This Pool House Doubles as a Guest Retreat
May 2, 2023
The only thing better than having your own pool? A pool house that doubles as a guest retreat.
Text by Kathryn OâShea-Evans   Photography by Jared Kuzia
To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, no matter how much you love and cherish your houseguests, in about three daysâ time, they will inevitably, like fish, start to smell. Unless, that is, your property includes the ultimate guest quarters, separate from but equal in comfort to your main house.
So itâs no wonder that one Hingham, Massachusetts, family set out to build a pool house that would do double duty as GuestHQ. Comfort and hard-wearing materials were paramount but so was a serene feeling that wouldnât clash with the familyâs own digs.
âWe didnât want it to match, exactly, but speak the same language,â says interior designer Sarah Scales. Case in point: the exterior cedar walls. âSince the pool house is a dark color, we felt it would recede more into the landscape as opposed to painting it white to match the main house, which sits directly across the yard,â says architect Peter Twombly. âDark-colored doors and windows were used for the same reason.â
Another priority: access to sunlight, recalls landscape architect and Stimson principal Joe Wahler, who has been working with his clients on their parcel of land since 2012, when they initially built the swimming pool and surrounded it with Japanese cedar, white pine, arborvitae, and hemlock. âWe worked with the owners to plant a diverse mix of understory flowering trees: redbuds, dogwoods, and witch hazel,â says Wahler. âItâs quite amazing.â
But itâs the hidden comforts and artful touches that really make the pool house feel like home. All the furniture is upholstered in fade-resistant outdoor fabrics that can stand up to everything from persistent sun to âkids in wet bathing suits with popsicles,â Scales says. Rather than sourcing artwork from a gallery, the homeowner commissioned artist Alyssa Fortin to photograph her children in the swimming pool; those nine images hang above the convertible sofa.
The best part of the pool house, though, may come from the feeling that you donât have to choose between the indoorsy or outdoorsy lifestyle. âThe living roomâs sliding doors are quite big, and when theyâre open, itâs as if youâre outside,â Scales says. Thereâs plenty of breathing room for houseguests and homeowners alikeâand itâs close enough to the pool for the occasional cannonball.
Project TeamÂ
Architecture: Estes Twombly + Titrington Architects
Interior design: Sarah Scales Design Studio
Builder: Gilman Guidelli & Bellow
Landscape design: Stimson
Share
You must be logged in to post a comment.