Platinum and Pebble: A Dallas Family's Outdoor Sanctuary

Travertine stays cooler underfoot than concrete or darker stone in direct Texas sun. Platinum Ice Travertine carries a light, silvery tone that reflects heat rather than absorbing it — a meaningful advantage during the months when your outdoor living space gets the most use. In the Beattie project, Platinum Ice Travertine was used continuously from pool coping across 894 square feet of deck surface, unifying the entire horizontal plane into a single cohesive material. That consistency is both a design choice and a durability strategy — fewer transitions mean fewer edges to wear over time.

A flat spillover spa sits at the same elevation as the pool's coping line, allowing water to sheet evenly from spa to pool rather than cascading from a raised structure. The effect is calmer — a quiet, continuous plane of movement that reads as part of the composition rather than an added feature. It also keeps sightlines unobstructed. In the Beattie residence, the spa uses matched Edna Wood Nogal MT glass tile at the waterline and Platinum Ice Travertine coping, so the two elements read as one continuous design. Six spa jets provide the therapeutic function within a form that looks as intentional from across the space as it feels from inside the water.

A UV/O3 in-line sanitizer neutralizes contaminants at the source — ultraviolet light and ozone working together to reduce chlorine demand significantly. The result is water gentler on eyes, skin, and swimwear while maintaining the sanitation standards a family expects. The Beattie pool was built with a UV/O3 in-line sanitizer alongside a 460 Cartridge Filter and JXI 400,000 BTU natural gas heater — a systems package designed for the demands of a Dallas season that runs from March through November. The variable speed circulation pump completes the setup, balancing filtration efficiency with energy use.

Yes — and in a pool under 700 square feet, proportioning water features requires more care, not less. Deck jets arc water from the deck surface into the pool, creating movement and sound without occupying the water's surface. LED bubblers emerge from the pool floor, adding vertical energy at a human scale. Together, they animate the space at dusk without overwhelming a pool whose strength is its clean geometry. In the Beattie project, four deck jets and three LED bubblers were integrated into a 649 square foot pool. The IQ904-P Control Panel allows the family to run any combination independently, so a quiet weeknight and a Saturday gathering feel entirely different.

Stone veneer connects the built environment to a material vocabulary that reads as permanent, regional, and considered. Where stucco suggests something applied, stone veneer suggests something that belongs. In Texas, Buff Lueders limestone carries that quality: quarried in-state, it weathers gracefully with a warm, chalky tone native to the landscape. In the Beattie residence, Buff Lueders chopped stone veneer was used on the spa structure, grounding it against the lighter Platinum Ice Travertine of the deck. The contrast is intentional — softer stone for the vertical plane, refined travertine for the horizontal — giving the design a layered quality that holds up under close inspection.