Elevating Backyard Experiences: Integrating Tanning Ledges, Water Features & Slides Into Pool Designs

September 7, 2025

The generously oversized surface of this extra-wide tanning ledge provides ample space for lounge chairs, sun bathing and children’s play activities. Available Spill Over options serve to create the calming sound of cascading water as it flows into your pool. The most successful pool designs thoughtfully integrate multiple features to create cohesive outdoor living spaces that serve multiple purposes throughout the day and across seasons. While each of these features offers individual benefits, their true power lies in how they work together to create your personal backyard resort.

Create Your Personal Backyard Paradise

Vinyl is a high-performance alternative to fiberglass, boasting its own unique set of distinctive features. From sleek fire bowls to tranquil water bowls, we design elements that ignite ambiance and elevate your outdoor space. Spillovers are incorporated custom-built into a spa that’s raised above the swimming pool. It functions as a type of functional water feature since it trickles or spills into the pool.

Are there Downsides to Swimming Pool Tanning Ledges?

As with any option there are various considerations (what might be a “benefit” to some could be a downside to another, so keep that in mind as you read). When designing your dream backyard retreat, there’s one pool feature that continues to grow in popularity — tanning ledges. Also known as sun shelves, Baja shelves, or tanning shelves, these shallow, spacious areas in custom swimming pools provide a perfect blend of style, relaxation, and versatility.

Diy Tanning Ledge for above Ground Pool

What Do You Put under an above Ground Pool on Sand?

Integra pool covers seamlessly integrate into your surrounding landscape and vistas. With an attractive range of seven beautiful colors to match your style, we deliver a cover that will seamlessly blend in with your pool and personal outdoor oasis. A rectangular edition that allows it to accompany straight wall swimming pools. The Jewel offers a variety of comfortable, contoured seating in a linear design. The reclined lounge and three bucket seats are arranged to offer relaxing, full-body water jets.

Fiberglass Tanning Ledge

The Leisure Pools® range of Tanning Ledges serve as the ultimate addition to any swimming pool. Tanning Ledges can either be installed standalone or positioned as a natural focal point alongside a swimming pool. Integrated spill overs naturally elevate Fast Assembly Indoor Pools: A Solution for Rapidly Growing Clinics surrounding environment with the soothing ambience and tranquil sounds of flowing water. These versatile ledges can also be easily retrofitted with eye-catching bubbler jets. Leisure Pools® offers Tanning Ledges in three different configurations and various spillover options, allowing you to choose the style that best compliments your Leisure Pools® swimming pool.

Tanning ledges, also known as sun shelves or Baja shelves, are shallow areas within your pool that provide a perfect spot for basking in the sun or cooling off without fully submerging. These versatile features offer a safe play area for children and pets, a stylish lounge space for adults, an ideal location for pool furniture, and a seamless transition between your pool and patio. Pool spas offer the ultimate in relaxation and therapeutic benefits, serving as your personal retreat for unwinding after long days or entertaining guests in style. Whether integrated seamlessly with your pool or designed as a standalone feature, spas provide year-round enjoyment and add significant value to your outdoor living space. A swimming pool tanning ledge is also a great place to add some fun features that make your pool even more exciting. You might even consider adding lights to your pool ledge with the bubblers lit up in different colors.

Use a Professional for the Best Swimming Pool Design

For children who can’t yet swim, ankle-deep water might be the perfect spot to splash and play while the bigger kids swim.
Vinyl Liner Tanning Ledges have their own specific qualities, vinyl is a high-performance substitute for fiberglass.
It functions as a type of functional water feature since it trickles or spills into the pool.
If you’re considering adding a tanning ledge to your pool design, be sure to work with a professional who can help you customize it to fit your needs and preferences.
Depending upon the size of the tanning ledge, it can add between $5,000 to $10,000+ to the overall cost of the pool.

Tanning ledges can cause premature aging and increase the risk of skin cancer, which is why many people choose to stay out of tanning beds and avoid using other types of artificial UV light sources. Strategic plant selection plays a crucial role in successful pool landscaping. Choose plants that complement your pool’s style while minimizing maintenance concerns like excessive leaf drop or root invasion. These are taller poles that allow for a height loss from the extension down through the water and into the sleeve. To up your comfort quotient, adding an umbrella to the mix is an excellent tactic. The canopy provides some shade and keeps anyone lounging on the ledge a bit cooler. At LowCo Pools, we're passionate about creating exceptional backyard experiences for our customers.

Whether you’re looking for a romantic spot for two or a larger spa for entertaining, we can design and install the perfect solution to meet your needs and complement your pool’s aesthetics. LED lighting technology has revolutionized pool illumination, offering energy-efficient options that can dramatically change your pool’s appearance with the touch of a button. Colored LED systems allow you to match lighting to holidays, parties or simply your mood, while white light options provide clean, bright illumination for evening swimming and safety. Weeping walls, a type of pool waterfall, are weepers where the water actually comes in between the rocks and into the pool. Weeping walls are made by having a row of moss rock boulders two to three rocks high, forming a wall around part of your pool. Weeping walls not only look nice but add a beautiful babbling brook sound to your backyard oasis.