Pool/recreation room
Following with the concept of having an equivalent exterior room to match the interior of the home, this pool serves as the ‘rec room,’ as it embodies the comfort and fun of a game room. The pool has a grey in-pool lounger at one end that includes an umbrella to allow bathers to sit in the sun to chat while enjoying the water. Further, the pool has interior stairs and an in-wall ladder which permits sitting as well as making ingress and egress easy from various sections of the pool. The interior bench is the client’s favourite feature as it is aligned with the custom swim-up bar which can be used by those who are in or out of the water.
This feature presented the biggest challenge of the project, as it is positioned below the grade of the pool wall and decking. This meant ensuring there were no drainage issues. To do this, McGregor was cautious and built a small drainage reservoir beneath the bar so excess water could drain easily and seep into the ground without flooding.
Designing the bar to be functional on two separate grades allows bathers in the pool to swim up to the bar and join those outside the pool for a drink, food, or conversation.
“People experience these swim-up bars in tropical resort destinations and it has become a popular design feature on residential pools,” says McGregor. “We did the math on the volume of water involved and the surface area to figure out how much to excavate. We inserted clean aggregate and piping so the water would filter down into the ground strata.”
In doing this, an entrance pipe was run through the concrete floor to a network of perforated drainage pipes in a large gravel field. Once the structure was finished, the bar’s countertop was installed.
“The countertop comprises a large, custom-cut piece of Wiarton flagstone,” says McGregor. “It provided a beautiful, finishing touch to the highly functional and fun space.”
Working with the space to integerate multiple backyard elements
Backyards come in all shapes and sizes and both can present challenges. The most important consideration is keeping the scale of the different elements in mind.
In this particular case, the lot was fairly large. Therefore, to give the backyard the feel of a secluded retreat, the pool size along with each outdoor room had to be proportionate in scale to accomplish the look the client wanted. There were a lot of features to integrate into one outdoor living space, and it was important one feature did not overpower another.
