Designers are thinking out of the box to create showstopping entertainment centers.
From art-centric diving boards to monogrammed mosaic murals, personalization is the key to creating outdoor entertainment centers that showcase the pool. These unique features, sometimes subtly conveyed through colors and materials, put a personality on each project.
Here are some of the things designers are doing to create these site-specific and owner-specific one-of-a-kind spaces.
Mosaic magic
Modern technology and old-world artistry have taken pool-bottom mosaics to new heights and depths.
Ray Corral, the founder and CEO of Florida-based Mosaicist, Inc, one of the few companies in the world that designs, manufactures, and installs a wide array of mosaic art pieces for underwater applications, ups the personalization ante by matching his intricate designs not only to the shape of the pool but also to the architecture of the house.
For a recent project in Arlington, Texas, Corral and his team of master craftspeople, in collaboration with Randy Angell Designs, created a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired mosaic inlay for the restored pool that’s in sync with the architecture of the home.
“It’s a very mathematical design that’s derived from and inspired by the architect’s work,” he says.
The forest-green pool is in tune with Wright’s principle of integrating architecture into the landscape, and the mosaic inlay complements it with creams, tans and a selection of natural surrounding green tones.
Mosaicist is completing what Corral calls America’s largest hand-cut, hand-laid swimming pool mosaic artwork, which he says, is not to be confused as a pixel mosaic. In the fantasy-themed undersea mural, realistic representations of dolphins, turtles, and schools of masked butterfly fish swim among lily pads, polka dots, and scroll-like vines.
“It’s magical and surreal,” he says, adding that 16 master mosaicists and six master mosaic installers are working on the project, which will take 1½ years from concept to completion.
Corral is working with a new type of iridescent glass that he calls the Celestial Series. The glass, which is created by smelting colored glass powder instead of spray onto its surface, “gives the feel of different color tones depending on how the sun strikes it as you move around it,” he says, adding that it’s a replacement for mother-of-pearl iridescents. “It looks like something out of this world.”
Personalized entertainment
Custom poolscapes are becoming more encompassing entertainment centers that reflect the homeowners’ personalities and lifestyles.
Nick Hauk, president and founder of Dallas-based Pure Design, says that pickleball and bocce courts are among the most requested backyard additions in the Texas market. So are cold plunge pools, acrylic windows inserted into the side of pools, and poly fabric pool covers that are strong enough to walk on.
Pure Design, a one-stop shop that specializes in aquatics amenities and designs and builds entire exterior spaces, recently completed the outdoor areas for a new-construction house. The owners requested a pool, a basketball court, a tennis court, a kitchen with a grill and a refrigerator, and a fenced play area, complete with artificial turf, for their young children.
Other features, such as swim-up bars, swim jets, and accessory fountains, are more novel.
“Outdoor kitchens are getting smaller,” Hauk says. “They have fewer appliances – nobody is asking for pizza ovens anymore, but they still have high-end appliances.”
Hauk says that regardless of which amenities clients ask for, they all prize service. “We provide turnkey delivery on all exterior features, and we do everything from cleaning the pool and removing dog waste from the grass to blowing leaves so people can enjoy their property,” he says.
Diving into art
The diving board, once only a utilitarian accessory, is becoming a sculptural focal point of the pool. Leading the charge to create high-end aesthetically pleasing wooden diving boards is Michel Buyse, the founder of Mikel Tube.
Although the first diving boards were, of necessity, made of wood, cheaper, mass-produced Fiberglas versions were introduced a half century ago. Some 20 years ago, Mikel Tube elevated the humble wooden board to an art form, targeting pool owners who desired design, beauty and originality.
“If one has the luxury of building a pool, one should not ruin the aesthetics and design one has spent so much money on but should finish the job with the diving board, which is the icing on the cake,” Buyse says.
Mikel Tube’s bespoke boards include models made with old-world craftsmanship as well as collections that use modern technology. The company’s line of stretched or tensioned boards, for example, incorporates 316 marine stainless steel for the force distributors and features intelligent power distribution module rubber joints.
“These new elements add to the solidity and give these models a modern, vintage look,” says Buyse, adding that they are available in three colors – natural brown, which reflects solar heat instead of absorbing it, middle brown, and dark brown.
Mikel Tube boards come in different lengths, heights and stains, and their covers are available in four colors. They can be engraved with an inspirational message, house name or date.
The company has done many prestigious projects, including making a replica of the 1926 diving board owned by Edsel Ford, the only child of auto manufacturer Henry Ford, for the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House, a museum in Detroit.
“The project was based on original blueprints only,” Buyse says, adding that he undertook the job with the understanding that the board would be for exhibition use only. “The original was replaced by Edsel four times over five years – Douglas fir is not an appropriate species for a diving board,” he says.
Buyse notes that modern technology, including a new spring set coming by the end of the year that will bolster the bounce of tensioned models, keeps driving design.
