Pebble Sheen Blue Surf vs Prism Blue??

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Andrea in St Louis

Andrea in St Louis

New member
Feb 3, 2021
3
St. Louis, MO
Hi, we are in the middle of building a gunite pool and are struggling with color. My husband likes Ocean Blue, but I vetoed it for being too dark. I want to see the bottom of the pool and children. We went through all the other colors and narrowed it down to Blue Surf or Prism Blue. I’m having a hard time finding many Prism Blue pictures. If anyone has it or has seen it, is there a turquoise or grey cast to it? I’m looking for a medium deep rich blue. Blue Surf is very pretty, but might be just a tiny bit light?? or it might be perfect. 😝 But we were thinking maybe Prism Blue because it’s a little bit deeper color? But I’m not a grey person, so the grey in the description worries me. Ugh! This is so hard.

Any insight would be wonderful!!

Thank you!

Andrea
 
We have Blue Surf. My profile pic was when the pool was fairly new. I'll get another pic tomorrow if it's sunny. The blue plaster has definitely faded...the pool is not quite 2 years old. Now I'm wishing we had chosen something a little darker. Blue Surf is not dark at all, and we really like warmer water. Personally I'd like something darker to warm the water a little more and definitely wish it was more blue. You can tell in my pic it had a green tint, which we were specifically trying to avoid. Hope that helps! It's such a hard decision because it seems the same color looks different in every pool, time of day you see it, cloudy sky or clear, etc.
 
Poolmama! said:
it seems the same color looks different in every pool, time of day you see it, cloudy sky or clear, etc.
Click to expand...
That's the reality, no way around it.

Be prepared to see some grey. The water itself adds a lot of blue, so to get the pool to look blue, they actually back off the blue color in the mix. So the deep end will be nice and blue, the shallow end a little grayer, steps will get grayer as they ascend, and the top step or benches or tanning shelves will look very grey.

Choosing your color via internet can lead to disappointment. The color you'll be seeing is not only dependent on how and when the image was photographed, but by the quality and color fidelity of your computer screen. It's best to see pools in person, at various times of day. But even then, your house color and fence color and the types and heights and amount of trees and shrubs will all end up affecting what you choose.

You just have to do the best you can knowing 1) it might not be exactly what you were after, and 2) it's still going to look fantastic. So don't beat yourself up about color, before or after.

You won't lose sight of your kids in a dark colored pool. Plus, as Poolmama points out, the color will fade with time, so it's going to end up lighter eventually, and perhaps grayer.

This image illustrates some of what I am describing. The shallow end looks greener because it is reflecting my tan house. Shadows in the deep end almost start to look purple, and the deep end is a medium blue with turquoise tones. Check out the bench in the corner: grey.

Your pool will be multi-colored and constantly changing, throughout the day, the year and its life. Embrace it.

just filled cropped.jpg
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: r1ck, colleenbevans and Casey
Dirk said:
That's the reality, no way around it.

Be prepared to see some grey. The water itself adds a lot of blue, so to get the pool to look blue, they actually back off the blue color in the mix. So the deep end will be nice and blue, the shallow end a little grayer, steps will get grayer as they ascend, and the top step or benches or tanning shelves will look very grey.

Choosing your color via internet can lead to disappointment. The color you'll be seeing is not only dependent on how and when the image was photographed, but by the quality and color fidelity of your computer screen. It's best to see pools in person, at various times of day. But even then, your house color and fence color and the types and heights and amount of trees and shrubs will all end up affecting what you choose.

You just have to do the best you can knowing 1) it might not be exactly what you were after, and 2) it's still going to look fantastic. So don't beat yourself up about color, before or after.

You won't lose sight of your kids in a dark colored pool. Plus, as Poolmama points out, the color will fade with time, so it's going to end up lighter eventually, and perhaps grayer.

This image illustrates some of what I am describing. The shallow end looks greener because it is reflecting my tan house. Shadows in the deep end almost start to look purple, and the deep end is a medium blue with turquoise tones. Check out the bench in the corner: grey.

You pool will be multi-colored and constantly changing, throughout the day, the year and its life. Embrace it.

View attachment 176733
Click to expand...

Good point about the gray...our tanning ledge and steps are definitely gray. We actually had some blue glass beads added to help it look more blue. Hopefully it's sunny tomorrow and I'll add some pics.
 
Thank you!!! Thank you!!! Thank you!!! This conversation is so helpful! I did look through the one post that is meant to be the clearinghouse of pool color postings, but I didn’t find my answers there. This helps me understand the dynamics of the finishes, too. It’s the heart of winter in St. Louis, so I can’t go look at anything. I wish I had known about this color choice process last summer/fall. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences and knowledge.
 
You can try to get samples on loan and view them in your backyard. But this is almost worse than viewing color on a computer screen. As explained, the water and surrounding elements play such a huge part in the perception of the color. Especially if everything is white right now. If you go that route, at least be sure to get the sample wet as you view it.

