How to Live by the Pool in Style

Lisa Marie Hart June 2, 2023 Home & Design

San Diego artist Sarah Stieber has made a splash far beyond her hometown studio. She creates murals, designs interiors, and exhibits her vibrant tape and acrylic paintings worldwide. "My water series features women in water with reflective elements symbolizing our superpower to reflect back what doesn't serve us and to let in what does," she says. "Disco Star" is 36 by 36 inches.

If a jumbo inflatable flamingo threatens to muck up your pool design, all hopes of relaxing in the pool without dipping in are not lost. The Super Clear Tube Float by Funboy is almost invisible from afar. This buoyant beauty, touted as "the clearest float in the world," is adult-size (50 inches in diameter), includes a cup holder, and is also available as a leisure chair or chaise lounge.

Linger longer in the water with Tidelli Outdoor Living, whose party-size Maui Floating Trays keep snacks and drinks high and dry. Covered with nautical rope, and available in round and rectangular versions, the functional and stable trays are customizable in more than 55 colors and are the ideal accessory to the brand's Floating Pillows.

This private oasis, designed for client Chuck Kimble, is clad in New Lagoon tile from the Made Modern collection by Ann Sacks. "Its prominent ridges create striking shadows as the day goes by," says designer Christian Damerow of Bay Area–based Damerow Design. "Stretching that layered blue color from the interior of the bathroom, through the full-wall glass slider, and out to the outdoor shower helped make the garden an extension of the living space." Architecture by Mark W. Daniels; landscape by Surfacedesign Inc.

Interior designer Michelle Boudreau commissioned ceramic artist Dustin Gimbel to create this cluster of five cactus totems for her client's Palm Springs landscape. When the sunlight hits the pool just right, Gimbel's "Blooms and Loops" doubles in the reflective waters. Shown in Vanilla Bean, Turquoise, and Moroccan Blue, the totems are available through The Backyard PS.

In the primary bedroom, a wallpaper mural by designer Jeff Valenson stretches out like a lazy day in a brilliant representation of a swimming pool surface. Keeping the look light and natural, Valenson topped the custom white oak four-poster bed with bedding that appears to be freshly sun-bleached. Customized mural by Limitless Walls.

A linear pool by San Francisco–based Surfacedesign Inc. rises as a jewel-like volume framed by towering palm trees and lined by a euphorbia grove on one side. Also designed for Old Las Palmas client Chuck Kimble, its reflective surface celebrates the textural planting, as well as the desert sky and surroundings. Views toward the mountains are reinforced by the pool's axial placement. Architecture by Mark W. Daniels.

Spanning an arroyo and the natural terrain of Desert Palisades, this weekend retreat by Brett Woods and Joseph Dangaren of Los Angeles–based architectural firm Woods + Dangaren tells a crisp, modernist tale in its horizontal lines. Large sliding glass doors run the length of the great room and provide an uninterrupted transition to the pool. The 3,800-square-foot home appears in the firm's first monograph published by Rizzoli in 2022.