For Pool Lovers – Rockin’ Your Flip-Flops -2-

For my second article in the “For Pool Lovers” Series, one of the first things you need to decide is how prevalent you want the pool to be relative to your main living spaces. 

A few questions you might want to ask yourself are: 

1. How often will we really use the pool? (Mostly based on your climate)
2. How many months of the year will the pool potentially be ‘unsightly’ due to weather?
3. Will we entertain at the pool and the house or should these be somewhat separate from each other?
4. Do we need a separate pool house and/or covered porch?
5. …and particularly, what sort of shape and style of pool fits my house and my needs?

The house above, for instance, was specifically designed around the sun and providing shade in a screen porch attached to the house.  Immediately as you enter the home, you are visually “drawn outside” through large patio doors to the pool.  The living spaces of this home are intended to connect as much as possible to the pool.

For Pool Lovers – Rockin’ Your Flip-Flops -1-

For my first article in the “For Pool Lovers” Series (as I will call it), let’s talk about furniture and oudoor pavilions.  It is, in fact, that time of year again when everyone is getting ready to enjoy their outdoor living spaces.  Pfewwww… that was a long winter!

…Excuse me, is that seat taken?

The biggest request I get with outdoor pavilions this time of year is MORE SEATING, please!  This may take the form of a table and chairs for dining, a couch and chairs for lounging, or seating at a built-in bar.  That said, the space can quickly get really large if you don’t carefully consider maximizing every surface!

For those of you who want to incorporate an outdoor fireplace, why not make the hearth a tad deeper and even wrap it around the fireplace for extra seating – in a few directions? 

For Pool Lovers - Rockin' your Flip-Flops

While my fair-skinned complexion cringes at the thought of soaking up the sun at a pool, I do have some thoughts on how to improve the pools of my tanned-skin clients.

A few articles I plan on doing this summer will revolve around different examples of pool and pavilion design, relative to the homes they are built adjacent to.  I’d like to start today, however, with an introduction on the topic.

The biggest mistake that I typically see is a pool that is “plopped” on the site with no consideration to the house.  Patios are located relative to the pool and sun (hopefully!), but the furniture is not necessarily considered in the overall scheme.