New renovation! A tropical spa area

I love taking spaces that seem to be of no use and turn them in to something special. Every home has areas indoors as well as outdoors that just feels like wasted square footage.

Clients tell me all the time about hallways, corners, nooks that they simply never use and have a millions of reason why. The only reason why someone never uses an area is 1) because its not designed or 2) It’s not designed right. When a space is fun or welcoming and has a use, people will go there.

At the far corner of our ranch house against the hill there is a just such a space. It’s a small terrace area with a storage cabinet, a fence and an ugly air vent. It is however right off the master bedroom so my boyfriend suggested one day….why not add a hot tub? The hot tub mention inspired me to create a little California surfer paradise spa area.

Here is where we started….

We decided to start by adding a ficus hedge long the side of the space to create privacy.

As you can see on the picture the neighbors on the street below can see straight up, so the corner will get tall banana leaf plants and a ficus hedge will go from the corner of the yard all the way up to the master bedroom.

First step was  removing the storage bin and chain link fence.

Besides a mid century sofa I envisioned a cool space with a hanging chair.  I found a bunch of cool affordable hanging chairs at Pier 1. World market had the other items I needed for the sanctuary.

There is also an exterior bathroom on this side which will be spruced up. It will  need lights etc.

Ficus hedge has now been planted.

Facing this direction up the hill (picture below)  I will try to reuse some iron fencing that will be removed from the garage renovations.

The air vent outdoors I thought I would cover with an Artificial ficus hedge.

I have never tried it but I’ll give it a try. Have you?

Artificial ficus hedge

Hot tub arrival!

Here it is so far – not too exciting, but it will be.

I’m planning on using these vintage retro surfboards you can get on Etsy to cover the wall.

Here are the sources for the spa items I purchased.

Lucky you if you like them because now they are already 50% off!

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Can;t wait to see how this will turn out!

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