Tired of this winter weather? Today I’m bringing you a little summer sunshine!
Charles and I have definitely kicked around the idea of adding a pool to our backyard someday, but really wouldn’t know where to begin with choosing a style. Enter Carol Atkins! Carol writes for poolcenter.com and is here to tell you how to choose the pool that’s right for your house.
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When we bought our current house, we wanted to install a swimming pool in our wonderful new back yard. I did a lot of research about pool design, and got a much better idea of what would work for us. I wanted a design that would complement our house, and came up with some great ideas.
First look at the space. I first had to evaluate how much space we had, and how that would dictate our pool choice. We were fortunate enough to have bought a house with a large back yard, and so I could have almost any pool design I wanted. One of our neighbors wasn’t so lucky, and she said they had to tailor the shape of the pool to fit their fairly small yard. The yard also had an odd shape, so they chose a pool that looked like a lima bean – but it curved to fit their yard nicely. So the first thing to look at is the space you’re working with.
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Next look at the house. Our new house is a two story red brick, a colonial style. I couldn’t see putting some jazzy curvy pool in the back yard, with black tile all around. So I was looking at what style of pool would fit for us. Our house is all about long straight lines and right angles. A curved pool didn’t seem appropriate. So I decided to stick with a standard rectangular design. I laid it out in my mind parallel to the house, so it wouldn’t look odd having a pool at an angle where everything else goes along straight lines.
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Take a look at colors. Once I had decided on a rectangular pool, I looked at color options – both for the surfaces of the pool, and the decking surrounding the pool. Once again, with a stately colonial, I wasn’t about to get an exotic color for the bottom of the pool – it just wouldn’t blend with the house at all. I stayed with basic white concrete. The trim on the house is basic white, so I thought that would work well. It doesn’t draw attention to itself because it’s so common a color for pools.
A lot can be done with accents. What is the dominant feature of our house? It is the red bricks which make up the exterior. I got with a pool designer, and found out that they could lay decking using a red brick pool paving – that would blend very nicely with the bricks on the house. We laid a deck of those bricks about 4 feet out from the pool – about the same distance you would for a plain concrete decking. It was beautiful! When you stand behind the pool and look past it at the house, there’s a sort of seamless effect that is very subtle, but outstanding.
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What about the plants. In the back yard, we already have a lot of plants next to the house, and along the fence. I like to design things, and I’m big on white space – I don’t want to have an area so busy and cluttered that you notice it. I found some low green plants to set next to the pool, which would complement the plants along the back wall of our house. I added a couple Hawaiian hibiscus that gave the area just a touch of the exotic, without dominating the space.
The main thing I wanted to accomplish when I designed our back yard pool was to have it blend well with our house, and be pleasing to the eye, specifically my eye. Now I have a pool that makes me smile every time I walk out into the back yard – and that’s really the point.
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About Carol: Carol Atkins has 3 kids with her wonderful husband – two boys and a girl – and two lovely black Labradors. When she’s not working out with aqua aerobics in the family pool, she spends hours watching the kids and dogs play and have fun. She also helps out doing volunteer work at her church. She currently writes for Poolcenter.com.
If you would like to be a guest blogger, please comment below or contact me at 702parkavenue {at} gmail {dot} com.
