Level ground for a hillside pool

A steep grassy bank was the starting point for this Haymarket backyard. xScape created a level pool setting through substantial retaining work, giving the house a broad outdoor terrace where the original ground offered little room to gather.

The firm's account identifies a 45-foot gunite pool, a large shallow ledge and more than 1,600 square feet of paving. A long stone seat wall helps establish the terrace against the slope. Those dimensions describe the construction, but the photographs reveal the everyday result: space for loungers, a counter with stools and routes between the water and the house.

Keeping the material palette quiet

Gray paving and stonework carry across the different levels. The limited palette lets the pool, furniture and planting remain distinct without introducing a new finish at every transition. The raised spa uses the same general tones, with its water surface set above the main pool.

Under the deck, the covered seating has a more enclosed character. Pale sofas face one another beside the house, giving the yard a place to gather away from the exposed terrace. The open pool area and sheltered room can serve different weather and different parts of the day.

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xScape

Meeting the ground beyond the terrace

Wide steps return to the planted slope. Their generous landings make the edge feel like a route rather than a barrier, while garden beds occupy the spaces alongside them. The retaining work is visible, but it also becomes part of the way people move through the yard.

The project demonstrates why a hillside pool is a landscape problem before it is a pool-shape decision. The water needs level ground around it, and that ground needs a coherent relationship to the house and the remaining slope. Here, the repeated paving, stepped connections and covered seating make those relationships easy to follow.