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Water running from a stone-edged spa through a channel of river rock into a free-form pool, a rock waterfall at its far end and a lake beyond

Pool design · Fort Worth

Custom pools in Fort Worth

We design the pool together with the deck, the shade and the outdoor kitchen around it, so they work as one backyard.

Plan your pool See four we designed See four we designed

One plan

The pool, patio, shade and kitchen, designed as one plan

A pool company draws a pool. Then the patio goes wherever the pool left room, the shade goes wherever the patio left room, and the kitchen lands wherever the gas line reached. Each piece is fine on its own, but they don’t work together, and you live with that for as long as you own the house.

We draw the backyard in the order it gets lived in. Every layer below is a decision the next one depends on.

Talk through your backyard

  1. The house. We start the plan at the back door.

  2. The pool. Faces the rooms you use, not the lot line.

  3. The spa. Sits where the kitchen can see it.

  4. The deck. Slopes away from the house so water drains off.

  5. The shade. On the west side, to block the afternoon sun.

  6. The kitchen. Under the roof, a few steps from the water.

  7. The pool house. Add a bath and a bed and the city may call it a house.

Drawn to show the decisions, not to scale A pool house is a building of its own. See how we build them →
A gunite pool shell and spa with their steps and plumbing stubs, shot and curing right against a house’s new covered patio

Who builds what

Designed by us as part of the whole backyard. Built through trusted, vetted pool partners.

A pool builder builds pools every day, and that is exactly the job we hand them. What a pool builder doesn’t draw is the roofline the pool sits under, the deck it drains across or the kitchen it faces. We do. The shell gets built to a plan that already agrees with your house, and you keep one plan and one point of contact the whole way through.

Ask how it works

From backyards we’ve designed

Pool design, feature by feature

Every feature on this wall is in a pool we designed, and each one is there because of its yard. The family on Eagle Mountain Lake wanted the view from the lake, so their pool got an infinity edge. The family in Aledo asked for a big beach entry. Which ones belong in yours is the first design conversation.

Tell us which features you want
A pool lit blue at dusk with its far edge spilling toward a lake, a fire bowl on the rim, travertine decking and a stone pool house Infinity edge A pool that spills toward the lake at dusk. From Eagle Mountain Lake Blue-lit laminar jets arcing from the deck into a pool at night, a lit house behind Laminar jets A free-form pool with a boulder waterfall at its far end, seen across a stamped deck from under a red umbrella A large water feature Three sheer-descent waterfalls pouring from a stacked-stone wall with a glass-tile band into a pool, planted bowls on the stone piers above Sheer descents Round stools set under the water along a pool bar, a cedar cabana with a fireplace behind Underwater stools In-water loungers on a wide shallow beach entry at dusk, lit waterfalls along the far wall and a cedar pergola beyond Beach entry From Aledo

Cost

What a custom pool costs in Fort Worth

$75,000–$300,000

for the pool by itself, before anything is built around it.

Get a number for your yard
A raised glass-tile spa lit blue at the edge of a travertine deck, a lake and a boat dock beyond at sunset
A raised glass-tile spa at the lake’s edge. Every feature like it moves the number.
Its own permit
A pool is permitted separately from any structure around it, and gas or power for a kitchen adds sub-permits. Permits for a backyard like this run $1,200–$4,000.
A barrier around the water
The city requires safety fencing and barriers around a pool. We draw them into the plan, so they read as part of the yard instead of an afterthought.
The whole backyard
A pool with a full outdoor kitchen and living space sits at the top of our $35,000–$400,000 outdoor range. Plan on 10–15% of budget for contingency.

Pools we’ve designed

Four custom pools we designed

A lake view and room for a big family. A place for the whole family to gather, with a father-in-law building a house nearby. A resort feel for a newly retired owner. And a second pool for a family we had already designed one for.

Design yours The full portfolio

Our process

How custom pool design works, in three steps

  1. Meet Up

    We walk the backyard with you. Bring how you want to use the water and a number you’re comfortable with.

  2. Team Up

    We draw the pool with the house, the deck, the shade and the kitchen, and put a price on paper before anything gets dug.

  3. Glasses Up

    The pool builder builds the shell from our plan while we build everything around it. Then you swim.

Not ready to talk yet?

Start with the nine questions to ask any pool builder before you break ground. It’s our free guide, six pages.

Get the 9 questions Or schedule a Meetup
4 years running

Best Home Builder & Remodeler

Fort Worth MagazineFort Worth Chamber Small Business of the Year4.7 stars from 91 Google reviews as of September 2026

Questions

Custom pool questions, answered

Why not hire a pool company directly?

You can, and for a pool on its own in an open yard it’s a fair call. The difference shows when the pool has to meet something else: a covered patio’s roofline, the grade a deck drains to, an outdoor kitchen’s gas line. We design those together, then bring in a pool builder to build the shell from that one plan.

Which pool features are worth paying for?

The ones your yard can use. A beach entry needs room to spread out and pays you back with a shallow end for kids and loungers. An infinity edge needs a view to spill toward. Laminar jets, sheer descents and fire bowls are for evenings, so they’re worth it if you’ll mostly use the pool in the evening. We’d rather talk you out of a feature than draw one you won’t use.

Why does a pool run anywhere from $75,000 to $300,000?

Because “a pool” covers a lot of ground. Size and depth move the number, and so does everything the water is asked to do: a spa, a beach entry, lit jets, a waterfall wall. So does the yard the shell has to fit into. That range is the pool alone, before a deck, a cover or a kitchen goes around it, and we narrow it for your yard once we’ve walked it.

Can a custom pool work on a smaller in-town lot?

Yes, and it is where the drawing matters most. A plunge pool is one answer. Ours in Overton Park, Fort Worth, has a stacked-stone waterfall wall and a white-brick surround. On a small lot the pool, the deck and the shade are all asking for the same few feet, so they have to be decided together.

What should we know before the first meeting?

Less than you’d think. Know how you want to use the water, whether that’s laps, kids, cooling off after work or looking at it from the kitchen, and roughly what you want to spend. The shape, the finishes and the features come after we’ve walked the yard.

What should we ask any pool builder before signing?

We wrote the questions down. Our free guide, Top 9 Questions to Ask Your Pool Builder, covers them. It exists because hidden costs and change orders are far easier to settle before anyone breaks ground than after.

Ask us yours
A plunge pool with a three-fall stacked-stone waterfall wall and white-brick surround, in Fort Worth’s Overton Park

Get started

Your pool, drawn with everything around it

Walk the backyard with us. We’ll show you where the pool fits, how it works with the house, the deck and the shade, and roughly what it costs, before you’ve committed to anything.

Schedule a Meetup (817) 631-9803

Pictured: the plunge pool at a whole-home renovation of ours in Overton Park, Fort Worth.

Plan your pool