Rustic Wooden Home Ideas and Designs in the Modern World of Home Design

Heavy timber pergolas, reclaimed hardwood decks, sleeper retaining walls, barn style pool houses and interiors of exposed trusses and wide plank floors. Timber is the only common building material that improves with age, and rustic design is essentially an argument in favour of that fact. Where painted surfaces need renewal and render needs patching, hardwood silvers, oils darken and reclaimed beams gain character. A home built substantially of wood feels grounded and permanent in a way that lighter, thinner construction rarely manages. Scale is what separates convincing rustic work from decoration. Heavy sections — genuine posts, chunky beams, thick decking boards, wide floor planks — read as structure. Thin sections read as trim. A pergola built from four generous posts and two deep beams will look right for forty years, while the same span in undersized timber looks temporary from the day it is finished. In the garden, timber is the most useful material available. Sleeper retaining walls terrace a slope for a fraction of the cost of masonry and hold planting beautifully. Hardwood decks bridge awkward levels where paving would need fill. Arbours, screens and batten fences deliver privacy while still letting light and air pass. Raised vegetable beds,...

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Pool Designs

Modern Infinity Edge Pool Design with Deep Navy Tiling and Wide Sun Deck, Umbrella

Modern Infinity Edge Pool Design with Deep Navy Tiling, Honed Concrete Surrounds and Slim Black Fencing, Screening Bamboo, Frangipani and. this image created by www.homedesign-photos.com — Modern Infinity Edge Pool Design with Deep Navy Tiling, Honed Concrete Surrounds and Slim Black Fencing, Screening Bamboo, Frangipani and Tropical Understorey Planting, featuring a Wide Sun Deck, Umbrella Zone and Warm Underwater Lighting

Modern Swimming Pool Concept 06 is part of our Pool Designs collection — one of 97 large-format widescreen concept visuals in this section. It is presented here at full size so you can study the layout, the planting, the surfaces and the way light falls across the design before you commit to building anything on your own block.

Infinity, lagoon, plunge and lap pools with surrounds, surfaces and pool-side living. Use this concept as a starting point: note the proportions between built form and greenery, where shade and shelter sit, how paths and paved areas move people through the space, and which materials repeat to hold the whole scheme together.

Every visual on this site is a design idea created for Home Design Photos. Browse the rest of the Pool Designs collection, or open the complete image catalogue to see every home, garden, pool, pergola, furniture, lighting and beach house concept in one place.

← Compact Plunge Pool Design with Natural Boulder Edging and Pool-Side Pergola Dining Area Resort-Style Swimming Pool Design with Pale Sandstone Surrounds and Swim-Up Bench, Spa Spill →

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Lagoon-Style Swimming Pool Design with Charcoal Pebble Interior and Sun Lounge Terrace, Shaded Cabana

Lagoon-Style Swimming Pool Design with Charcoal Pebble Interior, Bluestone Coping and Blackbutt Decking, Cycads, Strappy Foliage and Uplit Feature Trees, featuring a Sun Lounge Terrace, Shaded Cabana and Outdoor Shower, balanced by Clean Sightlines, Shaded Retreats and Relaxed Family

Compact Plunge Pool Design with Natural Boulder Edging, Timber Deck Inserts and Sandy Beach Entry, Mass-Planted Agapanthus, Palms and Soft. this image created by www.homedesign-photos.com

Compact Plunge Pool Design with Natural Boulder Edging and Pool-Side Pergola Dining Area

Compact Plunge Pool Design with Natural Boulder Edging, Timber Deck Inserts and Sandy Beach Entry, Mass-Planted Agapanthus, Palms and Soft Coastal Grasses, featuring a Pool-Side Pergola Dining Area and Firepit Lounge, with Considered Outdoor Zoning and Soft Layered Textures

Family Lap Pool and Deck Design with Glass Mosaic Tiling, Travertine Coping and Frameless Glass Fencing, Clipped Hedging, Feature Olive. this image created by www.homedesign-photos.com

Family Lap Pool and Deck Design with Glass Mosaic Tiling and Waterfall Wall, Stepping

Family Lap Pool and Deck Design with Glass Mosaic Tiling, Travertine Coping and Frameless Glass Fencing, Clipped Hedging, Feature Olive Trees and Silver Groundcovers, featuring a Waterfall Wall, Stepping Pads and Evening LED Glow

Resort-Style Swimming Pool Design with Pale Sandstone Surrounds and Swim-Up Bench, Spa Spill

Resort-Style Swimming Pool Design with Pale Sandstone Surrounds, White Rendered Walls and Bronze Fittings, Layered Ferns, Elephant Ears and Lush Poolside Greenery, featuring a Swim-Up Bench, Spa Spill and Poolside BBQ Kitchen, complemented by Durable Weatherproof Finishes and Low-Maintenance

Resort-Style Swimming Pool Design with Pale Sandstone Surrounds and Swim-Up Bench, Spa Spill

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Japanese Garden Ideas and Concepts for Modern Japanese Style Homes

Raked gravel courtyards, moss and sculpted trees, koi ponds and stone basins, bamboo screened paths, timber engawa verandahs and onsen style plunge pools.

The Japanese garden is the most disciplined garden tradition in the world, and the quietest. Nothing is included that does not carry meaning or serve the composition: a few carefully chosen stones, one sculpted tree, moss, gravel, water and a path. For small modern courtyards it is also the most useful tradition available, because it was developed for exactly those dimensions.

Composition begins with stone. Rocks are placed as groups of three or five, set deep enough into the ground to look as though they were always there, with their best face turned toward the main viewing position. That viewing position — usually a window or a verandah, not a place you stand — is chosen first, and the whole garden is arranged for it in the way a painting is arranged for a frame.

Gravel and moss carry the empty space that makes the rest work. Raked gravel represents water and gives the eye somewhere to rest; moss softens the ground and links the stones. Both demand maintenance, and both can be adapted: fine crushed granite instead of traditional gravel, and a hardy groundcover instead of moss in climates where moss will not survive.

Japanese Design design ideas photo from the Japanese Garden Ideas and Concepts for Modern Japanese Style Homes feature. this image created by www.homedesign-photos.com

Planting is deliberately limited and heavily edited. Japanese maple for autumn colour, pine or a sculpted evergreen for structure, bamboo for screening and sound, azalea clipped into soft mounds, and ferns in the shade. The important skill is pruning: these gardens are made as much by what is removed each year as by what was planted at the start.

Water appears as a still pond, a narrow rill, or simply a stone basin with a bamboo spout. A koi pond needs real filtration, depth and shade to work, so in a small courtyard the basin is usually the better choice — it delivers the sound and the reflection with none of the maintenance. Stepping stones across gravel or water slow the walk down, which is the intended effect.

The architecture completes the garden. A timber engawa verandah running along the glazed wall makes the garden part of the interior, sliding screens frame it in changing proportions, and an onsen style plunge pool under cover turns the composition into somewhere you sit for an hour rather than glance at. Light it very softly — a shielded uplight on the tree, a low glow along the path, nothing more — and the courtyard becomes the calmest room of the house after dark.

House Design Photos is a HUGE Library Gallery and Directory of Home Design Photos

Rustic Wooden Home Ideas and Designs in the Modern World of Home Design

Modern Infinity Edge Pool Design with Deep Navy Tiling and Wide Sun Deck, Umbrella

More Pool Designs concepts

Japanese Garden Ideas and Concepts for Modern Japanese Style Homes