Marching Orders

     The scope of the work here was to replace all of the hardscape, give the existing pool a major facelift and rework all the plantings.

     For the hardscape renovation, we used (mostly) a teal-green slate set on concrete along with sand-blasted, natural-gray concrete with saw-cut joints, gray stucco and lots of teal-green and gold glass tile. I picked up the Mackintosh Rose in the scoring patterns of the decking and pathways and in the layout of the stepping pads.

     The swimming pool was basically in good shape, so our main work was cosmetic: We replaced all the waterline and raised-bond-beam tile with the teal-green and gold glass tile and added, in the bottom of the pool, a large, mosaic version of the Mackintosh Rose using glass tile in black, greens and purples.

     A big portion of the project involved reworking the side yard seen primarily from

     For this area, I designed a large pergola (classic Irving Gill) with a tail screen of Black Bamboo as a backdrop and to obscure the view of the neighbor’s wall beyond. The columns for the pergola are made of sand-blasted, poured-in- place concrete — basically round columns on raised pedestals that rise about ten feet to support a series of wood beams across the top. We included a six-foot- tall, gray-block-and-stucco screen wall with detailing down the face suggested by a photograph of a Charles Rennie Mackintosh headboard he’d designed for own home.

     Right outside the dining room window, we placed a small waterfeature, just a simple, square, tiled basin with a small spray jet that sends a delicate stream of water just a couple of feet into the alt Above the fountain on the wall, I designed a tile detail that suggests a wall fountain, even though it’s completely dry.

Green Scene

     The plantings throughout this project are lush and too numerous to list. We used mostly moisture-loving plants with dense foliage and leaves of differing sizes, textures and colors to add interest.

     In the side yard are lots of gray highlights and white flowering plants to establish a “moonlight garden” in which white blossoms and light foliage create highlights that are visible at night, the time of greatest use of the adjacent dining room.

     In the front, there’s a particularly lovely plum tree graced with spectacular purple leaves. Against the basic green of the plant palette and the gray of the house, its colorful foliage provides a fantastic and intriguing contrast. Other colorful plants include angel’s trumpet, scaevola, a ground cover with blue flowers, iceberg roses and lots of lamb’s ear — among much more.