Builder Release
Your pool cabana provides an extra convenient, and likely necessary, storage space for your pool. Of course, you store all the accessories that come with your pool. Towels, pool toys and lounge cushions. Pool maintenance tools and chemicals. Maybe your pool heater and other mechanical systems are tucked away in there, too. You and your guests probably change there, and you might store pool snacks and drinks.
But there’s so much more your cabana can be used for if you organize and design it right. It can be much more than just a storage shed. If done right, your pool cabana can be a stylish living, entertaining and recreational space, too.
With a full sink and pantry, a fridge and a freezer, you can entertain in your cabana. Pull in some power outlets if it doesn’t already have them and blend frosty drinks for by the pool. Install a bathroom and you won’t have wet tracks through your house, or worse, risk a slip hazard. It just takes organization and a little ingenuity.
Divide and Conquer
If your cabana is just a great big open space, divide it up with walls to establish rooms with specific functions. You don’t want to feel like you’re relaxing in a storage compartment. If a fully fleshed out wall seems to permanent, hang a drape or two to get a feel for the best way you’ll use your space when it’s “live.”
You may discover you want more entertaining space and less storage or vice versa. Give it a season or two and then make your long-term remodel decisions.
Think Upwards
Get as many stored items off the floor as you can. Wall shelving and even ceiling rafter-like shelving if you have the head room, are great for organizing those pool floats, lounge and chair cushions and pole nets. Cabinets with drawers are as important in the cabana as they are in the kitchen.
And don’t limit your storage solutions to the designated storage area if it makes sense. The living and relaxing area shouldn’t be cluttered with storage, but a little might make sense and even give the ambiance of really being by the pool indoors.
Organize Smart
You don’t want to break your back lifting heavy items up high, especially if you use them all the time. Arrange your things that need storing by weight and how often you plan to use them. Something you use frequently should be more accessible than others.
And remember that drawers don’t have to be for towels or utensils. Bigger drawers can be great for larger objects and get them out of the way.
Waste Not Want Not
This is where you really need to think outside the box. When you’re economizing your space, you can’t let any space go wasted. Install a rod above the pool heater to dry towels. Install drawers in cabinets that maximize the capacity.
Be ruthless with what you store. Things you don’t use regularly, or ever, shouldn’t be taking up valuable space for those things you use every day, all season. When the season starts (or at least once a year if you have year round season) inventory everything by pulling it right off the shelves and out of the drawers. If you haven’t used it in a year, pitch it. If you just can’t part with it, does it really need to be taking up space in your cabana?
Your cabana isn’t, or at least shouldn’t be, an attic or basement. Store what you use for the pool in the pool cabana. Store your Christmas decorations someplace else.
Of course, there’s always the option of either building a second cabana or expanding the existing one. Make your cabana a haven, where you can entertain, watch TV, even sleep. You, and your pool guests, won’t regret it.
