Custom Pool in Fort Worth

Quick Summary

Selah Pools built a complete outdoor environment for the Morris family in Fort Worth featuring a pool with waterfall, custom spa with spillover, tanning ledge, fire bowls, fire feature, pergola, outdoor kitchen, slide, and stacked-stone masonry.

Some outdoor spaces ask you to choose — water or fire, shade or sun, simplicity or drama. This Fort Worth project answers every one of those questions at once. The design layers cascading waterfalls against the warmth of fire bowls, anchoring each element in stacked-stone masonry that grounds the space in something genuinely permanent. A tanning ledge catches the long Texas afternoons. A custom spa offers stillness at the edge of the action. The pergola defines the living zone without enclosing it — Fort Worth summers demand shade that still lets the evening air move through. After dark, lighting transforms the entire environment into something closer to a resort than a residence.

Water, Fire, and Stone Come Together in Fort Worth — establishing view — Fort Worth, TX

Materials & Finishes

Stacked-stone masonry runs through this project like a signature — appearing at the waterfall face, along the spa surround, and at the fire bowls, giving each element a material continuity that reads as architecture rather than accessory. Pool coping and tile carry the palette forward, clean lines holding their own against the textural weight of the stone. A spillover connects the custom spa to the pool in one unhurried pour of water.

Design & Features

The slide introduces something less formal — a reminder that this space belongs to a family, not a showroom. After dark, lighting shifts the mood entirely: what was dramatic by day becomes luminous by night, every water feature catching and scattering light across the deck.

Project Highlights

Frequently Asked Questions

How do waterfalls and fire features work together in pool design?

Water and fire read as opposites, but in a well-resolved outdoor environment they balance each other with surprising elegance. The key is material continuity — when both the waterfall face and fire bowls share the same stacked stone, the eye reads them as a single composition rather than competing focal points. The Morris residence in Fort Worth demonstrates this directly. Cascading waterfalls anchor one end while fire bowls add warmth at the pool's edge. Stacked-stone masonry stitches both into a coherent material story — an outdoor living space that feels designed rather than assembled.

What should Fort Worth homeowners know about pergola placement?

Fort Worth summers run long and hot, and a pergola placed without regard for solar orientation quickly becomes either too shaded or not shaded enough. The goal is to capture the afternoon relief that matters most while leaving the pool deck open to morning light — the hours when Texas heat is still manageable and the water is most inviting. On this project, the pergola defines the outdoor living zone at a remove from the pool, creating a shaded retreat that draws the eye outward from the water. That separation also matters for evening entertaining: guests move naturally between the pool, fire features, and covered kitchen.

Can a tanning ledge work alongside a spa in the same pool?

They serve different moments in the day, which is exactly why they work well together. A tanning ledge belongs to the bright afternoon — a place to half-submerge, feel the sun, and watch the water move. A custom spa belongs to the evening, when the temperature drops and the jets earn their place. On the Morris project, both are resolved within a single pool envelope. The tanning ledge integrates at the entry, offering a gradual transition into the water that works for adults and children alike. The spa sits at the pool's edge with a spillover connecting the two — a detail that reads as intentional design rather than afterthought.

How does outdoor lighting change the pool experience after dark?

Daytime and evening are essentially two different spaces when lighting is designed with intention. By day, the architecture carries the weight — the stone, the coping, the movement of the water. After dark, light becomes the material. The Morris residence uses lighting throughout the pool and water features to transform the space at dusk. Waterfalls that read as textural and grounded during the day become luminous — water catching and fracturing light across the deck. Fire bowls layer warmth into that picture, adding a quality of light that no LED can replicate. The result is an outdoor environment with a genuine evening identity.

What role does stacked-stone masonry play in a pool design?

Stacked stone introduces geological weight into a space that might otherwise read as purely contemporary. In a resort-style environment with multiple water features and fire elements, that sense of permanence matters — it keeps the design from feeling assembled and gives the eye a place to rest. On this Fort Worth project, stacked-stone masonry appears at the waterfall surround, the spa, and the fire bowls — not as an accent but as a through-line. When the same material shows up at every major feature, the space coheres. What could have been a collection of impressive elements becomes a single, composed outdoor environment.