The White House is a bright single-level family home in Akwa Ibom that opens onto a garden with a pool and bar, and has its own home cinema.
The family's home in Ikot Usan, Akwa Ibom is a single-level house set in its own grounds, with a separate gate house for staff at the entrance and a garden for entertaining, complete with a pool, jacuzzi and bar.
Our client wanted a home that felt secure first and easy to enjoy second. The challenge was to make the house, the gate house and the garden work as one home, while keeping the security in the background so that arriving felt welcoming rather than guarded.
We connected the house, the gate house and the garden to one system, so the family can run the whole property from one place.
A screen on the Sitting Room wall, a remote in the Master's Bedroom and an app on the family's phones all control the same things: lights, blinds, music, air conditioning and the front gate. When a visitor rings at the gate, the call reaches the gate house, the kitchen and the Master's Bedroom at the same time.
Every bedroom, including the children's rooms and the guest room, has its own music and lighting. Smoke detectors and alarm sensors cover the whole property, and cameras around the perimeter are watched from the gate house.
The garden is where the family entertains. Speakers hidden in the planting and underground carry music across the pool, bar and gazebo with no equipment in sight, and one scene brings up the garden lighting and music as the afternoon turns into evening.
The main entrances open with a fingerprint, a code or a card. As the door unlocks, the entrance lights come on, and the same entry works at the kitchen door the household uses most.
We set the speakers into the walls and ceiling so the room still looks like a lounge when nothing is playing, then tuned the sound to the shape of the room so every seat hears the film properly. The projector stays hidden in the ceiling and lowers into place as the screen comes down, so one button turns the lounge into a cinema and back again. The Family Lounge nearby was kept deliberately simple for everyday use, with music, a TV and one lighting scene for relaxed evenings together.