When is the finish due to go in? Will the St Louis area have thawed out by then? Maybe your PB will have some pools to show you later in the spring. Do you have Nextdoor in your neighborhood? It's an online meeting place for neighbors. Maybe you could reach out there to see if anyone will let you come see their pool when they open it.

Join Nextdoor, an app for neighborhoods where you can get local tips, buy and sell items, and more

Nextdoor is the neighborhood hub for trusted connections and the exchange of helpful information, goods, and services.
nextdoor.com nextdoor.com
 
That second image above really conveys how the water adds blue as it gets deeper. That's not a photographic illusion, that's exactly what happens.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
Hey Andrea and belated Welcome !! These fine folks above me are doing their best to steer you to a finish that you love but I wanted to expand a little on the many many ‘moods’ of a pool. People often drive themselves nuts trying to achieve that utterly perfect for them color. And then rarely see it.

One small cloud in the sky, all cloudy skies, morning sun, noon, afternoon, spring, fall etc will give your pool so many moods that you basically need to get to the general ballpark, and then most of the time you’ll be thrilled with what you see. Even when it’s a few shades off, you’ll still love it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Casey, Dirk and TikiParadise
I am so grateful to you wonderful people taking the time to guide me through this. The best advice that I didn’t expect and needed to hear is that it won’t be exactly what I prepared for and it will be awesome, anyway. I had no idea how much water changes colors. It’s fascinating. As far as timing they are pouring rock to replace the overdug fill dirt tomorrow and then rebar and pipes next week. I know four weeks from now is when the pool will be cured. So somewhere in there I’m guessing they will apply the color?? I think some people open their pools here in March, so that’s a good idea to see if the timing might work to see something. Otherwise, I will trust that either color I choose will be pretty.
Thank you for all the pictures! And the primers in water color.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Newdude
Andrea in St Louis said:
Otherwise, I will trust that either color I choose will be pretty.
Click to expand...
It will. I promise. And the legit 25+ colors it produces will be lovely. After a while you can tell from certain pictures what general time of day it was, or if the sky was angry.... extra sunny, etc. Or glance at the pool and know its hot and humid out. Its fascinating and it will take quite some time to see all the moods.
 
Andrea in St Louis said:
So somewhere in there I’m guessing they will apply the color??
Click to expand...
After the grading and the rebar, they'll shoot the gunite. That's basically concrete that then can "spray" on the walls and floor to create the shape of your pool and steps and shelf, etc. That's called the shell. Then sometime later they will come back and shoot another, much thinner layer, but in a similar way, and that is the finish coat, which will be the color you choose. But not right away:

Just want to prepare you: when they shoot the finish, it will look like nothing you had in mind. It will be an awful version of the color you selected. Don't panic. They come back the next day and removed some of the plaster to reveal all the embedded colored pebbles, and that's when your pool is born! So until they do that last step, you'll see all kinds of weird color, but it'll eventually get to what you selected.

Be sure to remind me to share with you the "meter trick." It's a way to figure out the exact volume of your water, which can be pretty far off from what the PB predicts, or the plans call for. You'll likely only have one shot at this, so I'll let you know how it's done closer to the day the finish coat goes on. (But you might have to PM me to remind me!)

Also, you MUST measure your pool while it's in the rebar stage, BEFORE they shoot the gunite. You're looking to confirm all the dimensions are correct. This is something you shouldn't have to do, the PB should double-check everything, but we have lots of threads here from disappointed folks who didn't get the pool they wanted because their PB neglected this step. So it's best you check it yourself. We'll help you with the process when the time comes. (And you might have to remind me of that, too. Though if you just mention wanting to confirm dimension in this thread many hear will chime in with the how-to.)
 
I was struggling with the same decision. I finally decided on prism blue because it is a little darker and has the abalone already mixed in it. I added 2 bags of the blue glass beads and really love how it turned out! It was just done a few days ago and just finished filling so the chemicals have not been balanced yet. My understanding is that it will look a little more blue over the next few weeks. I felt like it was hard to find good pictures of it online. My pool builder said it’s a very popular color though. I was hesitant to go with the blue surf because it is so bright. 80A7C996-3B93-4438-A921-12E630AB0B10.jpeg
 
I can't help but compare this absolutely beautiful pool to those that are decades old. A lot of the old ones have those telltales that date them. The red-orange coping tiles and the ladders and the Grecian-style edge tile, plain ol' concrete decks... you know the look. And other looks, too, that all scream 1950s/60s/70s. But I view this pool and can't imagine it ever looking dated. Even decades from now. All the natural elements, IMO, make it timeless. As timeless as a granite rock or a stone river bed or the side of a mountain. Those scenes don't look dated, we don't think of them that way, even though some of them are millions of years old. They just are. They just will be. And we'll enjoy looking at nature, the same stuff, millions of years from now. Which is why I think this pool, just like many others that are being built these days, will look just as beautiful in 30 years as it does today.

Congratulations! And, you know, yay!! It's finished!!!
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Ellen M and Nursjen
It’s hard to tell your brain to choose a color that is a shade or two darker than your ideal choice. But plaster fades. No two ways about it.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply