Designing Optical Illusions

One of the great things we love about Mosaic tile in luxury swimming pools is the artistic versatility of the material. It’s a notoriously difficult medium to work with, but artisans are able to design incredibly sophisticated optical illusions in the pool with tile mosaics.

Designing an artistic mosaic that utilizes the entire canvas of the swimming pool takes real skill. The elites of the industry are adept at using tile as their preferred medium to paint a portrait that tells a story. One industry-recognized tile artisan who has mastered the ability to do just that is Ray Corral of Mosaicist, Inc. The Miami-based firm has built a reputation for designing stunning mosaic tile pool interiors.

Collaborating with high-end builders and designers like Brian Van Bower and Ryan Hughes, Corral is used to working on luxury custom pools that require his particular skillset. His ability to create transcendent designs that draw you into the pool interior is undeniable.

While most of the mosaic tile interiors Corral designs these days are for modern geometricshaped pools, he still does a fair amount of freeform pool interiors. In South Florida, mosaic seascapes are popular and Corral caters to that clientele looking to turn their pool interior into a tropical lagoon.

This particular project showcases Corral’s abilities at creating optical illusions with mosaic tile. From the intricate waves in the sand to the ocean scene inside the pool, creating those types of visual effects is definitely something that not every tile firm can easily master.

“If you look at the sand it looks real,” said Corral, “These clients wanted a realistic environment. They have tropical landscaping, bridges, landscaping inside the pool that just creates this type of oasis. They want to look outside their window and see coral reefs, fish, and aquatic animals,” he explained.

“Many times homeowners are looking through our Instagram or our website or the books we have in our office to help them pick out elements to add to their swimming pool,” said Corral.

“When we put a design together we take into account that the reality of that fact is that most of the time the homeowner will be looking at the pool and not necessarily swimming in it. We take into consideration how the design looks from the second floor, first floor, and when you enter the pool,” Corral explained.

“We also take into account the depth of the pool and the transition from the shallow end to the deep end,” said Corral. It’s in the planning and design of the elements that will comprise the entire scene, that he spends an inordinate amount of time going over with customers who want a pool interior of this nature.

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