Pool at Sunnybank
Sunnybank Guesthouse, a rental property in Clifden, Co Galway, is unique in that it has an outdoor heated swimming pool. Although the facility always attracted attention, it was underperforming in terms of use. Looking at the pool areas relationship to the main house it was easy to see why. Guests had to traipse through the kitchen and out the back door in to a dark back yard and through a locked gate to use the pool. I began by looking at the accessibility and visibility of the pool from the house. By pushing back the heavily planted stone and blockwork retaining walls directly outside the kitchen window and opening up a new outdoor cooking and dining area the pool revealed itself from the kitchen window. The new retaining wall steps in and out and up and down creating cosy cushioned seating areas divided by lush planting in between and wraps around the whole pool area, leading you from the new outdoor BBQ and dining area, to the cosy poolside lounge seating. The careful levelling, square profile and consistent finish throughout creates visual continuity and invites guests to comfortbly move between zones. Catering for groups of all sizes to congregate was important, as well as a dining area to seat over 20 guests at once. As well as this new layout and levels, I worked with the client thoughout, sourcing and specifying new granite paving, atmospheric lighting and timber furniture to create an incredibly stylish and ‘instagrammable’ look.
