A few months ago I was feeling incredibly stressed out. Ridiculous to be stressed out over such a first world problem as choosing a pool liner when there is so much craziness and suffering around us..... Bit embarrassing really. So I decided that, when I finally got my pool in, I would share the photos and info. I found it shockingly difficult, especially as a newbie around pools, to make a decision on something that I am going to have to live with for the next 15 years, hopefully. I thought it mighty be helpful for others who are having difficulties too.

First I had to learn that the color of the liner is not necessarily the same as the color of the water once the pool is filled. I found it really hard to believe that a very pale or white liner produced a nice clear blue pool. Or that a sand-colored liner would produce a nice aqua/teal color...Well, they do so don't worry :) Even on a grey day my new pool water looks blue.

The liner that was here at the house when we bought it was a black and blue and gray mottled liner that produced a very very dark greeny-blue pool. It was leaking like a sieve too! I never found it very inviting and I hated the way the vinyl looked above the waterline when you were swimming in the pool. Very, very synthetic looking. Almost cartoonish.

My husband wanted a dark pool (and they ARE cool ) but I, suffering from an overly active imagination and seeing sharks and snakes behind me (yes, I admit it - blame it on James Bond!), wanted a lighter one I also find a crystal clear pale water more restful and much more inviting. It's more spa-like.

I did not want a liner with a tile pattern around the top as I find them to look too fake. I also wanted it to look as much like a concrete or Gunite pool as possible. There are several choices that I have seen online that work really well for this effect. They are the greyer colored liners. However, because I have a very green yard around the pool area, I felt as though I needed something to brighten it up. The more grayish tones also look very cold to me and sometimes I think the teal ones look almost dirty -as if they have an algae problem.

I was also stuck with the very ugly plastic white steps which we did not want to change because it's very expensive to do so.

Initially I was leaning toward the medium blue liners but I was concerned about them just being too bright and garish. Then my clever friend Evelyn who is an architect and works with concrete told me that all the original old pools in Virginia where we live were made from white marble and that it's the reflection of the sky that gives them that lovely light blue shade. She also pointed out that the more the color of the liner blended with the white steps the less "faux" it would look. And that, as it turns out was the key.

Evelyn guided me toward a very simple white liner by Merlin Industries. It has a white background and blue and grey flecks in it that don't look like a photograph of pebbles as so many of them do. It's called Sandy Point and I ordered it w/o the border to keep it as simple as possible.

Here's what we have now. Merlin Industries Sandy Point without Border:

Here's what we had before and before we cleared ou the yard, plus some pics of the process of changing the liner: