Wood Deck Lap Pool Beside White Farmhouse

Design notes

Farmhouse pools are simple rectangles set in lawn or gravel beside a white house with black windows. Look for bluestone or concrete coping, a cedar or metal-roofed pool house, a stock-tank or plunge pool on smaller lots, and planting kept to hydrangeas, grasses and a few shade trees. Furniture is black or natural teak, never resort-white.

What to look for

• The coping — how the deck meets the water sets the whole tone
• Where the spa sits and how it spills into the pool
• Night lighting: which features glow and which stay dark