Haint Blue Pool Cabana

West Ashley, SC

An outdoor living room at the end of the pool, wrapped in rough-sawn cedar under a haint blue ceiling.

This cabana is about as far as a pavilion can go. The back wall is shiplap with a TV and built-in speakers, and every edge is trimmed out, so it reads as a room rather than a roof on posts. Behind the TV wall is a storage room that also hides the gear that makes the room work: the wifi booster, the amp for the speakers and the ethernet line to the TV all live in there, dry and out of sight.

The posts and beams are wrapped in cedar with the rough side facing out, then finished with a penetrating oil stain. The stain deepens the natural cedar color without changing it, which is why the wood still looks like cedar instead of a paint chip.

Overhead, the vaulted beadboard ceiling is painted haint blue, the old Lowcountry porch color. It is also one of the two places the owners chose to save: beadboard sheets rather than individual tongue-and-groove boards up there, and salt-void concrete instead of travertine underfoot. Neither choice touches the structure, and both look right.

After dark, the lighting takes over. Wall sconces flank the TV, tape lighting hides along the rafters, and bistro lights stretch out over the pool deck. The homeowner had already ordered a fire table and an outdoor kitchen kit, so we set both up and tied them into the space. Then we ran stepping stones through new sod so the walk from the house to the cabana feels like part of the design.

A structure like this needs permits for the building and the electrical, and because the lot sits in a flood zone, the county also required a site elevation survey before it would approve the plans. We took care of all of that as part of the job, so the homeowners never had to chase a form.

They told us it turned out better than they had pictured. Through the whole build they trusted us with the design and with the details they could not see yet, and that trust is what let the cabana come out this way.

A pavilion at this level runs $80,000 and up.

What we built

• Pool cabana with a vaulted ceiling
• Rough-sawn cedar-wrapped posts and beams, oil stained
• Shiplap TV wall with built-in speakers
• Storage room with the wifi booster, amp and TV ethernet
• Salt-void concrete floor
• Sconces, rafter tape lighting and bistro lights
• Stepping stones and sod
• Fire table and outdoor kitchen kit set-up
• Building and electrical permits, flood-zone elevation survey

Designed and built by Doug and Zach Cramer, with our own crew.