Swimming Pools Design Ideas
- Swimming pools highlight not only the water, but the surrounding landscape.swimming pool image by Antonio Oquias from Fotolia.com
A residential or hotel pool attracts more than avid swimmers. A creative, alluring pool design adds dynamic shape and color to a landscape. When choosing a pool design, think about how the design works with the entire landscape, and what kind of swimming people may want in the pool. Consider where you place the pool--for residential areas, think about placing the pool in a side yard instead of the backyard--to maximize lawn space. - Think about modeling a swimming pool on a tropical lagoon.tropical pool image by brelsbil from Fotolia.com
Design a tropical, natural pool design. Model the pool design on a luxury spa hotel pool. Like a lagoon, the pool should have assorted areas and pockets where the swimmer can float and enjoy. Consider adding a pool bar. Tucked into a side of the pool, swimmers can swim to the bar ledge to have drinks or nibble on a snack. Landscape the pool with palm trees and colorful flowering plants like birds of paradise and orchids. Also think about adding coves into the pool. These little alcoves act like love seats where two swimmers can sit and chat before continuing their swim. - Design the bottom of a pool with mosaic tiles as a work of art.Mosaic Swirls image by Towards Ithaca from Fotolia.com
Consider creating art at the the bottom of your pool. Select glass mosaic tiles in solid or iridescent colors. Decorate the bottom of the pool with swirling patterns, shapes, or even words. According to the Glass Tile Store, because glass tiles cannot be breached by liquids, they are ideal for places that stay wet and will not erode or lose color easily like painted clay or porcelain tiles. - Come up with any shape you would like for a pool. The jellybean shape, a curvy pond-size style, makes a pleasing design choice for residential pools. Instead of a rectangular block, the curves and lines of the pool work into the landscape. Depending on how much you want to use the pool for exercise lap swimming, any shape goes. Consider a butterfly, star, four-leaf clover, or S-shape as a design. Outfit the pool with landscaping choices that work with the pool shape. For instance, if you design a butterfly style pool, use brightly colored or iridescent tiles at the bottom of the pool to simulate the butterfly's shimmering wings.
- Design a narrow, single-lane pool for swimmers who just want to excercise.woman swimming laps image by Wimbledon from Fotolia.com
For homeowners or hotel owners with limited space, consider a lap pool design. Lap pools serve as narrow, single-lane or double-lane pools for swimming exercise. Choose the length and width that works with the size of the area and the type of lap swimming you want. Lap pools vary in size, from short and narrow to nearly Olympic length lanes. - Also called "negative edge pools," the waterfall-edged pools dazzle pool owners and guests. The pool works like a fountain, recycling water off one edge into a lower pool or moat. For larger, lap style pools or small residential pools, the infinity pool design accents a landscape with an artistic and almost hypnotic flare. Consider the infinity design for a pool near an ocean, lake, or mountain range or on a hotel rooftop. Because one ledge of the pool has no defined edge, swimmers have the feeling they can swim right out of the pool into the vista.
