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A cool plunge pool for a hot day or a natural pool that attracts an abundance of birds to your garden – here’s how Home readers have reimagined the traditional water feature.

- Shané Barnard, Marlene Malan and Beatrice Moore-Nöthnagel

#1 RETRO REINVENTED

WHERE Bellville

SIZE OF POOL 28m²

When Marius Hitge moved into his home in Welgemoed, Bellville on the slopes of the Tygerberg Nature Reserve about 10 years ago, there was a lot of renovation work to be done. “I started with the major alterations inside the house – it looked like a trifle with everything on different levels. Six months later, when the construction work was done, I was finally able to get stuck into the backyard and pool,” he says.

It was no mean feat: with an erf size of 4 000m2, Marius had his work cut out for him. A kidney-shaped gunite pool was smack-bang in the middle of the back garden.

“I really wanted this part of the property to blend in with the adjacent nature reserve. The kidney shape of the pool really didn’t fit the new clean, straight lines of the house at all,” explains Marius. And since a new pool wasn’t an option, he decided to soften the shape of the existing one with plants and stones.

“It was a typical blue pool. Lining the inside with a dark grey gunite made it look more like a rock pool in the mountains,” says Marius. The newly planted greenery in this part of the garden is predominantly waterwise and indigenous. “I wanted it to be lush, so I planted in masses. The palm trees came with the house and although not indigenous, they now contribute to a tropical feeling that I love.”

The patio with its contemporary steel-frame structure and black-and-white patterned tiles is the perfect spot from which to enjoy the updated water feature. “I love the seamless way the patio connects the house and garden,” Marius adds.