How We Built Our Pickleball Court

She was charming and rustic. We loved the idea of a sports court and naively thought we could just resurface this one, although it was HUGE (tennis courts are massive, but this one was even much larger with tons of space all around it). The asphalt was broken everywhere, with tons of weeds growing through all the cracks.

But there was such a sense of play and fun just having it there. We envisioned years of kids playing here with their friends and a lot of parties. I barely thought about this area, as I was super focused on designing the house, all the insides. Brian certainly had dreams over here – not of a pickleball court but of a sports court for basketball, rollerblading, etc.

But then we learned the reality – that no one will just resurface broken asphalt. It will only continue to crack because the foundation is so poor, and no one wants that on their company’s reviews.

So, unfortunately (for the budget), we had to demo out the entire court or keep it. The only positive of this was that we needed gravel for an access road up the hill, so they brought in a huge truck that turned the broken pieces of asphalt into our gravel road (not total regrind, but a layer of it in addition to even more gravel that we had to pour).

Once it was all dirt, we poured new concrete, 1/2 the size. I still felt that it was too big, but Brian, envisioning so many middle-aged dad pickup games and years of our kids playing horse, thought it was the perfect size.

It looked so much better, and I certainly could not complain. At first, the fresh concrete was just so pleasing to look at (which, spoiler, gets dirty with months of annual rain). But in my mind, to myself, I would say, “It just looks like a parking lot”. But it wasn’t painted/finished yet, and I thought maybe that was it? But the longer we lived with it, the more we really wished we had more greenery, more softness, and we didn’t want to invest in finishing it if it wasn’t the right size. So we put it off.

Meanwhile, the tennis wall was not in the best shape, flanked by a very old fence that was in even worse shape (super broken and covered in blackberries and ivy). We didn’t mind all these things at first and played on the court a TON (including our first pickleball tournament last summer). But I felt that I had done wrong by the property by having too much hardscape and just craved softness.

I had no idea how to do this, but Dennis’ 7 Dees did. We hired them to remove a big chunk of it so that we could make that space softer, but still usable. It was gone in 2 days and I was so relieved. I knew we’d add some stonework for paths and places to hang, but the big block of hardscape would be gone in favor of lots of greenery – trees, shrubs, evergreens, and perennials.

Updating The Broken Fencing

But then, in the middle of this all, other things kept popping up…all of a sudden, what didn’t bother us before became such an eyesore – that broken “fencing” that flanked the wall covered in blackberry and ivy. My brother was like, “What are you going to do about the fence and the tennis wall?” And Brian and I both were in denial, saying, “It’s fine, it’s fine!”. But as you can see above, it was not fine. The only reason to wait to fix it was financial (but it HAD to be fixed soon). So we asked ourselves the hard and privileged question: if we are going to fix it in 2 years, are we sure we shouldn’t just pull the bandaid off now, while we are already in construction? We feared this would cost like $15k to do it right (you guys, fencing is CRAZY expensive). We were in the middle of the garage redo and the landscaping, and while I’m still not ready to fully add it all up, it was a lot, and this tennis wall fence just wasn’t a priority. But “future Emily” imagined taking the photos of this stunning landscape with this janky wall in the background, and it would have ruined the shots. She was like, “Don’t be shortsighted, make it look better now”. So I asked my brother, “What if we gave your framing team a $4k bandaid budget – don’t rip out the posts and re-pour the footings, don’t do it the ‘best’ or ‘right’ way, just make it look better for $4k.” They understood the brief and said that in two days it could be “better”. They took off the rotted wood and replaced it, but the structure, including the posts and footings (which were old and in OK shape), remained. The plan was to just nail gun-ready-made off-the-rack vertical planks of doug fir to the existing posts and rails. GREAT.

But of course, we needed to choose how the fence was going to be finished, and I had an idea that it should be stained green to kind of “go away” and match the tennis wall. It was surrounded by trees, so maybe a dark green would just disappear? We tested a bunch of colors above, and I had a clear winner.

