If your pool/liner has grays and blues, what color is your deck?

[Vettechick99]

I'm really struggling with this. I wanted a travertine or sand color for our deck, but because our liner looks like this



my BFF (who is an artist) said we should pull from the grays in the liner. And I'm not against a gray deck, but we are doing concrete with kool deck-type top (blah) and I'm really worried it will look like kool deck on unfinished concrete.

What are your thoughts? If your pool has grays and blues, what color deck did you choose? Pics encouraged of all deck choices.

 

[mrcarcrazy]

Personally I agree with your friend. I think gray would look best. I don't think Travertine would look "bad" by any means. but I think gray makes more sense. Kool deck has a different texture than unfinished concrete, and there are a few different shades of gray (depending on the company you go with, some have a very light gray and a dark gray).

FWIW, our pool tiles are cobalt blue 6x6, and we are going with a very light grey kool deck.

 

[MiaOKC]

I'm not totally familiar with vinyl-liner pools, but would assume that the "tile line" is similar to a gunite pool where water is filled up half way up the tile, and you would see the top half of the tile, with the reflection in the water sort of supplying visual of the full tile. With that in mind, I would think about what colors are in the tile band - since that's the part you really "see" - and it looks like you have grays, blues and a sort of creamy-tan background. I would guess you could go with a deck that is either in the gray or the tan family and not be remiss... it's probably a personal preference thing. Do you know what color water results from your liner choice? That's been the hardest part for us to envision, but might influence your decision on deck color.

Lastly, I googled pictures of gray kool deck, and in pictures it does look a lot like plain concrete. I'm sure it would be different in person, but you might ask your builder to take you to pools that have your favorite deck colors to see for yourself. FWIW, I think you've seen our pics and we've done a gray stamped concrete deck and will have a mid-gray plaster. Still to be seen if those are good choices or not. Good luck!

 

[Vettechick99]

Thanks for y'alls comments. I've been following both builds. Super jealous! MrCarCrazy, what color deck are you going with?

Yes, Mia, that's exactly how it'll be at the waterline. I've even looked up blue & gray waterline tiles to see them in pools and how they look with their decks. Ours is really not a lot of gray, but it's more gray than another other supporting colors. I don't think a tan would look awful, but a gray would complement better.

Here is the pool. After it was installed last spring:

And this is from just a few weeks ago. Directly in front of the pool is where we mapped out the steps location. The whole area leading up to the steps and all around the pool will have decking.

Our sub uses Duracrete and Color Seal H2O Pro as a kool deck. Here is one sample he let me look at:

We are not limited to these colors. The fine print says they can also do custom colors. Our concrete sub is a PB, just not ours. Our PB was great but wanted crazy money for thismuch deck. So we decided to save a year and now we're going with a local guy. He did a neighbor's pool and does good work. Long story short, the issue is that this is a small town and he's used to only doing the knockdown application. He knows about stamping, but hasn't done it. I'm not sure he's done a salt finish either, which I prefer over kool deck. Not to say he couldn't figure out salt finish, but still. I'm not sure I want to be the guinea pig. So I'm scared I'm stuck with kool deck, which isn't the worst thing, but I really want to investigate all options. It has to be non-slip and cooling, since summers here are scorching.

We are meeting with him again tomorrow to nail down specifics. But I really feel like I need to come with some pictures and ideas, and right now I feel overwhelmed and confused. We are doing about 1,200sf of deck so it's going to be very obvious if we pick a bad color.

This is what I've envisioned and how he's planning to do the deck. Like my mad powerpoint skills??

 

[mrcarcrazy]

I'll take a picture of the sample and post it to my thread tonight. I don't remember the name of it. But it's very very close to the color of the Coping we are putting on our spa and wall.

I'm hoping I can accurately capture the color.

 

[glitter&guns]

Well, I will give you my thoughts for whatever small amount they are worth. First off, I have to agree with whoever said that grey toned kool deck has a way of looking like cement. I have been painfully digging my way through pool choices and thought I wanted grey around my pool until I saw a big patch of grey kool deck type product. It is not my thing. I am sure that sometimes it is incredibly lovely, but I found an example for you that looked similar to what I saw. (and yes, I am absolutely praying that this pool doesn't belong to someone who posts here)



I have seen some pretty ones if you can intersperse slate or other stone, but that is an investment.

My next thought is that this is that I have seen actual grey pools with flagstone around them, and I love the look. Grey plaster/liners don't really read "grey" when water is in them, they read deeper blue. Here is one of my favorites (and I believe that the tile, which is hard to see, is neutrals with blue).

And finally, your avatar picture is really small, but when I look at that, the "sand" around your pool is very "sand" colored (amazing how that works out), and I think it looks great!

- - - Updated - - -

Oops, I guess the pool with grey/flagstone didn't post - trying again. I really do drool when I look at this pool.

 

[Vettechick99]

I would LOVE to have stone. But I just don't think it's going to happen. I would be totally happy with gray stone, and it would work due to the unique texture and color variation. But the knockdown technique has neither and I'm concerned.

Here are the options next to the liner. Ignore the copious amounts of pollen...

We are leaning towards one, but I'm interested in hearing your opinions.

And G&G, that pool is absolutely drool-worthy!

 

[AlanH]

Just to give you an idea of the blue liner, grey deck look. We used a cement paver that has a faux travertine look to it. Since coping tiles (for the oval pool) were not available (not even made) we used the pavers and cut and bull-nosed them with a 4" grinder. A grate (not shown in this pic) covers the perimeter gutter of the round pool.

 

[Vettechick99]

Looks great Alan! Really pretty.