Stones in the Wall

Living on a tropical island doesn't guarantee you a secluded tranquil oasis, case in point the proximity of our neighbors.  The condo project next door is so close that we can clearly see the neighbor's front door and bedroom windows from the deck. UGH$#*&!! to put it mildly.  We jumped at the chance to turn this problem into a WOW feature, and came up with this stone privacy wall.

I had original thought of constructing a metal trellis similar to this one that we saw at the W Hotel in Vieques.  It just look so cool and effortless at W (but then again everything looks cool and effortless at this W).   However, I knew that one tropical storm with gale force winds would quickly strip away any foliage and our privacy with it.  Besides it would probably take a small army of landscapers to keep it looking this good.

We needed something low maintenance and more permanent.  And then over coffee as we gazed over at the neighbor's one morning, George uttered words of wisdom that changed everything..."how about a stone wall?"  I was still groggy and dismissed the idea for a quite a while (I still really wanted my trellis) until I thought about it some more and figured out a way to make it special!


The stone wall was erected at the end of the deck and continues along the edge of the pool and ends with a cascading water feature.  We love it, but more importantly it adds a tremendous amount of privacy and buffers ambient noise from the neighbor's.

I had the stone mason set the stones with minimal mortar to create the illusion of a natural rock formation with lots of crevices and dynamic texture.  Three small spot lights were set on a dimmer, and cast a warm glow at night grazing the rocks and picking up their varied shades.  To soften the look of the wall,  niches were carved randomly throughout the stonework.  I plan on placing a few of my orchids in these.  I also plan to soften the wall with a vertical garden along the top of the wall and near the water feature. 

It was a tricky wall to build.  The deck is 20 feet up in the air and the pool slab is only about a foot wide on that side.  Incorporating a freeform water feature and lighting into local stone no wider  then 12", sure caused the crew to mumble curse words under their breath every time I ask them to move a pipe or a rock every so slightly, but at the end it was all worth it! 
CC