But when I showed my genius decision to Brian, he did NOT agree. He thought it should just be stained a natural fence color, which was hilariously irritating to me after testing so many greens. I was sure of myself on this one, but Brian was EXTREMELY sure that it was a bad idea. So we compromised after some awkwardness around my team, LOL, and agreed to leave it natural wood. We’d wait til it grays out like the rest of the split rail fence, and if it bothers me, we can readdress it next summer.

But the bright “orange” of the fresh doug fir fencing was bumming me out, so while I was out of tow,n Ken and Brian came up with the idea to use a slight gray stain to cut the orange and make it look more grayed out. The sample on the left had one coat on the top of the plank, 2 on the bottom.

I had to approve this from my shoot in California, BTW, but I agreed that the top staining was fine – just one coat of a gray stain to cut the orange. You can also see above how messed up the tennis wall was, which we didn’t really notice until the new fencing was up (WHERE IS THE END OF THE STRING??).

Surfacing The Pickleball Court

Finally, we were ready to hire the professional resurfacers to make it look like a finished sports court. We got a few quotes (all between $10-12k) and went with the nicer, more communicative team (a father and son who were lovely). It took about a week – they have to level it, acid wash, sand?, paint, dry, paint dry, paint lines, dry, etc. I wasn’t in town to take photos, but Brian sent me the screenshots above. Oh, and we chose just to do one green and white striping (you can choose to make “the kitchen” an alternative color like blue or a different green, but we felt like this was the least loud).

Resurfacing The Tennis Wall

But THEN once the court was done, the tennis wall looked even WORSE. It was so filthy, and when we tried to power wash it, all the paint started flaking off and taking layers of the plywood with it. It was probably 30-40 years old and just in terrible condition. This was not in the plan, but it was so clear that it had to be done – it was now a glaring problem.

Choosing Paint Color

As I was getting repair quotes, I chose the paint color, which was a whole thing – do I match the green paint of the court (which I liked, but is definitely a “sports court” color) or do I pull one of the darker green colors from the barn mural (SW Rosemary)? Up close, the colors could look bad if they clashed, but from a distance (which is how you experience the wall within the yard), I did NOT want that brighter green color. From a distance, the darker green on the mural looked pretty great with the court color, but up close, they weren’t the match that I would typically choose.

I let Brian make the decision because I didn’t feel confident about either. We both agreed that since you see this wall color more (it’s a huge vertical wall), it was more important if it were pretty and cohesive with the property than matching the court floor. Rosemary by Sherwin-Williams, it was 🙂 It didn’t look perfect with the green floor, but it didn’t offend us either.

Redoing The Wall

Kaitlin had a recommendation for a fence repair guy she had just used, who she said was speedy and affordable. I texted him photos and told him that we were on a budget, and he quoted me $2,700 to take off the wood, screw in new wood, and paint. He could do it within 2 weeks, which was in time for our neighborhood pickleball tournament (the work only took 2 1/2 days).

Again, we went the cheaper route and left the original posts in (which everyone agrees are in OK shape, but not great). We toyed around with putting a basketball hoop directly on the wall, which would require much more reinforcement (the one Brian wanted was 300 LBS with a big arm, so the wall would have to be super strong). I let Brian make this decision – I did not care and thought the hoop we had was fine. Ultimately, we are sticking with the movable hoop and no hoop on the wall (for now).

The Finished Pickleball Court: FINALLY SHE IS DONE!!!

There she is 🙂 While I didn’t have any pickleball court dreams 5 years ago, we are so excited that it’s done, and happy to say that the kids (and us) use it a lot. We had 4 weeks of “Camp Hendo” here this summer, where a bunch of kids came over and played with a local teen supervisor (shout out to Jay) while I attempted to work inside (I’ve locked myself in the new garage a few times, lol). They are all between 9-11 and get along really well, so it was great, and having lots of kids playing here. It made me extremely happy to hear all the screams and kid antics.

The two green paint tones together are totally fine – again, I likely wouldn’t combine the two in a room inside, but they work well enough as they do share some of the same undertones.

