Portside: Pool House

Inside Portside, a whole-home design project inside a casual coastal contemporary home on Long Island Sound.

While designing the Portside Pool House, we were creating an inviting multi-purpose space for hanging out in-between swims and wellness activities like the sauna and working out. The pool house is, of course, all about entertaining and blending indoor-outdoor space and bringing a vacation-like feeling.

With architecture and build team led by HELM and John Bonnelli, respectively, many exterior elements of the main home and existing pool area were incorporated into the pool house’s design to connect the three spaces together, like repeating the dipped cedar shingles and carrying the bluestone from the pool deck into the interior floors. These hard finishes are all marked by their beauty, high durability, natural slip resistance, and bring cohesion into the spaces that all flow into each other.

The Pool House’s south and west-facing walls have a pair of accordion-style steel doors that open the entire space to feel like it's in conjunction with the adjoining spaces. Opening as wide as possible, this creates the feeling of continuity between the inside and outside spaces– whether people are in the pool house, in the pool, eating on the patio or the nearby fire pit, everyone feels connected. The vaulted shiplap ceiling is one of our favorite unique architectural elements in the pool house, with steel cable ties spanning the width of the space. We chose Benjamin Moore’s Simply White, which is the perfect shade of true white in a sunny, natural lit space, and the color we used throughout the interior of the main home. We love how it creates a strong focal point that not only immediately draws your eye up as you enter, but you can also see when you’re in the pool.

The interior design of the pool house is defined by the same light & bright, textural coastal aesthetic that feels really connected to the main house. When working with a narrow color palette, like the one seen here, we love mixing materials and tones to create a more dimensional look. The main living space features an indoor/outdoor rug, a u-shaped sectional in a perennials performance fabric, a woven ottoman in a striped sunbrella fabric, honey-toned rope stools for extra seating, and ceramic garden stools that function as side tables. The dining space repeats the area rug in a varied cut, with a high-gloss lacquered round table and bistro chairs with woven resin seats (no worries about wet bathing suits here!) and a rattan frame. The mini kitchenette features inset cabinetry, polished marble and aged brass hardware. We completed the look with a few throw pillows, towel hooks, and a few pretty decor accents.

Just outside the pool house, you’ll find a customized 55” concrete gas fire table by Montana Fire Pits, surrounded by 9 deep-seated harbor chairs. The arm chairs are made from high-density polyethelene; while we’re always leaning towards natural materials where possible, these chairs’ frame material does not splinter, crack, peel, rot or fade in color, and is infinitely recyclable. In addition, its cushions performance fabrics stand tough to moisture, salt, sun, mold and mildew— all high-performance, low-maintenance features that were incredibly important at an oceanside location. Lastly we added casual dining tables and chairs made of Ipe, an exceptionally dense, hard, and durable tropical hardwood.