Bronze heron garden sculpture in a fern planting bed beside a custom residential pool with chaise lounges, market umbrellas, and modern pool house

Tranquil Pool Escape

This wooded Wilmington property needed to become a destination: a place to relax, entertain, and live outdoors without losing its connection to the house. The clients wanted an indoor/outdoor flow that felt effortless, cooking in the kitchen, stepping out to dine, lounging by the pool, gathering around the fire, with no hard line between inside and out.

A dedicated pool house extended that hospitality to guests, with a kitchen, full bathroom, and Murphy bed giving visitors real privacy without pulling them away from the rest of the property. Above all, the landscape had to feel like it belonged in the trees, not built over them: polished enough for the pool house, peaceful enough to stay true to the wooded site.

Location

Wilmington,
Delaware

Exterior Design
& Installation

GreenRoots
Design Firm

Pool House Design:

GreenRoots Design Firm

Pool House Construction:

Pine Street Carpenters

Photography

Mark Rutt
Creative

Custom residential pool at dusk reflecting a modern pool house with floor-to-ceiling glass doors, interior lighting, and chaise lounges on a concrete pool deck
Aerial view of a custom residential pool and spa design with concrete deck, fire pit seating area, chaise lounges, wood deck, and naturalistic perennial planting beds

The Project Brief

  • Seamless indoor/outdoor flow from kitchen to pool and fire pit
  • Pool house with kitchen, full bathroom, and Murphy bed for guests
  • Poured concrete patios and walkways throughout
  • Custom pool coping and a concrete fire pit
  • Landscape lighting for evening use
  • A design that integrates with the property's wooded surroundings, not against them
Pool house interior with open-plan kitchen, blue cabinetry with butcher block countertop, yellow pendant light, dining bar seating, and floor-to-ceiling glass doors overlooking the backyard

The Experience

The pool sits at the center of it all, but the property doesn't feel like it's built around a single feature: it feels like a series of connected moments. Concrete patios lead from the kitchen door toward the water, custom pool coping gives the edge a clean, deliberate line, and a concrete fire pit anchors the evening end of the space. As the sun goes down, landscape lighting picks up the tree line and keeps the whole environment usable well past dinner.

Step into the pool house and the property's hospitality shows itself fully: a working kitchen, a full bathroom, a Murphy bed that folds away when it's not needed. It's a guest space that doesn't feel like an afterthought. Whatever the wooded backdrop, the whole property reads as one cohesive retreat, built for a quiet afternoon by the pool just as easily as a full house of company.

Concrete pathway connecting a modern studio outbuilding to a wood deck with lush shade garden planting, container flowers, and naturalistic landscaping
Custom built-in fire pit with Adirondack seating beside a residential pool at night with illuminated modern pool house in the background

A private retreat isn't about escaping the property. It's about giving every part of it a purpose.

Elevated view of a custom pool and spa design with concrete deck, built-in fire pit, Adirondack seating, chaise lounges, wood accent detail, and modern pool house