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Photo by Gordon Gregory
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Photo by Gordon Gregory
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Once a garage and garden shed, the guest house design emulates the look of the historic main house, a stone cottage in the Three Chopt Road Historic District. (Photo by Gordon Gregory)
Distinguished Heritage
In the 1920s, renowned New York City architect Ernest Flagg designed four stone cottages in Richmond. Each home has picturesque style with steeply pitched roofs, swept eaves, rustic stone walls and ridge-top dormer windows intended to draw heat out of the house on summer days. When clients asked design firm 3North to transform one cottage’s 750-square-foot garage into a one-bedroom guest house, designers converted doors to windows and added pergola outriggers to emulate the main house features.
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An early 20th-century carriage house in the Fan District has a new, very 21st-century purpose as an entertaining hub. (Photo by Ansel Olson)
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Photo by Ansel Olson
Carriage House Courtyard
When homeowners approached Jill Nolt, principal and landscape architect at Waterstreet Studio, with a request to transform the 345-square-foot carriage house and small outdoor area behind their Fan District home, their goal was to create spaces that could accommodate entertaining and work meetings. The design had to deliver a relaxing place for the family of four to gather, as well as indoor-outdoor flow for large events. Glass replaced brick in two outwardly facing walls of the old carriage house, which now includes a seating area and a small bar. A skylight that spans the length of the wall opposite the courtyard fills the once-dark structure with light.
Tucked into a lush natural setting, this reflecting pool and pavilion were refurbished to better fit into the landscape. (Photo by Christopher Thompson)
Classical Inspiration
A refreshed slate roof, plus a new stone surround and walls added structure and brought an elevated finish to an existing pool and pavilion at a home in the Near West End. Inside the pavilion is a powder room with storage and changing areas. The roof extends over a small serving area with a table and chairs for protected al fresco dining. Landscape designer Russell Combs added a classical framework to the outdoor retreat with boxwood and holly shrubs.
A pair of 10-by-10-foot cabanas custom made by Pennsylvania-based Hillbrook Collections stand at attention poolside. (Photo by Becky Rees Creative LLC)
Twin Cabanas
Owners of a historic Goochland County home brought the layout and design they wanted for a pool addition to Greg Koehler at Outdoor Dreams. Included was the pair of matching cabanas at the end of the travertine pool deck. Their Identical exteriors belie very different contents: One houses a shiplap-lined changing area with built-in cabinets and drawers to store towels and sunscreen. The second provides storage for pool toys and equipment.
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Its purpose remains the same, but the retrofit of this pool house dramatically upped its functionality and style. (Photo by Ansel Olson)
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Photo by Ansel Olson
Poolside Retrofit
Enclosed by four brick walls and an outdated cedar shake roof, the old pool house had served its purpose for many years. Scott Stephens of SMS Architects reimagined its role as a place for family gatherings with the addition of a stone fireplace and fully open seating area, kitchen and bar, all tucked under a new standing-seam metal roof and resting atop new bluestone floors, which were elevated to create a step-down to the pool deck.
