Design ideas for a mid-sized contemporary backyard l-shaped lap pool in Sydney with natural stone pavers and a pool house.

Modern Luxury

Ezra Lee Design+Build

Pool Area
This is an example of a contemporary backyard rectangular pool in Salt Lake City with a hot tub and concrete slab.

Tanglewood Modern House

Flavin Architects

This new modern house is located in a meadow in Lenox MA. The house is designed as a series of linked pavilions to connect the house to the nature and to provide the maximum daylight in each room. The center focus of the home is the largest pavilion containing the living/dining/kitchen, with the guest pavilion to the south and the master bedroom and screen porch pavilions to the west. While the roof line appears flat from the exterior, the roofs of each pavilion have a pronounced slope inward and to the north, a sort of funnel shape. This design allows rain water to channel via a scupper to cisterns located on the north side of the house. Steel beams, Douglas fir rafters and purlins are exposed in the living/dining/kitchen pavilion. Photo by: Nat Rea Photography

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Gold Country Residence

AT6 Design Build

Photo of a large contemporary backyard rectangular lap pool in San Francisco with a hot tub and tile.

Project Traditional Sauna

Alpha Wellness Sensations

Alpha Wellness Sensations is the world's leading manufacturer of custom saunas, luxury infrared cabins, professional steam rooms, immersive salt caves, built-in ice chambers and experience showers for residential and commercial clients. Our company is the dominating custom wellness provider in Europe for more than 35 years. All of our products are fabricated in Europe, 100% hand-crafted and fully compliant with EU’s rigorous product safety standards. We use only certified wood suppliers and have our own research & engineering facility where we developed our proprietary heating mediums. We keep our wood organically clean and never use in production any glues, polishers, pesticides, sealers or preservatives.

Ledge Lounger in-pool Chaise

Ledge Lounger

Small contemporary backyard custom-shaped lap pool in Houston with a hot tub.

Gunite "Spool"

Mad River Pool Construction

Contemporary pool in Orlando.

Large Contemporary Pool & Spacious Cabana with Fireplace

Thrasher Pool and Spa

Inspiration for a large contemporary rectangular pool in Atlanta with tile and a pool house.

Large Contemporary Pool & Spacious Cabana with Fireplace

Thrasher Pool and Spa

Inspiration for a large contemporary rectangular pool in Atlanta with tile and a pool house.

Ultimate Trophy Club Pool Transformation

Mike Farley Pool Designer, SWD, ASLA

This beautiful geometric project designed by Mike Farley has a lot of elevation changes with a stunning view of the golfcourse. The flush spa was kept near the house for easy access and blended with the contemporary style of the home. Both the outdoor kitchen and fire pit area are used as retaining walls with the elevation change. It also gives lots of seating along with the bar stools - inside and outside the pool. The water feature is a sheer rain fall that is kept low so that the golf course view isn't blocked. There is a nice sized tanning ledge to hang out on. The outdoor kitchen has a grill, trash can, drop in cooler and lots of seating. The cabana has cam lights for evening fun. We used ceramic on the patio that looks like wood and has greys and browns in it. The concrete is grey with a heavy texture. The channels have Mexican Pebble to blend with the grey tones.

South Hampton Project

Karen Arent Landscape Architects

Design ideas for a mid-sized contemporary backyard rectangular lap pool in New York with a hot tub and natural stone pavers.

Contemporary Spa

Harmony Design Group

Contemporary Spa with Dekko Concrete Fireplace, Lunada Bay Tile, Limestone Coping and patio.
Inspiration for a mid-sized contemporary backyard rectangular pool in New York with natural stone pavers.

Summerland House Plan-Custom Design for Developer in Sarasota, Florida

South Florida Architecture

This is an example of a contemporary indoor rectangular pool in Other with a hot tub and tile.

Custom Freeform Vinyl Liner Pool

Grecian Pools International

Photo of a large contemporary backyard custom-shaped pool in New York with concrete pavers.

Hillcrest

Grounded - Richard Risner RLA, ASLA

Photos: Chipper Hatter
Design ideas for a contemporary pool in San Diego.

A Backyard Where Small is Beautiful

Betz Pools Limited

The entire small yard is a testament to good landscape design with a carefully chosen mix of colours, shapes and textures. A series of columnar trees punctuate the perimeter while the showy hydrangeas and decorative grasses add interest. It’s easy to see the owner is a meticulous gardener.

Ranch O|H

Feldman Architecture, Inc.

