Spa del Sol
These Tangletown homeowners started out to build a new garage and ended up with a glowing getaway
It all began with a potting shed. Or, more precisely, a potting shed addition for the new detached garage behind Jane Neathery Cutler and Steve Cutler’s home in the Tangletown neighborhood of south Minneapolis. “We needed a new garage and we thought a little gardening shed on the side would be fun,” Jane says. ¶ Then the Cutlers, both avid gardeners, decided it was the perfect time to redesign the backyard landscape and replace an existing hot tub. “Things began to snowball from there,” Jane admits. From the hot tub, they progressed to considering a steam room and maybe a greenhouse. They began researching English conservatories, and, soon, the spa concept took hold.
The Cutlers never looked back. The golden-walled spa and sitting room quickly became their private backyard retreat, summer and winter. With newspaper and coffee in hand, both Steve and Jane ritually begin their mornings in this luxurious space. He soaks, steams, showers, and shaves before heading off to work, while she typically lingers a bit longer in the sun—often with a purring cat on her lap. The spa is equally popular with the couple’s adult children, who frequently entertain friends here.
The blissful space is the result of a collaboration with St. Paul architect Rich Laffin. The Cutlers originally asked Laffin to help them design a two-stall garage with attached space for a hot tub. Unbeknownst to the couple, Laffin was already familiar with their 1925 Spanish Colonial Revival home: He designed a kitchen renovation for the previous owners. The Cutlers instinctively liked his work and, when Laffin presented them with hand-colored drawings of his vision, they were sold. “It was something far beyond what we ever imagined,” Jane says. “At that point, we knew we were goners.”
The new building’s multi-purpose nature intrigued Laffin and also presented challenges. The interior required primary space for vehicles and storage, plus ample room for the hot tub and necessary mechanical elements. Externally, the garage and spa room had to remain proportional and reflect a cohesive appearance.
Laffin responded by setting the new outbuilding at a slight angle to the house to afford the best views of the garden. The location also hides neighboring buildings and adds a sense of privacy. Viewed from the house, the steeply pitched garage recalls “a folly,” a novelty structure that was commonly built for great estates of the seventeeth century. Not only does the spa-garage anchor the property, says Laffin, but it also adds a note of romance.
The exterior perfectly mirrors the home’s Mediterranean-influenced character. A red-clay tile roof with eave brackets, white stucco walls, and gas-lit carriage lanterns lends the garage its 1920s ambiance. A barrel-vaulted dormer in the spa room echoes similar architecture in the house, while the existing tuck-under garage now features the same mahogany-stained cedar doors as the new one.
The Mediterranean aesthetic really shines in the vaulted, window-lined spa and sitting room, which has yellow plaster-veneer walls capped with a cerulean wave pattern painted by St. Paul artist Loren Chantland. The room’s red, blue, and gold color scheme was inspired by Italian villa decor and a tile painting Steve purchased in Italy and had set into the wall. The sparkling centerpiece is a mammoth mosaic-tiled hot tub, framed in buff-colored, local Kasota limestone. The custom pool is lined in iridescent blue glass tiles and weighs roughly a ton. “It’s a substantial piece of hot tub,” jokes Jane.
Installing the concrete behemoth was one of the logistical challenges facing construction manager Dave Carson of Minneapolis-based TreHus Builders. He devised a conveyer belt of sorts using metal pipes to get the giant tub off the truck.
Nearby is a floating granite vanity and marble vessel sink area that leads to the steam room. The same red granite used in the vanity lines the commercial-grade enclosure, which features a lengthy marble bench and a rain-style showerhead.
Laffin also configured a variety of outdoor gathering—and gardening—spaces for the Cutlers. Landscape contractor Jeff Timm, principal at Werti, Timm & Associates in St. Paul, constructed the spacious bluestone terrace at the back of the house that features a raised garden bed rimmed in tumbled granite. From here, a fieldstone path leads to an intimate patio off the garage, where the couple often serves cocktails. A bed of river rock bridges the driveway and lawn, efficiently capturing runoff. The spa overlooks the yard’s largest garden, where a green wall of arborvitae flanks a circular raised bed bursting with flowers, vegetables and herbs. A vintage statue of Eros, the Greek god of love, radiates charm in the midst of it all.
The best part, say the Cutlers, is they can get away without actually going away—unless you count walking out the back door. There’s no phone, television, or refrigerator in the spa, which means pure relaxation takes precedence. In winter, the spa doubles as a greenhouse, housing jasmine, rosemary and a potted orange tree.
“This place is the cure for Seasonal Affective Disorder. It’s bright. It’s colorful. It’s warm. One foot in the door and you feel like you’ve left Minnesota,” Jane says. “In a way, it’d be great if it was bigger, because we’d love to get a lime tree.”
Michelle Baltus is a St. Paul freelance writer.
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