Swimming Pool Games to Keep You Active This Summer
May 22, 2023
If your property is home to a swimming pool, you’ll likely love the lifestyle benefits it creates. A backyard can really be enhanced with the addition of a pool, and with some delightful landscaping and entertaining areas, your pool and the areas around it can become the best entertaining spot in your property.
While it’s still chilly outside, this time of year is great for planning improvements to the entertaining space around your pool. As the temperature slowly increases, you can begin to enhance your backyard with small but significant additions that will mean your outdoor entertaining space is the best it can be, come summertime. The great thing about doing the planning now, is that when the weather does heat up, you’ll be able to make use of your newly refreshed backyard entertaining areas straight away.
Summer entertaining in Canada brings many wonderful images to mind – especially relaxing with family and friends by the pool, with the barbecue cooking and music playing.
If your pool’s nearby entertaining space needs an update or two, or if you just don’t get enough use out of it, don’t worry – you can lift the appeal and make more use of your backyard space with just a few key changes, transforming it into the most incredible entertaining destination!
While summer cooking may seem like a far-away concept right now, it’s a good idea to use the colder months to plan how you want your entertaining space to be used. You may be thinking it’s time to invest in a barbecue, which can be very useful if you expect to host summer events in your backyard. Cooking on a barbecue allows you to stay across everything that’s happening outside and be involved in the get-together.
There are plenty of barbecue dishes that work well for entertaining around the pool, such as grilled meat and seafood (such as lamb or prawn skewers), sausages (have them with bread or on their own!), and char-grilled vegetables such as tomato, capsicum and red onion (put with skewers or have as an accompaniment to sausages). The smell of food cooking on a barbecue is so reminiscent of summer, and it’s the perfect smell to tempt those in the pool to get out of the pool to eat!
If you don’t have a barbecue, an easy way to feed hungry guests is with a grazing platter. Share platters can be easily put together by putting yummy snacks on a serving tray or board; think snacks like cheeses, crackers, dips, fruit paste, deli meats, pretzels, nuts, fresh fruit and pickled vegetables. Planning ahead will also help: get your platter set up half an hour before your guests are set to arrive, so as soon as they turn up, they can start picking at the snacks.
Whether you cook on a barbecue or organize a grazing platter, you’ll stay involved in the conservations of your guests, and you’ll help stop your kitchen and living area floors inside getting dirty from the constant foot traffic!
Outside fun doesn’t have to be reserved solely for the pool – you can also have lots of fun near the pool!
Lawn games such as bocce or quoits are easily packed and unpacked, and you don’t even need a lawn to play them – just a patch of flat ground will do! These sorts of games won’t take up much storage space either, and they’re great for yards with limited space.
Of course, your pool can be made that much more fun by introducing classic toys like inflatable lounges, inflatable pool balls, and pool noodles. All of these pool toys are fun for little kids and big kids alike!
If your yard is lacking that element of fun, try looking for pool toys and garden games now, and slowly stock up!
There are many ways you can update your backyard entertaining space, and you don’t need to spend much to see a major difference. A bare backyard can become a brilliant backyard by introducing outdoor seating, lighting, audio and visual options and more.
If you’ll regularly have guests over – or if you just want to spend more family time outside – it’s important to have plenty of seating available. You have many choices with outdoor seating, such as wicker-style lounges, plastic chairs, and bean bags. If you have room beside your pool, you could place deck chairs there to enable people to take a break from their swim, and if you put a small outdoor table where the deck chairs are, you’ll have easy access to poolside necessities like your sunglasses, a book, or a cool drink! Let your vision guide your furniture choices for your entertaining space. If there’s often kids around, bean bags could be a good consideration for seating. If it’s more important for your entertaining space to provide the ultimate relaxing experience, outdoor lounges might work best. With some cushions or a throw blanket, you can easily style your outdoor lounges.
Outdoor tables also come in an array of choices, such as plastic tables, wooden tables, and aluminium tables, to name a few. If your table and chairs are going to be sitting in full sun, be aware that certain materials may fade and perish faster than others. If possible, create a shaded area to provide protection to your table and chairs from the elements. The shade will also be very beneficial for you and your guests.
If you’re a pool owner, you probably know there are various lighting options to draw attention to your pool and enhance the safety of it. You can install such lighting features as integrated lights under the water line of your pool, and floating pool lights that are available in a range of colours. Floating pool lights are particularly summery! You can also install lighting around your pool to give your backyard the look and feel you want. Is your backyard set to be used often for parties? You could install festoon lights, which are fun and beautiful, and can be used to highlight key areas of your backyard. Festoon lights are also a lovely way to showcase a swimming pool at nighttime. If you’d prefer a more minimalist style for your pool and backyard, you could put in wall lights near to your pool or near landscaped or garden areas. Many outdoor lights are solar-powered too, and solar-powered lights can be a great way to light up a garden path.
While furniture and lighting help to establish the base of a beautiful entertaining space, adding some personal touches can really take it to the next level. The best pool parties, afternoon lunches or dinners outside all feature music. There are various sound systems available to cater to different tastes and budgets. If you’ve got the wall space, investing in a wall-mounted sound system could be the perfect solution for incredible sound, but if you don’t have a lot of space, a portable Bluetooth speaker can still deliver excellent sound levels. These speakers can cost a lot less than larger sound systems, and you can even get portable speakers that float in your pool, so you’ll have the music even closer to you when you’re swimming!
Another way you can bring more fun to your outdoor entertaining space is by making your own outdoor cinema. You can do this by installing a wall-mounted projection screen coupled with a digital projector. You’ll be able to watch a movie with family and friends all while lounging in the pool – what better way to spend a summer evening! To create the best outdoor cinema experience for when you’re in the water, get inflatable lounges for your pool, which will make the movie-viewing experience much more comfortable!
Potted plants can be another addition to your entertaining space that will help to personalize it and make it more relaxing. You can choose potted plants to match your backyard theme. If the space has a beachy feel, small potted flax plants could be a wonderful addition for a splash of colour and the feeling of being immersed in coastal nature. There are many other plants and flowers that grow well in pots, and they seamlessly merge your outside eating areas or poolside decking with nature.
You’re well on your way to having the ultimate summer entertaining destination in the privacy of your own property, with an amazing swimming pool in your backyard.
The space around your pool can become even more welcoming with some beautiful outdoor furniture, plants, and audio/visual systems.
The personalizing doesn’t need to stop there, though. You can add more character to your outdoor entertaining space by introducing elements that highlight your personal taste and style of living. For instance, if the Hamptons style is what you want to achieve, white, blue and beige-coloured furnishings will help style your outdoor space. If you’re going for a tropical-themed entertaining space, lots of greenery will work well, accented by pops of bright colours.
Getting more use out of your outdoor entertaining area in summer affords you many benefits, not least the fact you can leave the air-conditioning off inside. After a long winter when air-conditioning was essential, it’s nice to know that you can avoid having to use it so much in summer! Another benefit is that you and your guests won’t have to cram inside more confined living spaces within the home – being outside gives you a little more room to move around!
Spending summer days and evenings around your pool can be beneficial for so many reasons. If you don’t yet have a pool at your place, planning your dream pool during the cooler months will mean you reap the rewards come summer! If you’re tired of your dream pool remaining a dream, your local Narellan Pools pool builder is ready to help make it a reality. With their years of experience, they’ll show you what a hassle-free pool journey is, and they’ll bring the pool of your dreams to your backyard. Get in contact with Narellan Pools today to start the journey to your dream pool and an endless summer of entertainment!