My only real regret: the shed is the biggest eyesore in all these shots (doesn’t really bother me in person) and I’m considering moving it, but it’s full of ALLLLLLL the sports stuff, basketballs, rackets, balls, corn hole, roller blades, etc, and really works here functionally. I ordered a waterproof resin shed because I just really didn’t want a rotten wood shed in 3 years with everything inside being gross and ruined (I couldn’t find any waterproof wood sheds, just water-resistant and similar to outdoor wood furniture, it just can’t last without being covered, and you can’t really cover a shed). I probably should have shopped around more – maybe a resin with brown wood grain? Doesn’t sound awesome, but it might be the right solution. Then, we could move this behind the fence by the barn to hold more yard tools, etc.

The pickleball net is easily movable, btw, for basketball games or roller blading. You just lift a lever and roll it on wheels.

As you can see, we shot this a month after painting the court, and it’s already getting dirty (we used the blower, but didn’t power wash before this shoot). Doesn’t really bother us in person, but in these shots, I wish we had cleaned it up more. Whoops.

The awkwardness of the gazebo being 1/2 on the court is there, and we could have reduced the court more, but there wouldn’t be room for the full pickleball court experience. You honestly barely notice or think about it (this was on me, btw, not Dennis’ 7 Dees).

The barn animals (see in the back) love watching us play on the court. It’s hilarious. This view is really so pretty – the setting is pretty insane.

Jury is still out for me if the wood fence should be a green stain, but I’m not motivated to try to win that one with Brian, as he is still strongly team “wood” (and he is likely right). So we are leaving it for now, but maybe I’ll AI it and see what it looks like green 🙂

Oh, and shout out to my pendants that finally arrived (after we shot the kitchen). The copper ties in perfectly with all our sconces on the house (they are so pretty). Look at those beautiful corbels 🙂 I think in this shot, you can really see how the greens just kinda work together. Not your typical yard, that’s for sure.

And while I wouldn’t say it’s subtle, LOLOLOLOLOL, all the planting that Dennis’ 7 Dees did really did soften the extreme “court-ness” of the court. There is obviously a lot of hardscape still, but all the shrubs, trees, and plants mask it a lot, and it looks gorgeous in person.

What do you think? Should the wood fence/wall be stained green???? Or if that shed weren’t so dark, would it just be simple and natural?

It should be noted that despite being the only family that has a pickleball court (because it’s highly unusual, obviously), we got seriously schooled in the tournament. People are GOOD at this and play all the time. Most of our neighborhood tennis courts have been converted now, and I’m now motivated to get better and better. If you haven’t played, you should know it’s so much easier than tennis (thus the obsession), but I’ve also had two friends with pickleball injuries, so warm up!

So are we done with yard work??? YES, FOR NOW!!!! There are some areas of the property that are super overgrown and unused (the fruit grove, the back pasture full of blackberries, the areas flanking the driveway, the big hillside by the new gravel access road) but we are so happy to call it done for now and let the rest come together slowly over time (or not). I truly don’t feel like we deserve this property at times – we feel really, really, really grateful and lucky for it all. In fact, now that there isn’t construction, we are thinking about seeing if any blog readers want to house/animal sit next spring and summer when we know we’ll be out of town for big chunks of time. Still working on how to do that logistically (we aren’t going to Airnb it or anything) but I want to share it as much as possible (that still makes sense for our family) and feels like that could be a win/win for any city dwellers wanting to hang out with some pigs and alpacas in the summer. I’m also thinking of how to do a mountain house reader event version here – it’s just tricky since we actually live here, but a bus tour of this house and the river house would be so fun (plus, The Carly?). I’ll likely wait til the guest cottage is done for a larger design event, but just know that the wheels are turning.

Like all things you heavily invest in, you just pray that you’ll actually use it and look back years later as worth it. The pickleball tournament last weekend gave us a lot of hope that it’s fun for so many people (not just athletes who play tennis) and that as long as we continue to open our house, it will get a ton of use. We are doing another school party board fundraiser situation in September that is an outdoor movie night, projected on the tennis wall (Lilo and Stitch:)) So by god this yard is getting used and abused, just how we want it to 🙂

*Landscaping by Dennis’ 7 Dees
***Pretty Photos by Kaitlin Green