- Garden & Outdoor
- Swimming Pool & Hot Tub
Black Swimming Pool Ideas and Designs
Klopf Architecture, Arterra Landscape Architects and Henry Calvert of Calvert Ventures Designed and built a new warm, modern, Eichler-inspired, open, indoor-outdoor home on a deeper-than-usual San Mateo Highlands property where an original Eichler house had burned to the ground.
The owners wanted multi-generational living and larger spaces than the original home offered, but all parties agreed that the house should respect the neighborhood and blend in stylistically with the other Eichlers. At first the Klopf team considered re-using what little was left of the original home and expanding on it. But after discussions with the owner and builder, all parties agreed that the last few remaining elements of the house were not practical to re-use, so Klopf Architecture designed a new home that pushes the Eichler approach in new directions.
One disadvantage of Eichler production homes is that the house designs were not optimized for each specific lot. A new custom home offered the team a chance to start over. In this case, a longer house that opens up sideways to the south fit the lot better than the original square-ish house that used to open to the rear (west). Accordingly, the Klopf team designed an L-shaped “bar” house with a large glass wall with large sliding glass doors that faces sideways instead of to the rear like a typical Eichler. This glass wall opens to a pool and landscaped yard designed by Arterra Landscape Architects.
Driving by the house, one might assume at first glance it is an Eichler because of the horizontality, the overhanging flat roof eaves, the dark gray vertical siding, and orange solid panel front door, but the house is designed for the 21st Century and is not meant to be a “Likeler.” You won't see any posts and beams in this home. Instead, the ceiling decking is a western red cedar that covers over all the beams. Like Eichlers, this cedar runs continuously from inside to out, enhancing the indoor / outdoor feeling of the house, but unlike Eichlers it conceals a cavity for lighting, wiring, and insulation. Ceilings are higher, rooms are larger and more open, the master bathroom is light-filled and more generous, with a separate tub and shower and a separate toilet compartment, and there is plenty of storage. The garage even easily fits two of today's vehicles with room to spare.
A massive 49-foot by 12-foot wall of glass and the continuity of materials from inside to outside enhance the inside-outside living concept, so the owners and their guests can flow freely from house to pool deck to BBQ to pool and back.
During construction in the rough framing stage, Klopf thought the front of the house appeared too tall even though the house had looked right in the design renderings (probably because the house is uphill from the street). So Klopf Architecture paid the framer to change the roofline from how we had designed it to be lower along the front, allowing the home to blend in better with the neighborhood. One project goal was for people driving up the street to pass the home without immediately noticing there is an "imposter" on this lot, and making that change was essential to achieve that goal.
This 2,606 square foot, 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom Eichler-inspired new house is located in San Mateo in the heart of the Silicon Valley.
Klopf Architecture Project Team: John Klopf, AIA, Klara Kevane
Landscape Architect: Arterra Landscape Architects
Contractor: Henry Calvert of Calvert Ventures
Photography ©2016 Mariko Reed
Location: San Mateo, CA
Year completed: 2016
This stunning pool has an Antigua Pebble finish, tanning ledge and 5 bar seats. The L-shaped, open-air cabana houses an outdoor living room with a custom fire table, a large kitchen with stainless steel appliances including a sink, refrigerator, wine cooler and grill, a spacious dining and bar area with leathered granite counter tops and a spa like bathroom with an outdoor shower making it perfect for entertaining both small family cookouts and large parties.
With this small backyard, we sunk a small hot tub and surrounded it with a wall to install decorative tiles. Looking out the window shows a colorful bougainvillea.
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This amazing home features a backyard patio and pool area with a spectacular custom pool with many features including island which feature sitting areas and fire pit a spa as well as incredible slide which goes into the swimming pool. The pool measures roughly 2300 square feet, and has a deep end of 10'0". The spa is raised and has 12 therapy heads. There is LED colored lighting throughout the project. There is a 300 square foot zero depth beach entry into the pool with agitator jets to keep the water moving. There is also a sunshelf within the pool. The lazy river wraps around the sunken island, and the current in the lazy river is propelled by a commercial waterpark quality pumping system. The sunken island has lighting, a fire pit, and a bridge connecting it to the decking area. There is an infinity edge on one edge of the pool. The pool also has an in-floor cleaning system to keep it clean and sanitary. The swimming pool also has the ability to change colors at night utilizing the amazing LED lighting system. The pool and spa exposed aggregate finish is French Gray color. The slide that cascades down the grotto is custom built. The waterfall grotto also provide a thrilling jump off point into the deepest part of the pool. This amazing backyard was designed and built for a home in Bull Valley Illinois.