I know, I know. This stock tank pool is stinkin' cute. When Hunter and Cameron Premo told us they wanted a stock tank pool, we knew we had to do something really cool. Almost immediately I remembered our Airbnb in Lisbon, Portugal. It had pink and white striped floors and Casey and I were obsessed.
Now the pink on these floors was very pale, you almost can't even see it in the photos. But ever since this trip, we've tried to find a place to put pink and white stripes.
You can almost see the stripes on the floor here, but you get the point! We proposed the idea to Hunter and she and Cameron were 100% on board. We finally figured out a cool way to incorporate this inspiration in a project!
Hunter chose a beautiful pink (that you can actually see). The color is called Everblooming by Behr.
So the first thing you need to know about painting your stock tank pool is that you should not paint with regular paint or spray paint directly onto the metal. The paint will chip and repairing it is basically impossible. We've talked about this before in a previous post where we coated the inside of our pool. You can read that post here.
What you have to do is coat the metal with a rubber coating first. Once you've done that, you can use regular paint on top of the rubber layer on the outside of the pool. On the outside you can use regular paint after coating it with Leak Seal. Leak Seal is designed to be able to painted directly on galvanized metal unlike most paints. So let's get started on how you do this!
Step 1. Prep your surface. Per Leak Seal, you don't need to do anything special to prep the surface of the galvanized metal. They do recommend that you wipe it down and make sure there isn't any dust or dirty on the surface.
Step 2. Spray on the Leak Seal. We suggest getting a comfort grip for your cans as your hands will get worn out from pressing the nozzle on all the cans. The inside of your pool will take about 3 layers of the spray if you want an opaque color. You have to wait 30 minutes+ between each coat, but make sure you read the directions on your can and follow accordingly.Once you have all the coats you'd like on there, you have to let the coating cure for 24 hours.
Step 3. After the Leak Seal has cured for 24 hours, add your paint color. We coated the outside with white paint before painting on the stripes.
Step 4. Measure out the stripes and tape them off.
We decided that we wanted the stripes to be 10 inches wide each, so I first made a mark around the top of the pool every 10 inches. I then started taping in the back of the pool. There would end up being one smaller stripe and we wanted that to be hidden! Alternate taping two pieces of tape on the insides of the 10 inch markings and then 2 pieces on the outside of the markings. It should look like there are smaller stripes, but these are the ones you don't paint.
Step 5. Paint the stripes! Brushing the paint on will feel a little strange on the rubber layer, but this is right.
And the moment you've been waiting for... revealing those beautiful clean stripes! Make sure you peel the tape off once the paint is dry to the touch, which doesn't take too long. If you leave the tape on for days, the paint can peel off with the tape.
Let the paint cure before moving your pool or cutting the holes for the pool pump. We messed up the paint a little because we didn't wait. Luckily, it's in a place where no one will see!
Once the paint is cured, you are good to fill up the pool! If you need to know how to DIY your own stock tank pool, we have a blog post with all the steps and details. You can read that here!
Go see how Hunter styled her pool (and her cute dogs who also love the pool) over on her blog here!(**The photo of Hunter is by Cameron Premo.)
And check out our latest video where we take you behind the scenes of us painting and setting up their pool!
**You will notice that we painted the inside of Hunter's pool. At this time we do not recommend that since Leak Seal now does not recommend using this paint in areas where it will have prolonged contact with water. So we only recommend using Leak Seal on the outside of the pool.**
Traveling to a city where you've never been can be a little overwhelming. One of the hardest things is understanding the layout of the city. And you've got to figure out where to stay, where to eat, and what parts of town are cool. So today we are going to try to help you understand the different areas of Tulum. We have stayed in the 4 major areas. A local may not lay out their city this way and it's likely broken down in much smaller sections than this, but after visiting 4 times I think this system is helpful to understanding the way Tulum is laid out.
Tulum Town- Tulum doesn't really have a downtown but if it did this is what it would be, and this is where most of the locals live. It's about 10 minutes to the beach and has a totally different feel than the other parts of Tulum. There is one main road that goes through town and the street is lined with vendors who sell everything from hammocks to clothes to jewelry and many other random things. There are also a lot of restaurants that have amazing food but aren't as expensive and fancy as the restaurants in the beach zone. This is a great area to stay in if you want to appreciate the local culture and save some dollars. Staying here is significantly less expensive than staying by the beach. This is the Airbnb we stayed in on two of our trips. We love Tulum town, but if this is your first time in Mexico and you are concerned about safety at all- this might not be the place for you. Watch our video here if you want to know if we think Tulum is safe or not.
