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When Domino’s design director Brit Ashcraft and her husband, Sean, first moved into their Hudson, New York, home, it was hard to miss the swimming pool in the backyard…even when they were inside the house. The white lattice and decking stood out against the backdrop of greenery, and the whole scene felt like an even bigger eyesore when the leaves fell off the trees in the winter. “It was depressing-looking,” recalls Brit.
Initially, the couple thought about tearing the whole thing down and replacing it with a garage, but when their first summer came around, they found that they actually loved having a pool. All that needed to change was its appearance, so one day, Brit took matters into her own hands. With a hammer and brute strength, she pulled all the siding off the elevated platform. “I was like, well now we have to fix it,” she says. Ahead, they reveal how they made their above-ground pool actually cool.
The Modern Siding
The lattice siding that was covering the base of the pool was reading kitschy—exaclty what Ashcraft doesn’t want going on at their Victorian home. Much like the interior of their house, it needed some edge, so Sean started playing around with a slatted design in Adobe Illustrator. After trying out a few different spacing options, he landed on a one-and-half-inch gap using two-inch-by-two-inch boards. “We started with a two-inch gap but it was too large visually,” he says. “This was the cleanest look.”
After using a table saw to cut all the boards to the correct length, he painted each one in sets before installing and waiting for them to dry. Then, starting at the bottom edge of the pool deck, he worked his way up, holding a spacer between each slat and drilling them in. Once he had them all installed, he went back under the pool and, using a staple gun and roll of black fabric weed barrier, lined the back of the slats on the inside all the way around to hide the show-through of the pool. “The weed barrier material is only semi-opaque, so it lets light through but you can’t see the white pool sides through the gaps in the slats,” he points out.
The Edgy Touch
Figuring out what to paint the pool was easy: Brit decided to use the same Wrought Iron color by Benjamin Moore that they used on the exterior of the main house. After sanding off the old white hue and cleaning the debris, they applied the soft black color, saving the brand’s Woodluxe Water-Based Waterproofing Stain + Sealer in Translucent Teak for the decking and railing.
Word of advice: buy your wood months in advance or get it from a supplier that offers ready-to-stain products. “We used pressure-treated wood for everything, but it’s often so wet with the treatment when you get it from places like Home Depot that you can’t stain it until it completely dries out, which can take a long time,” says Sean.
The Railing That’s Safe and See-Through
Once Brit got familiar with all the rules around pool railings, she began brainstorming ways to make said railing slightly more stylish. “Before, I didn’t like that you couldn’t see out into the yard when you were in the pool,” says Brit. Hog wire turned out to be the unlikely answer (you’ll want some bolt cutters for cutting!). Because the pool platform is an odd shape, the gaps between the posts aren’t even all the way around, and that meant that each section had to be custom cut.
The Move Night Set-Up
Brit and Sean were just a few simple steps away from really enjoying their above-ground pool. She scooped up Article’s Lubek sectional and table set so she can curl up into the corner of the couch when she’s reading, bought a $209 umbrella off Wayfair, ditched their outdoor rug that got soggy after the rain, and brought out some Sonos Move speakers.
“It’s great to have this lower area where friends can chill out and we can set out food,” says Brit of decking out the lower platform. Another perk of the elevated pool? They can hang a projector screen down from the railing and watch B-movies that are as good as they are bad. There’s nothing depressing about hanging outdoors now.