What Is It?
This is one of those cases where, from a design perspective, I said just about everything I wanted to say about rain-curtain effects in the video linked below. They look great, they sound even better and my clients love them. So what else is there to consider? Well,
I'm a big fan of beach entries: As I see it, they wrap at least five important design and usage issues up in one neat package. First, they provide easy access to the pool. Second, that access is gradual, which many bathers prefer. Third, they bring a bit of visual drama to the water's edge - and then repeat it where the slope breaks off into deeper water. Fourth, they create an easy
I've been working as a watershape designer long enough to have seen big trends emerge and really take hold. It seemed for a while, for example, that vanishing edges came up at some point in just about every initial client conversation. More recently, I've found myself discussing lots of geometric pools - rectangles and various other squared-off perimeters - and that's great, because it gives us plentiful ways to
It's not what I'd call a common request these days, but every now and then I come across homeowners who want to be able to sit in the water to enjoy a cool drink or even a meal. It gets hot in Texas, after all, and these folks figured that relaxing under an umbrella around an in-pool table would be a great way to beat the heat. It's actually a decent concept, but just as is the case with the stools we sometimes set up for swim-up bars, the designer or builder needs to
These days, I run into lots of clients who want clean, crisp detailing when it comes to everything associated with their backyard spaces - pool, spa, patio, decks and outdoor kitchens included. They're after works of visual art that, when not in active use, can be seen from inside the house as a continuation of the elegant, well-appointed interior spaces they've set up so thoughtfully. Sometimes, this means that
In decades past, comfort wasn't typically uppermost in mind when spas were being designed and built in conjunction with swimming pools. Jet placements could be arbitrary, walls were almost always set at 90-degree angles to the seats and, perhaps least thoughtful of all, coping was set up pool-style, with grab edges that hit anyone tall enough to get on an amusement-park thrill ride somewhere in the back, shoulders or neck, making it difficult to relax and enjoy the experience. These days, fortunately,
In my experience, watershapers have a tendency to focus a bit too narrowly on one or another aspect of the craft - some on pools and spas, others on ponds or fountains. You get the idea: In speaking with clients, there's an inclination to play to one's strongest cards - and I think that can be
The trouble with conventional approaches is that they can take the creativity out of watershape designs. Almost always, for example, spas are placed directly adjacent to or within the walls of a swimming pool. For a couple generations now, this has led designers to specify open spillways to move water from the spa into the pool, thereby creating a single body of water so far as
These days, it seems like just about every homeowner wants to get something special with their pools and spas. More often than not, that means some form of water in transit, whether it's a cool spillway, a vanishing edge, a bubbler on a thermal shelf - or, as in the case highlighted here, some sort of jet that will
Homeowners often come to the watershape-purchasing process with very specific ideas in mind. Maybe they want a venue exclusively for lap swimming, or a fountain to wash out traffic noise, or a finely finished monument to their refined taste in tile and stone. That's great, and it's fairly easy to tailor a design to meet these needs. More often, however, clients
