Freeform Pool Design Visualizer
Freeform Pool
Configure every detail of your free-form swimming pool: shape family, size, construction, depth, interior finish, water color, coping, deck, water features, grotto, spa, landscape, boulder surround, entry type, and lighting. Live preview with every choice.
Design Your Freeform Pool, One Decision at a Time
A freeform pool has no parallel sides and no right angles. The shape is defined by curves that can be as gentle as the classic kidney bend or as dramatic as a multi-lobe tropical lagoon with a grotto carved into a boulder wall. Freeform pools are built almost exclusively in gunite, which is the only construction method that can execute any curve at any scale without the shape constraints of fiberglass shell catalogs or the liner fabrication limits of vinyl construction. The shape flexibility is exactly what draws buyers to freeform, and it is also what creates the widest range of cost outcomes in residential pool construction.
Work through all 17 steps below. Each step is a specification decision your pool contractor needs to design and price a freeform pool accurately.
Live Freeform Pool Preview
Afternoon ViewFreeform Swimming Pool Designs: The Complete Shape, Feature, and Cost Guide
A freeform pool has no straight sides and no right-angle corners. The shape is entirely defined by curves, and the curves can be anything the designer and contractor can execute in gunite. That freedom is the reason freeform pools look different from every other pool on a residential street, and it is also the reason they cost more than rectangular pools of equivalent square footage. Every foot of curved coping, every irregular deck joint, every boulder placement, and every contour of the pool floor adds design labor and material handling time that a rectangle simply does not require.
Freeform Pool Shapes: Kidney, Lagoon, Amoeba, Figure-8, and Resort
The kidney pool is the original freeform shape. Introduced in California in the 1950s and popularized nationally through the following decades, the kidney is defined by one concave indentation in one long side that creates the characteristic dimple. The indentation is where the steps typically go, and the overall silhouette reads as organic without being extreme. The kidney is the most recognizable freeform shape and the one most homeowners picture when they say freeform pool. The lagoon pool is a less defined shape than the kidney. It has multiple gentle curves without any single dominant indentation, and it typically has irregular proportions that make one end wider than the other. The lagoon shape is now the most popular freeform style in new residential construction because it is the shape most commonly seen in resort photography. The figure-8 or peanut pool has two distinct lobes connected at a narrowed waist. One lobe is typically the swim area, the other is typically the spa or a shallow play area. The amoeba shape is the most dramatic freeform option, with three or more irregular lobes and no axis of symmetry. It requires more deck area to work visually and is typically only appropriate for larger lots. The resort complex is not strictly a shape but a configuration: a large irregular pool with a grotto built into one end, a raised spa at the other, a tanning shelf in the shallowest cove, and full boulder surround. This configuration is the most photographed in residential pool design and the most expensive to build.
CShop LED Pool Lights on AmazonColor-changing LED lights that show freeform pool curves beautifully at night→Why Gunite is the Standard for Custom Freeform Pools
Gunite (pneumatically applied concrete, also called shotcrete) is used for virtually all custom freeform pools in the United States because it is the only construction method that can execute any curve at any scale without predetermined shape constraints. In gunite construction, workers excavate the pool hole to the rough desired shape, bend rebar into the final form, and shoot concrete pneumatically over the rebar from a gun nozzle. Because the concrete is applied by workers following a form rather than poured into a mold, any curve radius is possible. Fiberglass pools come in catalog shapes. Manufacturers offer several freeform-style shells, typically including kidney, lagoon, and figure-8 variants, but each shell is a fixed size and a fixed shape. If the catalog shell does not match your desired footprint or your lot constraints, fiberglass is not an option. Vinyl liner pools can accommodate some gentle curves through specialty liner fabrication, but the liner must be ordered to the pool shape in advance, and replacement liners must be sourced from the same specialty supplier. Complex multi-lobe amoeba shapes, grottos, and beach entry lobes are essentially impossible in vinyl construction.
Pool Grottos, Rock Waterfalls, and Coping for Freeform Pools
Pool Grottos: The Most Requested Freeform Feature
A pool grotto is a cave structure built adjacent to or partially over the pool edge, with water falling from the cave roof or entrance into the pool below. The grotto interior is typically large enough for one to four people to stand or sit inside. When done well, a grotto transforms a residential pool into something that looks indistinguishable from a high-end resort water park, and it is the single feature that most consistently appears in aspirational pool photography across social media and design publications. A basic grotto with a cave opening, interior ledge seating, and a waterfall curtain over the entrance costs approximately $22,000 to $55,000 installed, which is the most common residential grotto configuration. Adding a waterslide that emerges from inside the grotto adds $30,000 to $70,000 to the project. An interior gas torch or fire feature that can be seen burning through the waterfall curtain at night adds $10,000 to $20,000. A full resort grotto with all features, interior lighting, a spa tucked behind the waterfall, and an extensive exterior boulder complex costs $50,000 to $110,000 for the grotto structure alone. It is important to note that grottos require structural engineering because of the cantilever load of the overhanging cave roof. The structural requirements add cost and extend the permitting timeline significantly compared to a standard pool project.
Natural Rock Waterfalls: The Classic Freeform Pairing
A natural rock waterfall built from gunite-formed boulders or actual large stones is the most popular water feature for freeform pools. The rock mass sits behind and adjacent to the pool on one end, typically the shallow end, and water pumped to the top of the boulder formation flows down irregular channels and drops into the pool below. The combination of organic pool shape, naturalistic water flow, and boulder mass creates the overall resort-lagoon appearance that freeform pools are known for. Gunite-formed rock waterfalls (synthetic rock built from steel rebar and shaped concrete) are the most common construction method for residential pools because they can be designed to any scale, painted with realistic stone colorings, and built to hold plantings and trees in pockets built into the rock face. Real natural boulders are used in premium projects where the contractor and designer source genuine stone from local quarries and engineers the placement to ensure structural stability. Real rock waterfalls cost more but are essentially indistinguishable from natural rock formations when properly landscaped. The installed cost range for a natural rock waterfall on a residential freeform pool is $8,000 to $35,000 without a grotto and $18,000 to $55,000 with a grotto cave integrated into the rock mass.
Coping and Deck: Natural Stone is the Standard for Freeform Pools
The coping on a freeform pool is the edge material that caps the pool wall at waterline level. For rectangular pools, coping can be cut to precise straight runs and mitered corners. For freeform pools, the coping must follow every curve and change of direction, which makes irregular natural materials far more practical than precision-cut manufactured stone. Flagstone is the most popular coping choice for freeform pools precisely because its natural irregular shapes can be fitted together along any curve without straight cuts, mitered joints, or visible seams. Travertine bullnose coping is the most popular premium option for freeform pools because travertine is soft enough to cut easily with a wet saw, its warm ivory-cream tone works with almost every pool finish color, and its natural variation in color means that slight variations in the curve cuts are invisible. Natural boulder coping, where actual boulders are set at the pool edge with their tops finished to a walking surface, creates the most naturalistic pool edge possible and is used in resort-scale freeform projects where the goal is to make the pool look like a natural body of water. Vanishing edge (infinity edge) coping eliminates the visible edge on one side of the pool entirely. The pool water appears to flow over the edge and disappear into the view beyond. Vanishing edges cost $15,000 to $45,000 for the structural weir wall and catch basin, and they are most effective on freeform pools built on sloped lots where the vanishing edge looks over a valley, city view, or natural landscape.