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Stylus Maximus
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A Combination of Greco-Roman and contemporary styles helps
turn a small backyard into an intimate outdoor living room
by Rebecca Robledo
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When pool and spa designers encounter a small backyard setting next to a huge house, it’s easy for them to feel as if they’ve been short-changed. Instead, pool builder Jim Stannard and home builder/designer Tom Argue viewed the 600-square-foot area designated for this aquascape with a special mind-set: “The glass is half full.”
Making a Statement
Some designers might think this site screamed for a boulder pool. The 6,500-square-foot house and 800-square-foot guesthouse were veneered in an artificial stone with an antique mortar wash to give it a weathered, Old World feel. In addition, the yard backed up against an ascending hillside with raw boulder outcroppings and some of the boulders were nearly as large as the house.
However, there wouldn’t be room for plantings and Argue didn’t want the pool to blend in. “When there’s so much of one material, a lot of things get lost,” say the president of Argue Costum Homes, based in Scottsdale, Ariz. “We wanted something that popped, something that felt refreshing and was different than the rest of the experience of the house.”
Sometimes it appears as turquoise; at other times, it takes a tan cast. The pool’s almost like a mood ring -- it’s always changing. The tile gives enough difference that you would notice the pool and see that it’s different from the rest of the home. But, yet, it’s not so vastly different that it’s shocking.
With the shape in place, Stannard had to find a way to fit moving water into the picture. The clients wanted a vanishing edge, but they didn’t have the expansive, descending vista to support one. They needed something modest to keep the area as open as possible and the focus where it should be: on the natural desertscape.
“When you’re sitting on the deck, you’re looking back up the hill,” Stannard says. “We decided it would be kind of a waste to try to make something dramatic there because you wouldn’t see it that much.”
Stannard designed a round, elevated, total-perimeter, vanishing-edge spa to give the homeowners the glassy water they wanted and the sound of falling water. He also capitalized on the raised deck next to the pool to create a subtle spillover fountain, which adds a nice trickling sound by the home and patio.
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“Nobody has ever walked in that backyard and said, ‘Your backyard’s tiny,’” Argue says. “You just don’t get that sense.”
Subtle Masterpiece
For better access, pool designer Jim Stannard created a wedge-shaped floating step and finished it with a skidproof white tile. While the step adds another modern touch, the idea actually came from the functional concern.
We didn’t want to cover up the trough,” says Stannard who owns Natural Settings, Pools and Water Features in Phoenix. The lower step, made of cantera stone to match the deck, ends at a trough.
To give the trough an almost shadowing effect, Stannard lined it in the same dark blue tile used for the pool steps and benches. In-floor step heads placed every 4 feet help whisk debris into the pool, wher it will be removed through the skimmer. Stannard stayed away from floor heads because they would spray too far for the shallow area.
To keep the trough wet, Stannard made it the same depth as the first step of the pool.This way, the pool water would equalize and the trough would consistently have 8 to 10 inches of water above it.
Separate circulation, booster and vanishing-edge pumps push water from the pool into the spa. Stannard’s crews heat-bended the plumbing to fit inside the 14-inch, raised wall. There were no 90-degree elbows and the equipment was within 30 feet, so Stannard was able to feed the vanishing edge with a 1/4-horsepower pump pushing approximately 80 gallons per minute.
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