A Home With Poolside Living Room | Modern Tropical | Architecture | Interior Design Ideas
After years of traveling and calling different cities home, this couple longed for something slower and closer to nature. They found it in Chiang Mai, Thailand. And the twist? They didn’t build it themselves. Someone else did. Yet it matched their lifestyle so perfectly, it was as if the home had been waiting just for them.
“Construction-wise, it’s really solid. Design-wise, we find it very interesting and suitable for us, but also the philosophy. The owner of the construction company, Su Tast, has a philosophy — he’s building a house completely finished, and he builds it for a specific kind of people. Every house he builds is different, for a different audience. And that radiated. That was the reason why we fell in love with this house,” shared Harry, the owner of the house.
My name is Alex Lee, and I am from Design Seed. Design Seed has now ventured to Chiang Mai in Thailand. This episode is in collaboration with Aurum Development Company, builders of luxury homes that create living spaces shaped around lifestyles.
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The curved façade sets a modern yet timeless impression with greenery at the entrance — but the inside is even more surprising. This is a compact home that feels unexpectedly cozy and embraces nature.
Step into the sunken living room, and you’re greeted with two different views. To one side, a pocket garden beside the car porch brings greenery into daily life. On the other side, a window daybed frames the calm swimming pool, inviting pause.
“Yes, I’m Harry. I live in Chiang Mai. I’m originally from Holland. I’m with Gong, my wife. She’s from Thailand. I’ve been around in Asia, and I chose Chiang Mai. You look around in Chiang Mai, second largest city — there is green everywhere.”
“Our style to do the house — we want to use the environment. When I built this house, this side is the west side. But they have a big tree, a lot of big trees. So I put the pool here. You can stay here all day. The feeling is like your house is in the forest,” shared Su Tast from Aurum Development Company.
A unique aspect of the living room is how the living room is sunken while the swimming pool is raised. With the swimming pool set at eye level, sitting on the daybed brings cool breezes that funnel down from the air, making it the perfect spot to unwind.
“Capella is built around two separate structures, connecting on the upper floor with a walking bridge. On the ground floor, the structures are separated by a swimming pool and a patio. The open-air patio and swimming pool work together to create a vortex of cool air that flows over the pool, whilst these two structures funnel it in onto the patio. Combined with the fact that the house has plenty of shade throughout the day, the outdoor areas are very pleasant — even in the hotter seasons,” shared Harry.
Beyond that, a sunlit courtyard filled with plants becomes the perfect spot to sit back and relax. This is a home where mornings begin with bird songs and evenings are spent by the pool.
“We have this patio outside, and sometimes we say, oh, they could have built that and made a huge living room, but that’s not what we wanted, right? And we got a nice little pocket there in the morning to sit for a coffee at the end of the swimming pool,” shared Harry.
“Plus, what for me is very important — and I’m going to mention the feng shui thing. Chinese call it feng shui. In Holland, we call it common sense. It’s not completely the same. I don’t want to say anything bad about feng shui — it’s all philosophy. But basically, I really looked at how the house was positioned towards the sun,” shared Harry.
“One of the main reasons we decided to retire in Chiang Mai is because it has a proper cold season. So the house needed to be designed to let us enjoy this outside as much as possible, and not just during the cold season alone.”
The kitchen and dining are set in a separate wing, creating its own retreat. This unique layout opens up stunningly different views of the home from every angle. The dark marble island sets an elegant stage for cooking and conversations — all against a backdrop of greenery.
“We like the architecture here. The design. The house is built in depth. If we stay in the back of the house, we are far away from the street. It’s really private. It’s compartmentalized,” said Harry.
At the back, a cozy guest room offers the best of both worlds — a quiet garden view, and the pool is just right in front.
Upstairs, the master bedroom unfolds as a modern sanctuary of comfort, framed by the gentle sway of trees.
“So the material that I use — the colour, the tones — it’s like the homey style. Warm colour, and use the solid wood for the upstairs,” shared Su Tsat.
This balcony isn’t added just for the view, but to invite more light into this home and create bigger openings for cross ventilation. If this space had been enclosed as another bedroom, the natural light shining on the pool would have been significantly reduced.
“Because we got all the trees around it, we can sit on a balcony upstairs. It’s a very nice terrace, and you feel like you’re in half a forest.”
A second window bay seating in the master bedroom offers a cozy corner overlooking the pool and living room. In the bathroom, rich red tiles bring texture and depth to a sleek space — and even here, nature is never far away.
“There are many developers in Chiang Mai, but most of these developments are based on a simple principle: you buy a big piece of land outside of town, you try to pack as many houses as you can on it — it becomes a small concrete jungle. And we didn’t want that,” mentioned Harry.
“When we visited this house — it was built by a small construction company whom we value very much now, after we bought the house,” said Harry.
“I think a lot of developers in Chiang Mai, in everywhere — they sell the product like what the people say, what the people order, but they don’t understand the mind of the client, the feeling. The feeling is the most important for my mind when I build a house. I do my best, I try my best because I try to do it for myself. After that, the customer comes. The thing that makes me happy is their happiness. This is the goal of Aurum, the goal of our team,” said Su Tast from Aurum Development Company.
Harry explained, “The design of Capella isn’t about making the most out of the indoor space — it’s about creating comfortable zones for every season. So yeah, all of that came together in this house. And we’re living here almost a year now. And again, every evening we look at each other and we say we love this house. We’re happy that we live here.”
“The first time that I see Harry — the lifestyle of Harry — I think he is the owner of this house. I don’t say anything else. He told me that he doesn’t want me to explain anything. He wants to touch the feeling of the house. And then he said, okay, I love this house. He tells me every time that he meets me, I love this house. So this one gave me the happiness,” shared Su Tast.
For Harry and Gong, and their beloved pet dogs, this isn’t just a house — it’s a culmination of a lifetime of travel, now anchored in tranquility. It is a reminder that retirement isn’t about slowing down, but about finding a home that feels true to who they are. And here, in this corner of Chiang Mai, they have found exactly their own peace.
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