Pool Design Services

Design That Starts With You

Every pool we design begins with a single question: how do you want to feel in your backyard? Not what shape do you want, not what features have you seen on Pinterest — but what does your ideal outdoor life actually look like? That answer drives every design decision we make.

At Scott Payne Custom Pools, design isn't just a department — it's the foundation of everything we build. We maintain a full, in-house design staff that includes both registered and licensed landscape architects. This means your project isn't being sketched out by a salesperson trying to hit a quota; it's being engineered by credentialed professionals who understand the complex relationship between architecture, land, and water.

The Upfront Site Analysis

Most pool problems aren't construction problems — they're design problems that show up during construction, or worse, after the pool is built. A pool that's placed wrong relative to the house, sized wrong for the yard, or designed without thinking about how water moves across the property will frustrate you for decades.

That's why our process is heavily front-loaded. Before we ever draw a shape or discuss tile colors, our licensed landscape architects conduct an exhaustive site analysis. We don't just look at where the pool fits; we engineer how the entire property will function. We take into account:

• The Sun Sweep: We map exactly how the sun moves across your property throughout the day and across the seasons. This dictates where we place tanning ledges, where we position shade structures, and how we orient the pool to maximize natural heating and afternoon light.
• The Pool Position: We evaluate the sightlines from inside your home. Your pool should look like a piece of art from your kitchen window or living room, not just when you're standing on the patio.
• The House Position & Architecture: The pool must speak the same architectural language as your home. We analyze the rooflines, exterior materials, and existing hardscapes to ensure the new outdoor living space feels like a natural extension of the original property.
• Prevailing Winds: Wind direction affects everything from water evaporation rates to where leaves and debris will naturally collect in the pool. It also dictates where we should place fire features and dining areas so smoke doesn't blow into your guests' faces.
• Topography & Elevation Changes: We shoot exact grades to understand the slope of your yard. This tells us where retaining walls are necessary, where we can incorporate vanishing edges, and how we need to manage soil retention.
• Comprehensive Drainage Engineering: This is where most builders fail. We engineer the drainage plan before we design the pool. We calculate where stormwater currently flows, how the new impervious surfaces (decking and pool) will change that flow, and exactly how we will capture and redirect that water away from your home and the pool structure. There are no surprises with drainage when you build with us.
• Existing Utilities & Easements: We map out septic systems, well lines, underground utilities, and property setbacks to ensure the design is fully compliant and buildable from day one.

Good design eliminates problems before they exist. It's the most important investment you make in the entire project — and it costs far less than fixing a mistake after the concrete is poured.

The Design Process

Design Styles We Build

We don't have a signature look we push on every client. The right design is the one that fits your property, your home's architecture, and the way your family actually lives. That said, after building custom pools across the Philadelphia suburbs for over a decade, we've developed deep expertise in every major design language — and strong opinions about when each one is the right call.

Features We Design In

The features you choose define how your pool gets used — and how much you love it ten years from now. We've built enough projects to know which features get used every single day and which ones look great in the rendering but collect leaves in real life. Here's what we most commonly design into our projects, and why each one earns its place:

