassy area is its sub-structure. Before putting down the grass, we installed a French drain using grid pavers that pulls water away, an action that keeps the soil from compacting and the grass from suffocating. The entire sunken area is finished off with a border of ground cover that transitions the eye to the limestone walkway and the retaining wall, where we used the same reclaimed bricks found in architectural features of the house. In the outer border along the fence line, we planted small trees that give the space scale and also hide some unsightly utility infrastructure. Boxwood and limestone gravel were embroidered into a parterre design to underscore the formal shape of the pool. Additionally, we planted a rose garden around the illuminated basin and a color garden for seasonal color at the far end of the yard across from the covered terrace. To address the issue of the house’s prominence, we added a pergola to the main wing of the house. The pergola is made of solid aluminum, chosen for its durability, and painted black. The Ramsowers had used reclaimed ornamental iron around their front yard and so we replicated its pattern in the pergola’s design. “In making this design choice and also by using the reclaimed brick in the pool area, we wanted to honor the architecture of the house,” says Halper. We continued the ornamental pattern by building an aluminum arbor and pool security fence along the covered terrace. The arbor’s supports gently curve out and away from the house. It, plus the pergola, extends the structural aspect of the house into the landscape. At the same time, it softens the hard edges of the house and unifies it with the yard. The softening effect is further enhanced by the wisteria vine that will eventually cover both the arbor and the pergola. From a practical standpoint, the pergola and arbor provide shade, especially when the vine becomes mature, a definite plus for the west-facing main house. This newly-created space is an updated vision for a traditional garden that combines classic lines with the modern sensibility of innovative materials. The family is able to sit in the house or on the covered terrace and look out over the landscaping. To enjoy its pleasing form and practical function. To appreciate its cool, soothing palette, the blues of the water flowing into the greens of the garden with a judicious use of color. And accept its invitation to step out, step down, jump in, enjoy.

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Designed & Built by Downunda Pools

Downunda Pools

Contemporary, infinity perimeter edge over Lake Indigo
Trendy infinity pool photo in Houston

Pool Remodel

Exterior Worlds Landscaping & Design

The Berry family of Houston, Texas hired us to do swimming pool renovation in their backyard. The pool was badly in need of repair. Its surface, plaster, tile, and coping all needed reworking. The Berry’s had finally decided it was time to do something about this, so they contacted us to inquire about swimming pool restoration. We told them that we could certainly repair the damaged elements. After we took a closer look at the pool, however, we realized that more was required here than a cosmetic solution to wear and tear. Because of some serious design flaws, the aesthetic of the pool worked against surrounding landscape design. The rear portion of the pool was framed by architectural wall, and the water was surrounded by a brick and bluestone patio. The problem lay in the fact that the wall was too tall. It created a sense of separation from the remainder of the yard, and it obscured the view of a beautiful arbor that had been built beneath the trees behind the pool. It also hosted a contemporary-style, sheer-descent waterfall fountain that looked too modern for a traditional lawn and garden design. Restoring this wall to its proper relationship with the landscape would turn out to be one of the key elements to our swimming pool renovations work. We began by lowering the wall the wall so you could see the arbor and trees in the backyard more clearly. We also did away with the sheer-descent waterfall that clashed with surrounding backyard landscape design. We decided that a more traditional fountain would be more appropriate to the setting, and more aesthetically apropos if it complimented the brick and bluestone patio. To create this façade, we had to reconstruct the wall with bluestone columns rising up through the brick. These columns matched the bluestone in the patio, and added a stately form to the otherwise plain brick wall. Each column rose slightly higher than the top of the wall and was capped at the top. Thermal-finish weirs crafted in a flame detail jutted from under the capstones and poured water into the pool below. To draw greater emphasis to the pool itself as a body of water, we continued our swimming pool renovation with an expansion of the brick coping. This drew greater emphasis to the body of water within its form, and helps focus awareness on the tranquility created by the fountain. We also removed the outdated diving board and replaced it with a diving rock. This was safer and more attractive than the board. We also extended the entire pool and patio another 15 feet toward the right. This made the entire area a more relaxed and sweeping expanse of hardscape. While doing so, we expanded the brick coping around the pool from 8 inches to 12 inches. Because the spa had a rather unique shape, we decided to replace the coping here with custom brink interlace style that would fit its irregular design. Now that the swimming pool renovation itself was complete, we sought to extend the new sense of expansiveness into the rest of the yard. To accomplish this, we built a walkway out of bluestone stepping pads that ran across the surface of the water to the arbor on the other side of the fountain wall. This unique pathway created invitation to the world of the trees beyond the water’s edge, and counterbalanced the focal point of the pool area with the arbor as a secondary point of interest. We built a terrace and a dining area here so people could remain here in comfort for as long as they liked without having to run back to the patio or dash inside the kitchen for food and drinks.