swimming pool inspiration

When the hubby got orders to transfer to another base, the one caveat of selling our home at the beach was that we would put an in-ground, concrete pool in the backyard.  Two weeks after we finished construction on our new home, my husband left on a four-month deployment and construction on the pool began. Just like our home, I knew exactly how I wanted the pool to be designed.  We have a ton of trees in our backyard and more woods beyond, so I wanted very little coping, natural materials and lots of green grass, to blend in with our surroundings.  I wanted it to seem like it had been there for a while, so I turned to the Hampton’s for inspiration, but this Connecticut backyard is what took my breath away in the June 2010 issue of Elle Decor:

Everyone thought I was crazy to want so little coping around the pool, that I would kill the very grass I wanted to grow right up to the edge, but once I get something in my head….

This little gem in the backyard of Christina Greeven Cuomo’s Hampton’s home also served as inspiration:

Timothy Whealon had the same idea:

As did this Hampton’s bungalow in Loft Life Magazine:

More inspiration:

We had our wonderful installers tint the plaster a deep, ocean blue and used slate tiles along the water line.  We stuck to our guns and have less than two feet of concrete coping, stamped to mimic the look of stone.  We are over the moon with the results (excuse the dead grass….this was taken right after we laid sod and had yet to landscape!)

And here is the handsome boy who might just enjoy it more than we do!