Design by Ellie and Mike Mroz
Photography by Laura Moss Photography
Text by Donna Rolando
Some families are prompted to begin a grand transformation by their dream of the lush oasis their backyard could become. For a busy Westfield pair, however, the spur was something a bit more prosaic: a leak in the pool.
“We’ve lived here 20 years, and the pool was falling apart,” says the homeowner and mom of three children, now grown. “We had to fix the pool.”
But why address just a leak when elevated, resort-style living is within reach?
She called on Westfield husband-and-wife team Ellie and Mike Mroz, not only to restore the pool to the glory of days when they threw tons of parties at their five-bedroom ’90s contemporary, but also to heighten the style and function of the entire yard. “It’s a beautiful space,” she says now, signaling a job well done.
Truly, Michael Robert Construction (Mike Mroz is its president and CEO) and Ellie Mroz Design reimagined this backyard with the homeowners’ interests in mind—for instance, creating a putting green with a sand trap beyond the revamped pool area.
“They really trusted Mike and me and our teams to create something that blended seamlessly with the existing home,” Ellie says. “They wanted it to feel resort-like, like a vacation in their own backyard—a place that their kids and grandkids (a total of four) would want to come to and that would be easy to maintain.” That last point was key for this couple whose time is shared with Florida and Jersey Shore homes, thus performance fabric abounds in dirtmasking shades such as tan and light gray.
Before this 2022 upgrade, the yard suffered from overgrown landscaping, uneven hardscaping and incohesive flooring, the team says. The weathered patio and its drainage woes sent Ellie off on a quest for harmony, which ended in Turkey with ocean-blue marble mined there.
When COVID hit hardest, challenges were enormous—including the challenge of shipping the marble when containers proved scarce. “That’s exactly what everybody went through during COVID, but we spent a lot of time getting the orders correct—and it turned out beautiful,” Mike says.
Another challenge came as Ellie considered Jersey’s oft-harsh winters in creating a dining area of concrete that mimicked teak without the upkeep and could accommodate the whole clan. Problem: The table as it was being built wouldn’t suit the wide wicker chairs comfortably. Solution: Redesigning the table for a heavenly match.
As the team proved adept at leaping obstacles, they were tasked with matching the home’s exterior while building stone features such as the Bobe fire-bowl accent wall running the length of the 16-by-40 Gunite pool. “On the house the stone was mined from a quarry 30 years ago,” Mike explains. “We had to order different stone from different companies to get the mix we needed.”
A testament to their perseverance is the natural fit of the fireplace built from scratch to welcome a cozy cluster of seating, including a “cuddler” round daybed by Janus et Cie that can hug all four grandkids. Sure, the fireplace burns wood, but for no-fuss there are gas logs too. Mike created a splash-free nest by expanding the distance from the pool after terminating a trellis.
For when family comes to play, this entertainment mecca has it all, as the team gave a fresh look to the pergola and covered bar area and reimagined a tiny fireplace built into the house as an eye-level smores station. The concrete artists at JM Lifestyles who created the dining table also mastered the circular firepit, a magnet for high-back lounge chairs and stump side tables, both by Janus et Cie. (An outdoor kitchen with a pizza oven and more already existed at the site for when appetites wouldn’t wait.)
“We wanted the furniture to blend in with new marble flooring and the home colors—it’s a mix of traditional and contemporary,” Ellie says of her design perspective. “The teak brings a fresh vibe whereas the woven (as in the Summer Classics pergola chandelier) and rattan create a more traditional feel.”
Worth the upgrade, the Gunite pool promises fun for the kids (it has a shallow zone) while the grownups recline on sunken lounge chairs perched on swim shelves. A swim ledge that spans one side of the pool is the epitome of chilling out.
Keys to the resort atmosphere are the three-zone, 24-speaker sound system and layers of lighting, which especially wow as a string of lights sparkle over the corner Jacuzzi. Landscape architect Land Identity made sure everything from white hydrangeas to succulents found its perfect spot, then a built-in irrigation line to each planter provided hassle-free care.
Though the homeowners never stay too long in one place, they now have a timeless project to welcome them when they hit home turf. “It’s a great spot,” says one, grateful that fixing a leak ultimately gave her a “prettier” pool with water and fire features as showstoppers.