A pool changes the whole character of a garden. It draws the eye, cools the air and quietly becomes the place everyone gathers on a warm day. Yet the water is only half the picture. What turns a pool into a place to spend the day is everything arranged around it: where you lie in the sun, where you retreat from it, and how easily one flows into the next. Designed well, a poolside becomes an outdoor room in its own right, as considered as anything inside the house.
The pieces that live here have a harder life than most. Sun overhead, splashes underfoot, sun cream, chlorine and the odd rain shower all take their turn. So a poolside asks for furniture that can take it in its stride and still look composed at the end of the season. Here is how we think about designing a space around the water.
Start with the water
Before a single piece is chosen, look at how the pool sits in the space and where the light falls across the day. Most poolsides have a clear best view, whether it is out to sea, across a garden or simply back toward the house, and the furniture should honour it. Orient the main seating so people face the water or the view rather than a wall or a fence, and leave a generous clear margin around the pool edge so the space feels calm rather than crowded.
Think in zones from the outset. A pool usually wants at least two: somewhere to lie in the sun close to the water, and somewhere softer and shaded to retreat to. Deciding these early, and giving each room to breathe, is what stops a poolside becoming a scatter of chairs and keeps it feeling like a designed space.
A place to lie in the sun
The heart of any poolside is the run of loungers along the water. This is where the day is spent, so it is worth getting right. Choose sun loungers with a genuinely comfortable recline and a frame that feels substantial underhand, and set them in an unhurried line or gentle pairs rather than crammed edge to edge. A little space between them reads as luxury. Our sun loungers and daybeds are built for exactly this, made to be lived on through the longest afternoons.
Small comforts make the difference between a lounger you perch on and one you settle into for hours. A low side table within arm's reach for a drink, a book or sun cream. A parasol angled against the midday glare. And cushions that shrug off water, because poolside they will inevitably get wet. Quick drying performance fabrics mean a splash or an afternoon shower is forgotten by the time you are back from your swim.
Somewhere to retreat from the heat
As lovely as the sun is, the best poolsides give you somewhere to escape it. A little way back from the water, under a pergola, a loggia or a well placed parasol, a soft lounge setting becomes the cool heart of the afternoon. A deep sofa and a pair of lounge chairs around a low table is enough: a place to dry off, read, talk and let the heat of the day pass. Drawing this from the same design language as the loungers keeps the whole space feeling like one considered room. Our lounge collections are designed to do just that.
Shade is part of the furniture, not an afterthought. Where architecture does not provide it, a generous parasol or a simple pergola softens the light and gives the seating a sense of enclosure. The aim is contrast: bright, open water on one side, and a calm shaded corner to retreat to on the other.
Materials that live by the water
Poolside is where materials are truly tested, so this is the decision that matters most. Solid teak is a natural fit: it is unbothered by sun and water, needs almost nothing in return, and silvers gracefully over the years if you let it. Architectural aluminium is light enough to move as the sun travels and completely at ease with damp and chlorine. All weather woven brings softness and texture without the fragility of natural fibres. You can read more on how each behaves outdoors in our guide to teak, aluminium and woven.
Two details are worth insisting on by a pool. First, performance fabrics on every cushion, quick to dry and made to resist fading under constant sun. Second, finishes and fixings chosen to cope with chlorine and salt, so nothing corrodes or tires before its time. Choose well here and the space asks little of you: an occasional wipe down, cushions brought in from heavy rain, and the odd oiling of teak if you wish to hold its colour.
From afternoon into evening
A pool does not switch off when the sun drops. As the light softens, the same space becomes somewhere to eat, drink and linger, and a little planning lets it turn effortlessly from day to night. A dining table set near the water lets dinner carry on beside it, and pulling the dining setting from the same family as the loungers and sofa keeps the evening feeling seamless rather than staged.
Light does the rest. Keep it low and warm: a cluster of lanterns on a side table, candles along the dining table, and, if you have it, the pool itself lit so the water glows after dark. Several small sources rather than one bright one is what turns a poolside into somewhere you want to stay long after the last swim.
Let the water lead
The temptation by a pool is to fill the space. The discipline is to hold back. Water is the most beautiful thing in the garden, and the furniture is there to frame it, not compete with it. Keep the palette quiet, let the materials do the talking, and favour a few well chosen pieces from one family over a mix of many. The calmer and more cohesive the setting, the more the water and the light become the focus, which is exactly as it should be.
That is the real luxury of a poolside made with care. Not a single perfect afternoon, but a space that makes every one of them easy, from the first swim of the morning to the last lantern at night, season after season.