• Sun shelves and tanning ledges — A properly designed sun shelf is one of the highest-value features we put in any pool. At six to nine inches of water depth, it's safe for toddlers, perfect for in-water loungers, and doubles as a gradual entry point for guests who aren't ready to jump in. We size and position them based on the sun sweep analysis so they're in direct sunlight during peak afternoon hours.
• Attached spas — We design spas as part of the pool from the beginning, not as an add-on. When a spa is engineered into the original design, the hydraulics, equipment sizing, and visual flow are all optimized together. A bolted-on spa always looks like a bolted-on spa. Ours don't.
• Water features — Sheet waterfalls, deck jets, scuppers, raised spillways, and natural stone cascades. Beyond the visual and auditory appeal, moving water helps with circulation, reduces chemical demand, and makes the pool feel alive. We design water features to be seen from inside the home as well as from the patio.
• Fire features — Fire bowls, linear fire pits, and fire-and-water combinations are among the most transformative elements we add to a backyard. They extend the usable season well into October and November and completely change the atmosphere after dark. We position them based on prevailing wind patterns so the flame performs correctly and smoke stays away from seating areas.
• Beach entries — A zero-depth entry that gradually slopes into the pool, replicating the feel of a natural shoreline. Extremely popular with families with young children and aging homeowners who want easy, stepless access. They require precise grading and drainage engineering to execute correctly.
• Swim-up bars and in-water seating — Bar stools submerged at the perfect height, counter surfaces at water level, and refrigeration built into the surrounding hardscape. When these are designed in from the start, they become a seamless part of the pool structure rather than an afterthought.
• Grottos and cave features — A waterfall you can swim behind, with a recessed seating area and optional fire feature inside. These are complex to engineer and require significant structural planning, but the result is unlike anything else in residential pool design.
• Outdoor living integration — We design the pool in full context with your outdoor kitchen, pergola, fire pit area, and hardscape from day one. The pool should be one element in a cohesive outdoor living environment, not the only element surrounded by leftover space.
• Lighting systems — LED color-changing underwater lights, pathway lighting, uplighting for trees and architectural features, and step lighting for safety. A well-lit pool looks completely different at night than it does during the day — and that nighttime experience is often what homeowners love most.
• Smart automation — Pentair IntelliCenter and Jandy iAquaLink systems that let you control every aspect of your pool — temperature, lighting, water features, spa jets, and chemical dosing — from your phone. We design the automation system alongside the equipment plan so everything is fully integrated, not patched together after the fact.
• Pool enclosures and shade structures — Pergolas, shade sails, and retractable awnings designed and positioned based on the sun sweep analysis. We know exactly where shade is needed and at what time of day, so we build structures that actually solve the problem rather than guessing.

Why Design Matters More Than You Think

Homeowners often come to us having already spoken with two or three other builders. Almost universally, those conversations were about price per square foot, material options, and how quickly construction could start. Very few of those conversations were about design — and that's exactly the problem.

The pool industry has a tendency to treat design as a formality: a quick sketch to get the contract signed, followed by a construction process that makes compromises the homeowner never agreed to. We've seen it happen to neighbors of our clients. We've been called in to renovate pools that were five years old and already failing — not because the concrete was bad, but because the drainage was never properly engineered, or the pool was positioned in a way that made it nearly impossible to maintain.

Here's what separates a well-designed pool from a poorly designed one — ten years later:

• Drainage that still works — A properly engineered drainage plan means stormwater flows away from the pool and the home the same way in year ten as it did in year one. A poorly designed drainage system means erosion, deck settling, water intrusion, and expensive remediation.
• Equipment that's sized correctly — Undersized pumps and filtration systems work harder, wear out faster, and cost more to operate. We size equipment based on the actual hydraulic demands of the finished pool, not on what fits the budget at signing.
• A pool you actually use — Sun position, wind exposure, and the relationship between the pool and the house determine whether you use the pool every day or let it sit. We've seen beautiful pools that nobody used because they were in the shade by 3 PM, or positioned so far from the house that the walk back inside felt like a chore.
• A backyard that still makes sense — Good design preserves the functional areas of your yard — space for kids to play, room for entertaining, access to the garage and side yard. Poor design consumes the entire lot and leaves you with a pool you can't live around.
• A structure that holds its value — A pool designed by licensed landscape architects, engineered for the specific conditions of your property, and built to permit-ready specifications holds its value and contributes to your home's resale price. A pool that was designed to hit a price point often becomes a liability.

Design is not a line item. It's the foundation of everything that comes after it. When you invest in the right design process upfront, the construction goes smoother, the finished product performs better, and the pool you end up with is the pool you actually wanted.