Joe Fletcher Atop a ridge in the Santa Lucia mountains of Carmel, California, an oak tree stands elevated above the fog and wrapped at its base in this ranch retreat. The weekend home’s design grew around the 100-year-old Valley Oak to form a horseshoe-shaped house that gathers ridgeline views of Oak, Madrone, and Redwood groves at its exterior and nestles around the tree at its center. The home’s orientation offers both the shade of the oak canopy in the courtyard and the sun flowing into the great room at the house’s rear façades. This modern take on a traditional ranch home offers contemporary materials and landscaping to a classic typology. From the main entry in the courtyard, one enters the home’s great room and immediately experiences the dramatic westward views across the 70 foot pool at the house’s rear. In this expansive public area, programmatic needs flow and connect - from the kitchen, whose windows face the courtyard, to the dining room, whose doors slide seamlessly into walls to create an outdoor dining pavilion. The primary circulation axes flank the internal courtyard, anchoring the house to its site and heightening the sense of scale by extending views outward at each of the corridor’s ends. Guest suites, complete with private kitchen and living room, and the garage are housed in auxiliary wings connected to the main house by covered walkways. Building materials including pre-weathered corrugated steel cladding, buff limestone walls, and large aluminum apertures, and the interior palette of cedar-clad ceilings, oil-rubbed steel, and exposed concrete floors soften the modern aesthetics into a refined but rugged ranch home.

Backyard Pools and Patios

Harpeth Valley Hardscapes, LLC

Inspiration for a large contemporary backyard custom-shaped natural pool in Nashville with a hot tub and natural stone pavers.

Une cuisine modernisée, un jardin métamorphosé

ADC l'atelier d'à côté

Architectes d'intérieur : ADC l'atelier d'à côté Amandine Branji et Pauline Keo - Paysagisme : Studio In Situ
Design ideas for a contemporary pool in Paris.

Contemporary Pool Design Ideas

Swimming pools are heavenly during hot Australian and New Zealand summers and are the perfect way to cool down, relax, entertain friends and even get fit. A contemporary pool can also create visual interest, especially when you consider features like coloured pool tiles, lighting and landscaping. If you are short on space, you might still fit a lap pool, plunge pool or swim spa, all of which could be focal points in your small garden. As you plan your contemporary pool design, map out your space and determine what size, shape and style works best for you. Browse the photos on Houzz for design ideas for above ground pools, inground pools, as well as pool landscaping and novelty features like pool slides or water features. Then, save your favourite photos to an ideabook, and get in touch with the experts behind your favourite picks.

What type of pool should I install?

The dimensions of your contemporary backyard will determine the type of inground pools you can install. Take into account boundary restrictions and pool fencing compliance. Fibreglass versions are cheaper, and quicker to install; whereas concrete constructions are better suited to tricky sites and give you more freedom in design. If you’re on a tight budget or don’t want to commit to an inground pool, above ground pools are a more affordable alternative. If you only have a small backyard, a plunge pool is a great solution, and can easily run along a boundary wall or down the side of a house. This option is also low maintenance, can be heated for use in winter, and can do double duty as a swim spa. A long, narrow space, on the other hand, could fit a lap pool, whereas a water feature could fill an awkward space. If your backyard features a stunning vista, consider an infinity pool to accentuate the view.

What pool fencing options are available?

While the specifics vary from state to state, fencing is required of most pool designs. However, pool fencing doesn’t have to obscure your contemporary pool design. Glass fencing is increasingly popular for this reason exactly, and is available framed, frameless, semi-frameless and even in-ground. A cheaper alternative is aluminium or steel fencing, which, again, are available in a variety of styles: flat top, loop-top, double-top and wire-based.

What pool landscaping features should I consider?

To get the most out of your contemporary pool, design an area that offers multiple hangouts. Include a nearby barbecue, dining area, seating for lounging and outdoor shower. Having shaded areas will give you more reason to stay poolside longer, too. Timber decking and stone paving are popular choices for pool surrounds, and are also helpful in creating zones. Just imagine a raised timber platform with a daybed – a luxurious, resort-style addition to any pool design. Leafy trees and rocks will create a more natural-looking oasis, and will help provide more privacy for swimmers. Where you want your landscape to be the main focus, keep pool equipment and furnishings to a minimum.

Contemporary Hacienda

Wolfe Rizor Interiors

This is an example of a contemporary backyard custom-shaped infinity pool in Orlando with a hot tub.