London Bay – Private Residence, Talis Park

The homeowners’ love of entertaining underscored the design of this private residence, where Acadia doors and windows extending to the floor replace traditional sliders and enhance the indoor-outdoor connection.  
 
Open-air and underroof alfresco spaces ramble along the expanse of the backyard, offering intimate and large-scale venues, secluded destinations waiting to be discovered, and sweeping views across the infinity-edge pool to a lake and golf course. The builder considered the year-round position of the sun for optimal placement of outdoor areas, including patios off the great room and master bedroom and an expansive outdoor lanai offering living and dining rooms, a kitchen and bar, each space defined by recessed ceilings with tongue-in-grove surfaces. 
 
Lush green lawns, including a bocce court, and landscaping with mature palms, succulents and plants integrated into the pool deck soften the hardscapes. The interior palette of blues, creamy whites and gray flows outside, punctuated with cobalt blue in accents and accessories, large planters overflowing with colorful blooms, the stones of two fire urns crowning the pool’s spillover and in the shimmering glass mosaic tile of the pool’s waterline. 
 
The outdoor living area offers a linear fireplace, TV and seating for a dozen guests with a chalk-upholstered sofa, gray-washed woven armchairs, antique-rust drink tables and polished concrete-topped accent and coffee tables. There’s additional seating around the gray-washed dining table and in the kitchen, the latter featuring a much-used Evo grill integrated into the bar’s leather-finished granite countertop, a separate grill under a stone hood, and a stainless-steel pizza oven built into a chimney accented with Old Chicago brick. 
 
The kitchen elevates entertainment with a stainless-steel refrigerator and sink built into the custom cabinetry, a TV and a drawer segmented into compartments for cocktail garnishes. 
Wide steps from the lanai lead to a lower level with the bocce court, an open-air firepit and a secluded patio, where chaises are tucked from view behind the pool’s spillover, enjoying the soundtrack of water, the interplay of steppingstones across reflecting pools and the sunken spa. The stones continue to the lawn, culminating at a striking cobalt water urn set into pebbles.