4 min readThere is nothing quite like stepping out of your house on a hot day and heading directly to the pool. They can take all shapes: undulating and discreet like a natural pond; long and rectilinear for laps; broad and big, begging for a pool party. But it’s the setting as much as the pool design itself that makes the experience. Lush gardens and sun-kissed decks wrap around the water, begging guests to lose track of time and stay the afternoon, while other properties give way to welcome distractions, like breathtaking views or even the beach. The following nine pools are some of the most enchanting in our archives, the kind of inspiration that will have you plotting a backyard makeover next season.
French Floral (1967)
The Long Island summer house of francophile Francis Carpenter, built in an erstwhile potato field, opened up, through awning-trimmed French doors, to a fleur-de-lys–shaped pool in the backyard. Surrounded by round flowering beds and a terrace landscaped by James Huntley, “the whole delicious space [was] devoted to living under the sky,” wrote editor Jack L. Hendrix in our May 1967 issue. “Like separate rooms, white sailcloth pavilions provided shaded lounge space, right of the pool, and a dining area, left.”
Dramatic View (1967)
In 1967, the editors of House Beautiful presented a package entitled “The New Shapes of the Pool,” stating that, “While the rectangle may still be the most economical, the cost of the unusual has been reduced by new concrete-application techniques by the use of vinyl liners, and by volume installation on the part of large pool companies.” This example, overlooking Lake Hollywood, was perhaps included more for the view than the innovative shape and features a fountain as well as artful plantings.
Psychedelic Swirls (1970)
Ever wonder what’s hiding behind the gates of a private estate? For their Beverly Hills home, Polly Bergen and Freddie Fields hired pool artists Ray and Gloria Smith to create an Art Nouveau design on the floor of their private pool using just regular pool paint. A brick surround includes furniture selected by designer Frank Austin.
Natural Spring (1984)
“Designed to be as beautiful in winter as in summer,” this incredible pool tucked into a forest feels like it’s actually part of the natural world. The editors of HB’s July 1984 issue included this one as the feature image in a package entitled “When Pool and Landscape Become One.” Landscape architect Randolph Marshall created the scene on a wooded lot in Westchester County, NY. A waterfall feeds the pool, giving it the feel of a pond, and beside it there’s a bubbling hot tub to jump into in cooler seasons.
Storybook Estate (1991)
The upstate New York home of Louise Beebe Wilder, a famous 1900s gardening writer, was once a charming stone cottage where she wrote all her books, but it fell into disrepair over time. Decorator David Easton snapped up the property in the late 80s and, using Wilder’s descriptions of the home from her books and even a plan she printed in Color in My Garden, recreated a home there inspired by the original. Formal beds flank the pool area, which includes a wide pergola with stone columns and a covered terrace.
Garden Pond (1992)
When actor Victoria Principal and her husband, Dr. Harry Glassman, decided to renovate their shingled Los Angeles cottage in the early 90s, the garden came first—Principal even had 10 rose trees transplanted from her former home. Landscape architect Charles Pearson and garden designer Pat Holland lead the effort, creating a stone pool that, surrounded by Principal’s lush garden, reads more as a natural pond than a manmade swimming hole. “I did not want a manicured, formal garden,” says Principal in HB’s February 1992 feature on the home. “I wanted something absolutely natural-looking.”
Beachfront Cabana (1998)
Expanding a historically significant property is no small feat. After renovating Richard Neutra’s Lewin House, which sits right on the beach in Santa Monica, architect Steven Ehrlich added a 2,600-square-foot entertaining pavilion that echoes the lines of the original home, including retractable glass walls and a curving roof that opens right up to the swimming pool. “It's important to honor the architecture—not to repeat, but to understand what's been done and to complement it," Ehrlich explained in our November 1998 feature on the home. With the press of a button, a steel gate opens, revealing the beach beyond.
Cliffside Spa (1999)
When a Norwegian couple’s family gifted them a plot of land high above a fjord near Oslo as a wedding present, they called upon Pritzker Prize–winning architect Sverre Fehn to create a home that responded to the incredible site. Built with wood and concrete to withstand the elements, the house is like a modern fortress. Tucked into the “spa-size” primary bath is an exercise pool, which gets plenty of light—and an unbeatable view—from a large Y-mullioned window.
Richard Neutra (1999)
Commissioned by Pittsburgh department store owner Edgar Kaufmann, Sr., to design his vacation home in Palm Springs in the 1940s, Viennese architect Richard Neutra brought to life one of the great American houses of the 20th century. (It would be the second time Kaufmann made such a pivotal call: His first architectural commission was to Frank Lloyd Wright for the mogul’s primary residence, Fallingwater.) Working on-site in the desert heat, Neutra apparently oversaw construction from the coolest place on the property: the pool. “Its lawns and shrubs are imports, just as are its aluminum and plate glass; but plate glass and aluminum, the water of the pool, all reflect the dynamic changes [in] the moods of the landscape,” Neutra shared with HB in our October 1999 issue. “While not grown there or rooted there, the building nevertheless fuses with its setting, partakes in its events, emphasizes its character."
