Polished and Playful Pool Suite

A Holly Hunt sectional surrounds a firepit from Restoration Hardware.

After a dip in the pool—or lake—swimmers can freshen up at one of the cabana’s blue Whyte & Co. sink basins, which sit atop custom floating vanities.

Rows of lockers by SchoolLockers.com offer plenty of storage for the family and their guests to stow everything from flip-flops to sunscreen.

A custom teak shower surround allows for a luxurious—and private—outdoor bath.

Landscaping by Jennifer Anderson Design & Development adds the right touches of green to a backdrop of blues and whites in order to complete the bucolic scene.

Adding a pool suite to a newly acquired weekend getaway just made sense. The property already boasted an infinity-edge swimming pool, and the main house bordered one of Connecticut’s largest lakes. Between the homeowners’ three children, their children’s friends, and a steady influx of adult guests enjoying summer days filled with swimming, boating, and fishing, there would be a lot of showering, changing, and hanging out in bathing suits. And the owners did not want all the wet feet traipsing through the main house.

Finding the room to build a pool house was not a concern: the home sits on thirty acres. But a number of existing structures, including a guesthouse and a barn, meant “the last thing they needed was another building,” says Denise Davies, principal of D2 Interieurs in Fairfield County.

That’s why Davies collaborated with architect Mike Cusato of Cusato Architecture to convert the backyard-facing lower level of the home from a dated family room into a pool-house paradise, complete with bar, foosball table, pool table, sectional sofa facing a large TV and fireplace, funky laundry room, and dog shower. At 1,800 square feet, the space, a no-fuss respite from the more formal rooms upstairs, hardly makes a dent
in the home’s 14,000-square-foot total.

Among the most trafficked areas of the space are the bathroom and locker room, or the “changing cabana,” as the homeowners call it. Swimmers can rinse off in an outdoor shower hidden by a custom teak surround. The changing cabana includes playful touches like a floating vanity with blue (the client’s favorite color) sink basins designed to complement the deep blue floor tiles that spell out “No Diving.”

It’s here in the metal lockers that sunbathers can also stow clothes and gear for later—swapping a swimsuit for a pair of shorts and a T-shirt when switching from pool splashing to boating, for instance. (Each child has their own storage area, too.)

The owners love both the form and function of the revamped room. “Denise totally understood our vision,” says one of the homeowners. “The space not only looks amazing, but we never have to worry about visitors running into the house, leaving a trail of wet footprints when they come inside.”

Interior design: Denise Davies, D2 Interieurs
Architecture: Mike Cusato, Cusato Architecture
Landscape Design: Jennifer Anderson Design & Development

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