A Big Dig For Family Fun

A new pool was the icing on the cake for this Churchlands family. The parents knew they would get a swimming pool one day but wanted to wait until their children were proficient in the water before doing so.
Luckily for them, it was not too difficult to install a fibreglass pool in their backyard, thanks to today’s small excavators and the team from Barrier Reef Pools, who were willing to do some hand-digging and wheelbarrowing of sand.
“The digger just fitted in through the gate,” the owner said. “And the whole dig only took a day.” Having built their new home with Colonnade Constructions, they commissioned landscape designers Outside In to draw up plans for their garden. Instead of getting Outside In to turn the plans into reality, however, the owners bought the plans and sub-contracted the design. “Outside In recommended Barrier Reef so we went with them.

We chose their 7.2 x 2.8m Billabong pool in Pacific Shimmer,” the owner said. The new pool looks beautiful in its setting of honed exposed aggregate. At one end is a Fremantle stone water feature fitted with a water blade lit with a multi-coloured LED light. The water feature conceals the pump and the filter. A builder recommended by Barrier Reef Pools constructed the poolside planter box and the owner filled it with plants once it had been painted. They used Taubmans Rialto to paint the planter box, a good contrast to the paler Colorbond Surfmist that coats the opposite wall. Both colours pick up tones in the aggregate.
An in-ground blanket-box might hide the pool blanket but the family use it often and say they find it keeps the pool warm, although they have provision for other kinds of heating.
With an Eclipse outdoor umbrella and timber box seating as well as a day bed, the family are making the most of their new pool. Yellow seats from IKEA and cushions from Freedom add splashes of sunny colour. “The kids are 11 and six and they’re in it all the time,” the owner said. “We couldn’t have got the pool at a better time.”

By Sally-Ann Jones