The red-brick Georgian colonial was exactly what the couple had been searching for: a Shaker Heights home on a half acre lot with an in-ground swimming pool, along with a whirlpool spa.
But it wasn’t dive-right-in ready for fun in the sun.
Brian Shirk of Genesis Landscaping in Chardon describes a chain-link-fenced backyard with landscaping so overgrown that it obscured views of the pool from the house. More importantly, the property lacked the features that turn a pool into a centerpiece of outdoor living.
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Dawn Cook of Shaker Heights-based bldc design says the new owners envisioned hosting gatherings ranging from impromptu cocktails with friends to sit-down dinners and fundraisers.
“It needed a whole new plan for how to live [in] and use the space,” she says.
Shirk responded by laying out and installing the necessary amenities, including black aluminum fencing and “less-is more” landscaping that left as much lawn as possible for the couple’s two younger children to play. Cook then treated each space just as she would an interior room, selecting everything from furniture to planters to maximize form and function.
“[The wife] wanted it to feel finished,” she says.
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Shirk removed a stamped concrete sidewalk and landscaping beds to make way for a sandstone living area featuring an 18-by-18-foot open pavilion purchased from Berlin Gardens in Millersburg. The white structure’s columns were anchored in cinder block posts. Shirk’s team then added a back half-wall that rises in the middle to accommodate a TV, then wraps around one side to form a bar with a refrigerator and pullout trash bin under a black leathered granite counter. The design did not include a sink.
“The biggest issue was the wastewater, of where to tie that into the drains,” Shirk explains.
Cook notes that a wet bar, let alone a fully plumbed pool house, wasn’t a necessary element in the project. A renovated kitchen and half bath are located just inside the house’s back door, along with a mudroom and laundry addition where guests can stash street clothes The sunroom overlooking the pool, she adds, provides an all-weather escape from cold and wind.
Shirk’s team veneered the posts, wall and bar in the same cultured fieldstone used to face the gas firepit built just outside the pavilion and grill island next to the back door; electricians wired the pavilion for Bromic- brand heaters and a ceiling fan. Cook then began furnishing the space by laying a textured charcoal-gray rug on the floor and hanging drapery panels stitched in a white performance fabric at the pavilion’s right angle of open sides.
“The sun at 5 o’clock is hot, and it streams into the space,” the designer explains.
The furnishings are hospitality-rated aluminum-core pieces heavy enough to withstand a stiff wind. The sectional, with its frame of a mushroom synthetic woven to resemble wicker, is anchored by a chaise; the Bernhardt-brand swivel chair catches the eye with a frame wrapped in a soft knit overstuffed sock weave. A half-dozen bar-height chairs with weathered teak frames and two polyethylene stools that look like giant white beads complete the arrangement.
“Those things could end up in the pool, and they’d be fine,” Cook says of the latter, Janus et Cie-brand finds.
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An expandable white aluminum table surrounded by chairs with light-gray woven synthetic seats and backs dominates the dining area outside the pavilion. Cook assisted the homeowners in selecting tableware and linens in shades of white and blue, along with slender cordless table lamps.
“There is so much more cordless lighting available now for outdoor,” she notes. “So we like to use lamps a lot, even by the pool. It’s just so much easier. Before, you were like, ‘Where am I going to plug this thing in?’”
The homeowners surrounded the firepit with Adirondack chairs shielded from the sun by an adjustable cantilever umbrella. Additional furniture and pool inflatables are stored in a light-gray Amish-built shed that Shirk ordered. The utilitarian structure looks like a storybook cottage with its white pergola, shuttered windows and flower-filled window boxes.
After the pavilion was finished, the husband asked Cook to replace the aforementioned ceiling fan with a mirrored disco ball illuminated by multicolored lights. The unusual request came with a reasonable explanation.
“[His wife] loves to have little dance parties,” she explains. “He wanted to surprise her for her birthday.”
Dawn Cook always insists that her clients order covers for their outdoor furniture. The co-owner of Shaker Heights-based bldc design points out that covers do more than protect what is often a major investment — they can unify the view of patios, terraces and pavilions when the spaces aren’t in use. She suggests purchasing a matching set in a tasteful neutral and clearly labeling each cover to eliminate the hassle of repeatedly determining which ones go over sofas, chaises, club chairs, etc.
“Otherwise, they look like a big bunch of sheets or tablecloths,” she says.
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