Collection
Pool Designs
Infinity, lagoon, plunge and lap pools with surrounds, surfaces and pool-side living. 97 large format widescreen concepts — open any one for the full size visual and design notes.
Hero
Hero
Maintenance
Materials Uv
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 01
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 02
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 03
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 04
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 05
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 06
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 07
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 08
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 09
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 10
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 11
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 12
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 13
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 14
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 15
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 16
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 17
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 18
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 19
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 20
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 21
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 22
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 23
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 24
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 25
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 26
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 27
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 28
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 29
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 30
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 31
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 32
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 33
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 34
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 35
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 36
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 37
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 38
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 39
Modern Swimming Pool Concept 40
Nonslip Pavers
P1 Forward
P1 Left
P1 Rear
P1 Right
P1 Top
P2 Forward
P2 Left
P2 Rear
P2 Right
P2 Top
P3 Forward
P3 Left
P3 Rear
P3 Right
P3 Top
P4 Forward
P4 Left
P4 Rear
P4 Right
P4 Top
Pc 01
Pc 02
Pc 03
Pc 04
Pc 05
Pc 06
Pc 07
Pc 08
Pc 09
Pc 10
Pc 11
Pc 12
Pc 13
Pc 14
Pc 15
Pc 16
Pc 17
Pc 18
Pc 19
Pc 20
Plunge
Plunge
Plunge
Plunge
Plunge
Pool
Poolside
Poolside
Poolside
Poolside
Poolside
Shade
Full feature article · Planning & Building
How to Build Your Dream Home and Garden Landscapes
The order of work that separates a garden that lasts from one rebuilt in three years — plans, levels, drainage, services, hard landscaping, then planting and lighting.
Almost every disappointing garden was built in the wrong order. Paving goes down before drainage is solved, planting goes in before the levels are final, the outdoor kitchen is positioned before anyone works out where the gas, water and power will come from, and three years later half of it is dug up again. A dream garden is mostly a sequencing problem.
Begin with a measured plan of the whole property, even if the work will be staged over a decade. Mark boundaries, the house footprint, doors and windows, existing trees, the fall of the land, the path of the sun in summer and winter, prevailing wind, and where you look from the rooms you use most. Every good decision that follows comes from this drawing, and it costs nothing but an afternoon.
Settle finished levels and drainage next. Decide the height of every terrace, step and lawn against the finished floor level of the house, then work out where water goes in a downpour — surface falls away from the building, subsoil drains behind every retaining wall, pits and pipes sized for the roof and paved area. This is invisible work that determines whether the garden survives.
Then run the services while the ground is still open. Conduits for lighting, irrigation mains and valves, water and gas to the outdoor kitchen and the future pool, power and data to the studio, a spare conduit under every path and paved area for whatever comes later. The single spare conduit is the cheapest insurance in landscaping.
Hard landscaping follows: retaining walls, paving, steps, decks, pergola footings and the pool shell. Build these to last, because they are the elements you cannot easily change, and they set the geometry that planting will fill. Choose fewer materials than you think you need — one paving stone, one timber, one metal finish, repeated everywhere — and the garden will look considered rather than assembled.
Planting and finishing come last, and in that order: structural trees for shade and screening, then hedges and shrub blocks, then the perennial and grass layer, then mulch. Lighting, furniture, the outdoor kitchen and the fire element complete it. Build every stage against the same master plan and a garden constructed over ten years will look as though it was finished in one season — which is precisely the outcome the plan exists to produce.