How to Design a Pool & Patio

A pool and patio are both excellent additions to your home. If you are really motivated to add this to your home, you can save money by designing one yourself. It takes a little bit of imagination and drawing skills, but it will also give you the pool and patio you've always wanted. To start you will just need some graph paper and a sharp pencil.

Instructions

Imagine the perfect pool and patio combination. Then write down the most important features that come to mind. Many pool patio combinations include an area for barbecuing, a garden, large deck and other features like easy accessibility or southern facing exposures. Prioritize your needs before you start the design process.

Find the dimensions to your yard so you know how much room you have to work with. If necessary, take a measuring tape and measure the yard yourself. Approximate yard measurements are also available from the city or town record office where your property is located. Call them and ask for the records; they are public information.

Outline the area of your yard on a piece of graph paper with the proper foot to square ratios. For instance if you yard is 40-feet-by-100-feet, use a 2-foot-per-graph-square ratio on your graph paper and draw two vertical lines 50 squares long and 20 squares apart. Then connect them at the ends. Every square on the graph paper will equal one foot.

Draw in the size of your pool using the same graph ratio on a different sheet of graph paper. Then cut out this are with scissors. Now, place this on the graph paper (you can color it blue to make it look like a pool.

Start brainstorming ideas for where the patio will fit around pool. Try a few different variations, with the pool in different areas of the yard and the barbecue pit on one side, and then the other. Also include areas for the kids to play, for a gazebo or garden. Continue to brainstorm and try different variations and layouts until you have a design that works perfectly.

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