concealment
As I’ve emphasized so far in this series on the art of concealment, it is my firm belief that, as a designer and/or builder, you must pay attention to detail if your goal is to reduce visual clutter and thereby please your clients. In my own projects, I am so accustomed to pushing past so many aesthetic obstacles that it’s become second nature to me. As a result, whenever the need arises to install, say, a junction box or a deck drain or a cleanout, I have
For years now, I have been fascinated by the lengths people are willing to go to avoid visual clutter.It all started before I was a watershaper – back in the days when a partner and I spent our time setting up high-tech security systems in the homes of well-to-do residents of Silicon Valley. As though it were yesterday, I remember a homeowner giving me a tour of her house and taking delight in asking me to
Now we come to the finishing touches - little details that make a big difference in the ultimate appearance of the renovated pool we've been watching develop here for the past several months. Through those many months, we've taken a pool that's more than 70 years old, rerouted all of its plumbing through cores cut in the old shell, added a circular spa in the shallow end, raised the floor in the deep end, reshaped the steps, added lights in a new, pool-long bench, installed all-new equipment and laid down gorgeous glass tile throughout - all without disturbing the beautiful limestone decking that surrounded the pool. As the project came to a close, we turned to a final
One of my guiding principles has to do with the fact that early decisions my clients and I make about materials have a huge influence on how my watershapes ultimately are designed and built. The project we've been following through the past few issues is a perfect case in point: The choice of the bluestone coping and of the one-inch glass mosaic tile for the pool's and spa's interiors started the wheels turning and definitely drove the early stages of the design process. As I've mentioned before, this project and its unforeseen problems (as well as clients who were at times unsure of exactly what
