Pool Planning & Design

/ Landscape Elements

Having a backyard swimming pool is a dream that more and more Canadians are turning into a reality. You have convenience, fun, and a look that just can't be beaten with all other backyards. To make your pool and backyard the best it can be you have to ensure that your pool will blend into it's surroundings and not appear like some intrusive, out-of-place blot on the landscape.

Read on to learn more about useful information that is ideal to consider in creating and maintaining a beautiful pool and garden. You can also click on this link: a step by step guide to pool and landscape planning.

Pool shapes & sizes

Ask yourself if you will be using your pool for entertaining, exercise or for family fun and relaxation. The activities you choose will have an effect on the shape, size, depth and feature of your pool design. Pools come in an unlimited variation of sizes and shapes. They can be as little as 10’x 20’ or as big as 20’x 40’. Popular size choices are 16’ x 32’ or 18’ x 36’

Keep in mind that a small pool has advantages just as a larger pool does. It still provides a beautiful water feature and can create a beautiful resort feel with a relaxing mood; it can compliment other yard features without intruding on them; and of course the lower overall costs.

Click here to view some conventional pool shapes. Note: Conventional shapes/sizes can be tweaked to fit unique spaces.

Completely customized pools are also an option for customers. The entire Backyard Getaways Inc Pool Shape Collection to be released on our website in May 2012.

Placement

The right location is the key to making your pool a comfortable and welcoming retreat. Here are some things to take into consideration as you determine the best location in your yard. Sunshine: the preferred orientation is on an east-west axis. The sun is able to be on the largest surface area of water throughout the day – creating natural heating. Slope/runoff: do not place a pool on an area that has poor drainage – you want your deck to dry off as quickly as possible and not have the water drain into your pool. Placing pools on slopes can be very aesthetically appealing, but maybe require expensive terraces/retaining walls.

The image below shows how proper placement and planning works together to pull a unified, workable and stunning Backyard space.

Safety Tip: you should be able to view your pool from your house from the rooms used most frequently.

Space Tip: you will need space around the pool fro walkways, tanning areas and sitting areas.

Spas

Simply immersing yourself in hot water underscores just how closely our health and well-being is attuned to water. Many over-worked and stressed people find that they spend far more time relaxing in the spa than exercising in the pool. A spa can add great aesthetics to the pool when attached, but also may be placed as a completely separate entity.

Decking:

A deck around your pool can add beauty to you backyard. The decking doesn’t necessarily have to go all the way around the pool – it is often a good idea to allow vegetation to grow on one side of the pool for aesthetic purposes. A broad space should be created at one point to allow room for tanning and sitting. It should be at least 3’ wide. There are a wide variety of deck building materials, from natural stone to concrete, to cement pavers, to wood, and more.

Lighting:

With all the lighting style choices on the market, pools can be lit for beauty as well as safety. The right lighting will not only give you more security, but can accent the effect of the water in the pool, or as well can highlight artwork or certain plant specimens around the pool.

Focal Lighting can add drama to the landscape and can have great reflective qualities on the surface of the water. Also it illuminates a particular object or group of objects and accentuates whatever it highlights to makes it stand out from the rest of the environment; examples; statues, water features, unique plants.

Ambient Lighting plays across the surface of an object, such as a wall or the bark of an unusual tree, to enhance or reveal its texture. It can range from the comparatively bright illumination of steps and pathways to the delicate glow that imbues a flowerbed with tone and mystery. It is a great mood-setter.

Dynamic Lighting is the type of lighting that moves, twinkles or changes color and intensity.

Expositional Lighting indulges the object doing the illuminating. For most other forms of light you do not want to see the original light source, but the effect it creates, but if you have a very interesting lamp or lantern you may wish to draw attention to it.

Shadow Lighting is a technique used to light an object or objects just to create shadows from them. These shadows can add a great sense of mystery to the garden, though they have few roles to play in illuminating a waterscape. Shadows are most often discovered accidentally from another lighting effect.

Pool Lights: Underwater lighting can add the important aspect of safety for your pool, It can light up the water and add a soft glow which emits from the pool.

You'll have a lovely place to enjoy your pool, no matter what time of day you step outside. To view our lighting devices visit our pool equipment page on our website.

Rocks:

When people think about landscaping they most often focus only on flowers, ground covers, shrubs and trees, etc. Stones and rocks can provide varying heights and contours that keep a backyard landscape interesting and unique. Some stone is chosen for building purposes, while other stone is chosen for ornamental purposes, such as a specimen rock. Rocks, builders, and stones act as the perfect compliment to water, having very different form, textures, and characteristics and may be considered as the bones of the garden. Successfully integrating rocks into your landscape turns them into a focal point - each rock being placed to create a specific look and feel.

Buildings:

Buildings are often the focal points of gardens & landscapes and can greatly compliment a pool. They should be designed in a way to maximize the potential of the pool – views, relaxation areas with comfortable enclosures. Examples of buildings are architectural features like pergolas, gazebo's, pool house's and cabana's.

Plantings:

Plantings are a key feature around a pool as they act to fill in the landscape and complete the look of the project. Keep in mind that plants require maintenance to ensure the aesthetics of your landscape will not suffer.

Landscapes:

Whatever your landscape or waterscape project, the detail and finishing touches will make a world of difference to the final product. Whether you or a professional will undertake the design of the landscape around the swimming pool, it is important to take the time to do the job properly.

The naturalistic landscape tends to use bold, simple, masses and try to ensure four seasons of texture and interest. It works well with cottage style homes, bungalows, small homes and smaller modern homes

With the formal landscape everything looks well planned, and all elements of nature contained in the garden look like invited, well-behaved guests. It is particularly suited to large formal homes, or estates on a large lot. It does an extremely good job of incorporating statues and planters. A formal garden around a pool, with nature-dominated areas beyond, can be a very effective combination.

The classical landscape is a derivation of the formal landscape but offers the opportunity to display “ancient” Greek or Roman elements that will often support the symmetry or a rectangular pool better than natural features will.