Built in tandem with the renovation of a Shelburne, Vt., mansion on the shores of Lake Champlain, this 540-square-foot indoor gunite pool was designed to look and feel like a contemporary version of a classic Roman bath.
To achieve this, everything from the bronze rail goods to the lighting in and above the pool was custom made. These and other materials, including the French limestone coping and 4-by8-foot exposed fir timbers above the pool, were chosen with great care, since the project gets its feeling and character from its architecture, rather than the furnishings filling it, says Dan Morris, owner of Roundtree Construction, the New Haven, Vt.-based builder that remodeled the pool and home.
"It's really an amazing piece of architecture to experience," says Morris.
The pool room, in particular, was meant to be a meditative space. According to Morris, it has an almost spiritual feel, enhanced by the tall brick columns and numerous windows surrounding the pool.
Like all the other brick used in the room, the red brick on the columns was treated with a pigmented mortar wash. Morris says the wash is a European formula that's applied with a trowel and brush.
