Complete Monrovia Outdoor Transformation: Custom Pool, Modern ADU & California Resort Landscape

Landscape Construction, Swimming Pool Construction
Monrovia

This Monrovia project was designed around a custom ADU office that opens directly into a beautiful outdoor setting. Garden View Landscape, Nursery & Pools designed and constructed the ADU, then built the pool, spa, landscape, hardscape, planting, lighting, and outdoor living areas around it. The goal was to create more than a backyard with an ADU. The goal was to create an office retreat that feels connected to the garden, pool, and outdoor living environment.

Because Garden View handled the ADU construction, pool construction, landscape design, hardscape, planting, permitting, trenching, piping, electrical, sewer coordination, and underground utilities together, the project could be built with one clear plan. This one-stop responsibility gave the client better coordination, better cost and construction control, and far less effort trying to manage separate contractors. Our team knew where the utilities, footings, pool plumbing, irrigation, lighting conduits, drainage, and sewer lines were located, which helped each part of the project work with the next.

The ADU was designed as an office that opens to the pool and garden. Instead of feeling like a separate building placed in the backyard, it became one of the main anchors of the design. The pool, spa, walkways, planting, boulders, fire pit, cabana lounge, and lighting were all planned to make the ADU feel like part of a complete outdoor environment.

Garden View often refers to this type of design as the “Dorothy Look,” a nod to The Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy’s house appears to have fallen into the Land of Oz. In landscape design, the idea is that a structure looks like it gently landed in a natural setting that was already there. On this project, the ADU office, pool, spa, pavers, concrete walkways, planting, and boulders were built with purpose, but the finished yard feels natural, established, and inviting.

The backyard includes a custom pool with a raised stacked-stone spa, blue glass tile accents, and a stone spillway that adds sound and movement. Interlocking paver decking and curved concrete pathways connect the ADU, pool, spa, fire pit, cabana lounge, and main house. A louvered cabana provides shade and a comfortable seating area, while a separate fire pit lounge creates another destination in the yard.

Planting was used to provide privacy, soften the ADU and hardscape, and make the project feel more natural. Fieldstone boulders, layered garden beds, lawn, hedges, Kangaroo Paws, Agapanthus, and low-voltage lighting help create a resort-like setting during the day and at night.

The front yard was also redesigned with a custom paver walkway, path lighting, planting, lawn, and a bubbling stone fountain, giving the home a finished entry that matches the quality of the backyard.