Chlorine-free swimming and a living wetland, in one backyard. Browse real pond designs painted at every age, then design your own on a photo of your actual yard, and watch it grow in for twenty years before you dig.
Every one of these is a shape, a swim-to-plant ratio, and a lot it suits. Open any design in the studio to try it on your own yard.
A design only means something on the yard you actually own. Painted Acre starts from a photo of your lot, paints it as a watercolor, and drops the pond exactly where it would go, so you can see the real thing before an excavator ever shows up.
Drag the handle to see the same view before and after.
Paint my yard — free
Draw the swim zone, drop the regeneration shelf, plant the banks, then drag the years forward and watch it fill in.
Sketch the swim zone and regeneration shelf right on the painting of your yard. Adjust the ratio until it fits.
Drop iris, cattail, grasses and a shade tree, each one tagged with the year you'll actually plant it.
Drag the slider to year twenty and watch the banks fill in, then print the plan for your contractor.
The pond is finished on day one; the landscape is not. Every frame below is the same sample plan, one honest step at a time.
Natural pools want sun for warmth, distance from big deciduous trees that would load the water with leaves, and ground an excavator can actually reach. Draw the footprint on a painting of your own lot first: an organic outline reads as natural, and a roughly even split between swim zone and planted regeneration zone is the classic starting ratio. Placing it on a real image of your yard settles arguments a graph-paper sketch never can.
The regeneration shelf carries marginal plants that scrub nutrients and keep the water clear. Around the banks you want grasses that arch over the waterline, a weeping tree for the classic reflection, and a birch or two for vertical structure. Growth is the whole story here: bank plantings look sparse the first two summers, then become the reason the pond looks like it was always there by year eight.
Built professionally, natural swimming ponds commonly run $50,000 and up; owner-built versions can cost a fraction of that. Either way, you phase it: dig and line in year one, hardscape the beach edge in year two, and let the plantings compound every year after. A year-by-year plan you can hand a contractor, with a shopping list, is exactly what the printable Painted Acre report gives you.
Every plant here is happy with wet feet, and the studio paints each one at every age it can grow. Enter your ZIP and the palette narrows to what survives your winters.
The regeneration-shelf showpiece: violet blooms rising from the shallow water.
The unmistakable pond silhouette; the living filter does the real work.
Pads and serene blooms for the still, open water of the swim zone.
A weathered dock at the deep end — the signal that says jump in.
Thrives with wet feet; peeling bark reflects beautifully off the water.
A bridge over the narrow waist makes the pond a destination, not a hazard.
Built by a professional, most natural swimming ponds run from about $50,000 upward depending on size and site. Owner-built projects can cost a fraction of that. Because Painted Acre plans it in phases, you can spread the spend across several years instead of all at once.
A comfortable swim needs roughly a 15-foot swim zone, and the regeneration zone is typically about the same size again — so plan for the swim area plus an equal planted area. Compact plunge designs fit a courtyard; family beach-entry designs want more room. Draw it on your yard in the studio to see what actually fits.
No chlorine and no salt. The planted regeneration zone and a low-energy circulation loop keep the water clean biologically. The trade is seasonal maintenance — clearing leaves and thinning plants — rather than dosing chemicals.
Yes, that's what Painted Acre is for. Upload a photo of your yard, draw the swim and planting zones, place plants and structures, and drag the years forward to see it mature. It is free on a sample yard, and no account is needed to try it.
An illustrative watercolor design plan: placement, plant choices, and an honest picture of growth over time, plus a printable year-by-year report with a shopping list. It is not an engineering or construction document — for excavation, water, and grading, bring the plan to a qualified contractor and verify measurements, utilities, and local codes first.
Start from a photo of your own yard, try any design above, and see it twenty years grown before you commit a shovel.
