Stickybeak of the Week: Out-of-the-Box Pool House in California
The three squares of this pool house, used as a holiday rental in Californian wine country, create an intoxicating space
The one-acre site in the heart of the Carneros wine region in western California had everything going for it: it was at the end of a private road and adjacent to acres of vineyards, it was full of mature trees, and it already had a well and a septic system. But architect Neal Schwartz says that the clincher was when his dog lay down under one of the big oak trees and fell asleep. Sold.
Schwartz began designing a house and a pool house, as the real estate agent mentioned the property would have greater value as a vacation rental with the addition of a second structure. With the property becoming wildly successful as a holiday rental for families and wedding parties, Schwartz and his husband Ron are now blocking out time for themselves to fully enjoy the impeccable modern structures the architect created on the rustic site.
Schwartz began designing a house and a pool house, as the real estate agent mentioned the property would have greater value as a vacation rental with the addition of a second structure. With the property becoming wildly successful as a holiday rental for families and wedding parties, Schwartz and his husband Ron are now blocking out time for themselves to fully enjoy the impeccable modern structures the architect created on the rustic site.
The long window in the hallway was a leftover from the main house; the windows are all outlined in black. “I’m a big fan of keeping the main architectural elements subdued and calm,” Schwartz says. “Through furniture and artwork I add colour.” Here, he framed photographs of “jellyfish and other bizarre aquatic creatures” that he found in a book by a Russian marine biologist. Behind the pool lounges, a wall of western red cedar was pre-weathered with a stain to a muted grey tone.
“I wanted to design a modern pool house that would wear well and be indestructible,” Schwartz says. The structure is clad in corrugated metal. The courtyard has a poured integral-coloured concrete floor. A flat overhang connecting the two end forms defines the pool house’s courtyard, and in the afternoons, when the wind picks up, the overhang helps block the wind. “I also oriented the structure, the courtyard and its overhang so that at any time of day there’s always a place in the sun and a place in the shade,” Schwartz says.
A pop of blue indicates the door to the bathroom off the pool house courtyard. The view from the courtyard includes the house, clad in the same corrugated metal as the pool house, the freshwater pool and the site’s mature oak trees. The site provides the perfect jumping-off point for bike riding, sightseeing and wine tasting. As a holiday rental, the buildings are ideal for visitors who appreciate a modern, uncluttered and comfortable design.
Schwartz kept things simple and inexpensive in the pool house’s bathroom. “It’s like a European bath where it’s a whole wet room,” he says. “You can easily hose the whole thing down for cleaning.” The stained-concrete floor has a drain hidden beneath the bath mat. The shower curtain runs on a basic hospital track Schwartz rigged up. He ordered the Italian tile online and purchased the tile in a 10 x 15 centimetre size. “I prefer simpler materials with nice or unusual proportions,” he says. “The way we stacked it gives the room a clean, crisp look.” He bought the light socket, then found bulbs to fit to create the fixture over the mirror.
Schwartz brought colour into the bedroom with the furnishings. Orange classic French bistro chairs sit around a table he constructed from bar-stool legs and a piece of throwaway stone. He cut the blue and grey carpet tiles so they weren’t square, “again changing the proportions to make the carpet seem more custom,” he says. While designing a photography gallery, Schwartz had the furniture maker who was fabricating the metal and Douglas fir benches for the gallery construct an extra one for the pool house.
The pool, with a grey concrete surround, has a series of broad steps for walking in; the steps also serve as places to sit. The interior of the pool is a dark-grey plaster. Schwartz planted fast-growing grasses around the pool for maximum impact. “Originally we didn’t even think we wanted a pool,” he says. “Now we wish we had a bigger one!”
A gravel path lined with a no-mow red-fescue lawn uses little to no water. “I wanted something that looks natural and wild,” Schwartz says. He traces his love of flat roofs to California modernism, particularly the Case Study Houses. “I come from the East Coast [of the US] where you need pitched roofs because of the weather,” he says. “Here, there’s no need to build all of that volume. A flat roof is more straightforward and streamlined.”
Except for the California live oaks and coastal oaks, the site was barren. A decorative fence demarcates the garden the couple created, which is filled with low-maintenance, low-water plants and grasses, including silvergrass (Miscanthus), crepe myrtle (Lagerstroemia), pittosporum and tree mallows (Lavatera). French bistro chairs provide garden seating around another table Schwartz built from bar-stool legs and leftover stone for the table top.
TELL US
Can you imagine spending a week or two in this Californian holiday rental? Tell us what your favourite part would be in the Comments.
TELL US
Can you imagine spending a week or two in this Californian holiday rental? Tell us what your favourite part would be in the Comments.
Who lives here: This is a second home for architect Neal Schwartz and his husband, Ron, and their dogs, Aldo and Florence.
Location: Sonoma, California
Size: The pool house 53.4 square metres
Architect Neal Schwartz designed the pool house as a set of squares: on the right side, the square is the bedroom; on the left side, the square is the bathroom; in the middle is the courtyard with the hallway tucked inside and behind that connects the two ends. But Schwartz didn’t want a square house. “I wanted to maximise the length of the pool house, in order to bring definition to that side of the property, block the neighbours and provide privacy,” he says. The simple forms allowed him to accomplish his goals.