"HELP ME! What should we do??? Katherine"

You should call Gardner Pool Plastering. They're the only Pebble Tec dealer in San Diego. They're very helpful. They faxed me a list of home owners and the colors they chose. It's best to see it in person.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garedner Pool Plastering

Thanks! Great resource. I will call them. My PB also offered to take me around to show me some pools but we have so little time I wanted to narrow it down to a color or two rather than 5-6 choices. I just cannot seem to figure out any that would fit our wish of darker pebble with lighter blue water (than black).

We went with Pebblesheen Blue Granite and I have to say it's very gray in the shallow areas. We love it but if you dislike gray it's not for you.

My one tip would be to try to see the same pools twice - once in sunlight and once in the shade. We were torn between two colors when we were building. We saw two pools in shade and picked one color and the builder took us round again in the sun and we changed our minds!

UKMatt

Do you have kids? How old were they before you named them?

The midnight blue PT photos on the PT website mostly look a bit green to me?! It is just my funky monitor or is there some green in that color?

K

We also went with the Blue Granite PS. The grey color in shallow water looks just like the granite rocks in Lake Tahoe .. which is what we were looking for. The deeper water is a beautiful blue

I went with the Aqua Blue Pebble sheen. It looks darker blue in the shade. However on overcast cloudy days it looks more aqua blue green.

We just went throught the same decision process and ended up picking Blue Granite PS. One other thing to think about is the depth of your pool. What we found was that some of the colors we really liked were beautiful at 8' of depth but we didn't like them as much in the shallower areas. I'd also recommend looking at colors at different depths.

We didn't want any green color so ended up with Blue Granite. The water has been in the pool for 3 weeks, and the pool is still getting bluer. It was really, really, green the first week, but started bluing up after that.

I have Tropical Breeze Pebble Tec. There is a lot of pebble color variation, greys, blues, greens, reds, browns and sparkly shell pieces. The water color is a nice blue. We also chose Tec because we like the larger stones/rustic feel. The plaster is a blue/grey so you may not like that part.

Ahh, the heck with PT. Lets paint it florescent pink with purple polka dots. Your going to love it! hehe.

Sorry Cathy, we can't tell you what to like.

I know, I know, you can't tell me what I like. However, I am looking for suggestions for a deeper blue color water with as many dark pebbles/black pebbles as possible so in the shallow end it looks more dark then grey. That's pretty specific as far as I am concerned. There may not be a perfect solution I am realizing. Katherine

I agree. I'm looking for something similar. I have a large wet deck/Baja Shelf that I don't want to be an unappealing grey, but would like the actual pool to be a medium-to-dark-blue. The Blue Granite above looks beautiful, though my pool is only 4' so it may not be deep enough to give those colors.

If here are suggestions on how to get a mid-range to deep blue in 4' and a nice Baja Shelf that isn't just grey, I'd love to see your photos.

doublespiral - where are you located?

You should try to get out and see some real pools as that's the ONLY way you'll be sure. As I mentioned above, we flip-flopped twice on our color based on pool visits when pools were in the sun and then in the shade.

We have Blue Granite - it's beautiful. The shallowest areas are unquestionably gray but I wouldn't call it unappealing! The main pool is just gorgeous too!

UKMatt

ukmatt - I'm located in Los Cabos, Mexico. They mainly do knock-off versions of pebble-style products down here mixing their own concoctions.

I've been to see quite a number of local pools, but most of them use a lot of the local golden pebbles and that gives too much of a green color for my taste. It's been really hard for me to find any deep blue pools which had been my preference. After seeing the Granite Blue photos above, however, I would be very happy with that.

The worrisome thing is how well the local pool contractors can match it....

The Blue Granite above looks beautiful, though my pool is only 4' so it may not be deep enough to give those colors.

The Blue Granite PS pics I posted above are 5' or less. The depth past the seat in the first pic is 5', the depth at the spa wall in the second pic is 3'9"

Hey, I have an idea. What if I mix 2 colors.

1) Midnight Blue PT on the beach entry and the other "seats" and stairs.

2) Blue Granite on anything over about 3' depth (ie the whole non-entry part of the pool)! Can we do that?

It may be the perfect solution. I wonder if our PB would let us get 2 colors...

Kath

We have 2 colors of Pebblesheen. We did Desert Gold on the sunshelf and Ocean Blue in the rest of the pool and spa. We really like it. Our color transition occurs in one area and there is a strip 2X2 tile where the 2 colors meet. Your idea would mean the 2 colors would meet up in various places. How will they keep the 2 colors from blending? Since the 2 colors are not totally different, maybe if they did blend a bit it would be too subtle to notice but I would try to find an example of that before I did it.

Kath, I drove myself crazy too, but it was a good crazy. I don't see why you can't do 2 colors, its your pool. I like the idea of blending them if you have to. From the contractor's point of view, he will look at how its mixed and applied I suppose. I would probably make you sign a waiver of some sort. I actually wish I had done my steps and bench a bit darker. Ours was pebbles mixed in a blue base on site, they could have easily added more blue now that I think of it. Of course I didn't have this forum to bounce ideas off 6 years ago. I still see our installer frequently, gonna ask his opinion for next time. Yours will be gorgeous at any rate. Barb

Kath, this is one of those things you can overthink until you can't think no more. My advice is go with your first gut instinct, the one you thought you wanted for sure before the little voices started saying otherwise. It was the perfect choice.

Well, my PB said not a good idea to mix colors, even similar ones. He said we'd need a stone border. I am thinking maybe they can put on the top of the steps the darker color and put the lighter color on the side of the last step and the remainder of the pool (ie shallow and deep ends). I will get to see a midnight blue pool on Friday so we shall see. If it's too dark, I might push for 2 colors anyway....

Katherine

To avoid the lighter looking color on the steps, we installed the quartzite on the surface of the steps. Similar to your beach entry covered with quartz, it'll look a lot better than the Pebble Tec in the shallow areas, IMO.

My wife and I were in the same predicament over choosing the color for our pool also. We wanted a blue but didn't want any green shade to the water . We were happy with the "blueness" of Blue Granite but like yourself we didn't care for the rather dull or grayish look in shallow water. We ended up choosing Midnight Blue PS and couldn't be happier. we actually have Sandy Beach in our beach entry for the first 15' of the ramp down, and while we were already paying the upcharge for two diferent colors of pebble application, We had them do our entire spa in Sandy Beach PS as well as we felt the sandy beach pebble looks great in shallow water, at least better than any of the darker pebble choices. We too have the Oklahoma flagstone and I think the Midnight Blue and Oklahoma compliment each other nicely.good luck with your project.

Confused i love midnight blue but it comes as upgrade so what is the next color close to it. No green for us as well