Despite the relatively small yard, the clients had a sizable wish list. They wanted a nice view from inside to the backyard, then from the backyard out to the sunset. For entertaining, they wanted a fire feature, as well as an outdoor kitchen with barbecue, counter and bar.
As far as water goes, they requested falling water and really enjoy vanishing-edge effects.
“I said, ‘You’ve seen the size of your yard, right? How are we going to fit this all in here?’” says Scott Cohen, garden artisan with The Green Scene, in Chatsworth, Calif.
To conserve square footage, Cohen and his team designed this raised perimeter-overflow spa. A sheet fall coming off the adjacent stone-clad wall, spills heated water from the spa. “The sound is just right — it’s not too loud or crashing, because it’s not falling that far down,” Cohen says. It also features an LED color-changing light bar.
He finished the vessel with a 1-inch ceramic mosaic tile mix containing blacks and browns, with pops of deep ocean blues. A cast-concrete bridge provides entry. Ridges at the edges of the bridge make it more visible and add traction.
Raising the spa 18 inches helped create the illusion that the space was more open. “It makes the back wall look smaller — it doesn’t look like a 5-foot-tall wall anymore, because it’s not — it’s a 3-foot-tall wall,” Cohen says.
Adding to the sense of spaciousness, Cohen sprawled the major elements in the yard, around the perimeter. The raised, stone-veneered fire pit sits by the back fence, creating another gathering spot away from the spa. The low-slung feature preserves views of the sunset. The outdoor kitchen remains unobtrusive at the side of the yard.
A wisteria-covered arbor by the spa shields it from the next-door neighbors. “That vine is going to be dripping with lavender flowers, and will grow another foot and a half over the height of the arbor, which will give us additional privacy,” Cohen says.
