When Larry and I went into the first meeting with our builders, I brought a list of must-haves, but I was always very clear about the most important item. I wanted to be sure that Larry had his own space designated for his interests and hobbies. My reasoning for this was simple… he has worked his butt off in the NFL for years to provide for the both of us and our future family and he deserves to have a space that truly celebrates him and all the things he loves. And this is where the pool house was born!
Typically a pool house would be another space to entertain apart from the main house and our plan was no different, we just added a different twist. Once we decided that Larry would have his own space in the pool house, we had to narrow down what would be included. The first priority was always music. Larry is quite the talented musician, even though he’ll tell you he’s just okay. He started playing bass guitar in college with his friend and has since taught himself how to play electric and acoustic guitar as well as drums. It’s honestly obnoxious how quickly he picks up on new things. An area for the regular jam sessions was definitely at the top of the list.
Next, we had to be sure to include the gaming areas. This included a card table that will probably only be used for spades. Let’s be real, I wasn’t allowed to become a Warford without not just knowing how to play spades but also be able to actually WIN a game. The gaming area also needed to include a pool table. Along with his many other talents, Larry is an incredible pool player. He has never owned his own table either so this was a must-have.
After checking all of Larry’s boxes, it was time to make the space a bit more practical. We added a half bath with enough storage to keep spare cleaning products and a bar area with the necessities to keep the party going without trips back to the main house. At the end of the day, we came up with a really cool space that met all of our needs, and it was time to talk design. The pictures below show our bathroom inspiration and the rendering of what we came up with for the actual space. Look at all that storage! So good, right?
We wanted the pool house to be moody, masculine, and sophisticated. It’s truly going to be a space that Larry can grow into. We definitely wanted to go with a dark wall color and mix in some wood tones. It also had to be insanely sound proof because of the music. That was a challenge with all the windows but our builders did a great job ensuring that we wouldn’t be the annoying neighbors. This picture below was one of the inspiration pictures that really brought together a lot of the ideas.
We were finishing up with the design phase and wanted to be sure that we kept one big thing out of our plan. Did you notice anything missing? Yep. You guessed it! There is 0 football. There are a lot of different personalities that come together in the NFL. There are guys who live and breathe everything about football and there are guys who do this as a job and not much more. Larry is the latter. Just like every other thing he does, he excels at football but it was never something he liked to talk about after leaving work. Don’t get me wrong, it was definitely something he enjoyed but like most of us he just wanted to leave work at work. We kept our home football free, from what we talked about to what we decorated with. I definitely kept and collected all the amazing accolades along the way and they will be displayed in this house, just not in the pool house.
Our designer Toni, once again, did an amazing job taking our inspiration and bringing it to life with her renderings (like the one pictured above). As construction began, the pool house was the first to go up and I truly believe this wasn’t an accident. This being the first space to have walls was destined to happen. The pool house is a dedication to Larry and all of his hard work and the rest of the house will stem from that. I am so excited to see how things come together as we get further along in this process, but for now this is where it all begins.
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