Tudor Revival

We started on this 1930’s Tudor home immediately before the renovation work began.  Although the existing house had plenty of  charm and history, it proved to be too small and dark for the needs of our young clients, and was in desperate need of an architecturally sensitive makeover as well as a landscape design with a bluestone terrace and walkway.

Although the original house sat comfortably on the existing site, the new renovation plans called for expanding the footprint considerably which created a number of challenges for the design team.

Because the renovated plan pushed the house close to the rear property line, it left little room for the new pool, cabana and the sports court our clients wished to include in our design. There was also a pressing need to provide screening  from the surrounding neighbors to provide additional privacy, and to form a desirable backdrop for the spaces we were about to create  in the rear yard.

We separated the entertaining areas into two locations at the rear of the house – one off the kitchen, and one off the den.  The bluestone terrace off the kitchen is raised up eighteen inches from the rest of the yard, and has excellent views of the entire back portion of the property. The raised terrace steps down onto the lawn at one end, and onto a bluestone walkway leading to the den terrace on the opposite side.

The masonry grill station was designed to match the materials on the new house, and is centrally located so that it’s accessible to the kitchen and both terraces.

To use the limited space we had available in the rear yard effectively, we needed to think about the design of the cabana and pool from a different perspective.  We  positioned the pool and cabana on a slight angle so that it hugged the side property line, allowing enough lawn area between it and the house for playing.  A Nana Wall was incorporated into the side of the cabana abutting the pool, and step stones were located inside the pool so the user could walk directly into the pool from the cabana without the need of a patio or walkway in between.

The angle of the cabana provided enough space to fit the sports court directly behind it, occupying an unused space between the back of the cabana and the side property line. This provided an opportunity to not only hide the sports court visually from the rest of the yard, but also to help mask the noise as well.