The Swimming Pool: Stylish and Inspirational Ideas for Building and Decorating Your Pool [Hardcover]

Martha Baker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 12, 2005

An enlightened approach to pool design, The Swimming Pool matches superb aesthetics with the best of today’s most innovative building materials for the ultimate guide to building your backyard retreat. Renowned landscape designer Martha Baker explores four popular styles—Romantic, Modern, Classic, and Rustic—and details the key elements that help to create a complete look. She provides ideas for personalizing elements to match your individual taste and accommodating practical needs. Leading you on a guided tour of exclusive international locales featuring pools with many different looks and styles, she offers a wealth of advice on:

•Identifying the right design style to complement your property

•Siting your pool and selecting the best pool shape

•Creating poolside cooking and dining areas

•Choosing furniture that epitomizes the art of relaxation

•Landscaping to integrate your pool with your home and property

•Pinpointing the best accessories to pull it all together

Reminding us that pool design should be infused with a blend of fantasy and reality, Martha Baker features a seductively elegant romantic pool that conjures the image of a Spanish courtyard; an infinity pool that takes its cue from island traditions, perched on a hillside overlooking a tropical harbor; and a highly sophisticated modern pool topped with playful, oversized sculptures. Authoritative and packed with more than 250 gorgeous photographs, The Swimming Pool opens up a world of unprecedented pool design.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Martha Baker, a certified landscape designer, is the author of Garden Ornaments and The Outdoor Living Room. Her gardens have been included in the Parrish Art Museum tours and the Horticultural Alliance tours in the Hamptons, and featured in magazines such as Martha Stewart Living, House Beautiful, and Elle Décor. Her work in fashion and design has appeared in New York magazine, the New York Times Magazine, and House Beautiful. She has four children and lives in New York City and Shelter Island, New York.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Clarkson Potter (April 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0609610767
• ISBN-13: 978-0609610763
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 9.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,029,993 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Pools that belong on the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, August 31, 2005

By 

Jack's Girl (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Swimming Pool: Stylish and Inspirational Ideas for Building and Decorating Your Pool (Hardcover)

I am so disappointed that I wasted my money on this book. I had hoped for the amount of money spent that it would have had practical ideas for how to landscape around an average pool. Unfortunately, it is more of a coffee table book that shows glamourous pictures of pools from international locations. The majority of the landscaping tips it does give cover extravagant and costly enhancements and not anything that someone with a normal budget could afford. For an average pool owner, with an average pool, this book does not give any practical advice whatsoever. Furthermore, in the opening pages of the book the author cautions against buying a kidney-shaped pool because she feels they are old-fashioned and reminiscent of the 50's and 60's. To me, it seemed very pretentious to say. We have a kidney-shaped pool and it's absolutely beautiful, as are other kidney-shaped pools I've seen. If you're looking for a book where you can "ooh and ahhh" over the pictures... this one is it. If you're looking for a practical book to help you landscape around your pool, please save your money.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Packs color photos with tips on how to compliment a property with the right design, October 10, 2005

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Swimming Pool: Stylish and Inspirational Ideas for Building and Decorating Your Pool (Hardcover)

Martha Baker's The Swimming Pool: Stylish And Inspirational Ideas For Building And Decorating Your Pool is for you. From assessments of popular contemporary styles and materials to discussions of key elements which blend for a unified look, The Swimming Pool packs color photos with tips on how to compliment a property with the right design - up to and including furniture, poolside cooking and dining options, and landscaping.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More Than Just Beautiful Photographs of Pools, June 17, 2006

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Swimming Pool: Stylish and Inspirational Ideas for Building and Decorating Your Pool (Hardcover)

Martha Baker's THE SWIMMING POOL is a coffee table book of some of the most beautiful pool around the world, but it is much more than that. Written with an easy style but always a poignant conciseness that makes every paragraph count, this book gives visual and conceptual ideas for creating the home swimming pool.

Baker is careful not to just limit the text and photographs to the water container in which the swimming takes place: Baker gives as much attention to the logistics of pool layout, landscaping, lighting, and vantage points that make the pool an integral part of the landscape and garden.

Whether the reader is actually planning the addition of a swimming pool to the home, or is more interested in viewing the myriad possibilities of adding water to the garden, this book is an elegant and satisfying resource - as well as a beautifully designed art piece! Grady Harp, June 06