The Beach Zone- This area is what made me fall in love with Tulum. You drive down this two lane road and see people riding bikes through this bohemian jungle and through that jungle on one side is the ocean. Truly magical. This road is lined with boutique hotels, restaurants, shops, etc. If you want to wake up and see the ocean, this is where you stay. There are a few reasons you may not want to stay here like you have a large group you are traveling with or you are on a budget. There are a few options that aren't too expensive but you'll have to sacrifice air conditioning. We stayed in Coco Tulum in 2017 and loved it! We had a little bungalow right on the beach and could open our door and see the ocean, and we did have air conditioning. When we stayed there it was the most affordable option for hotels by the beach and had a/c. You can't beat waking up ocean, but with the seaweed problems Tulum you may reconsider staying beach side. We have a video coming soon that talks about the seaweed problem in Tulum.
Aldea Zama- This is where we stayed on our latest trip in May 2019, and we really enjoyed our time here. Aldea Zama is between the beach zone and the town. This isn't an actual gated community but AZ is its own thing. It's like a little village in the middle of Tulum, and it is a newer development. There is still quite a bit of construction going on but that wasn't a problem for us. There are lots of Airbnbs in this part of town and there are a few hotels. Aldea Zama also has it's own restaurants and shops, and this area is very walkable and bikeable.
We loved the Airbnb we stayed in this trip, and it is pictured here in all the photos in this post. The amenities and the decor were next level, and the host was nice and attentive. There was even a small cenote right behind our Airbnb! There was also a pool that was shared with other guests and an outdoor grill and kitchen area. The kitchen was fully stocked with everything we needed to make a meal. We highly recommend checking this place out. Aldea Zama would be great for people who don't want to sacrifice amenities and are more concerned about safety. Our Airbnb had it's own private security and a lot of the places here had their own security as well.
You can see a video tour of our Airbnb and more of our Tulum trip in this video! Just click play to watch right here on the blog post.
Outside of Tulum/Akumal- I wasn't sure if I was going to include this in a post about the areas of Tulum since this is not a part of Tulum. I decided to include it because there are several places that are advertised as being in Tulum but aren't. If you want an all inclusive resort experience, this is where you'll want to go. There are only a few resorts inside of Tulum and they are very expensive. There are also more Airbnbs on the beach in Akumal. In Tulum proper there aren't any Airbnbs right on the beach. All of the Airbnbs in Tulum proper are in town or Aldea Zama. The first time I went to "Tulum" I stayed in this area and was pretty disappointed that we weren't really in Tulum, but we were actually 20-25 mins away. Honestly, Tulum isn't the kind of place where you want to do all-inclusive. There are way too many amazing places to see in Tulum that limiting yourself to a resort is total waste. If you want to do the all inclusive thing, save some money and do one in Cancun.
I know all of the areas in Tulum sound appealing and they each have something special to offer. So naturally you need to visit at least 3 times to try them all! If I was a millionaire, I would chose to stay on the beach BUT I'm not and we really truly enjoyed staying in both Aldea Zama and in town. When you are in Tulum, you can't choose wrong because you are never far from the beach.
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Hello everyone! It's stock tank pool season and we can't be more excited! It's always such a fun time when you can go out into your own backyard and dip in the cool water on a hot day. Maybe even invite some friends over and sip some cocktails.
We've had a lot of questions recently about a certain pool part that is currently unavailable. We have found a solution until the part becomes available again. We are looking into a third option as well as we definitely want to make sure that we can all keep DIYing our own stock tank pools!
So first, we want to talk about everything you need to set up your pool.
On another note, we started a whole other website just for everything stock tank pool! Check it out here: Stock Tank Pool Authority. If you are thinking about making a stock tank pool, you'll want to head over there and read everything there is to know about the project over on that website or on our blog here.
Stay tuned for more information about stock tank pools from tips to our favorite accessories. And if you post about your stock tank pool on social media, don't forget to tag us @heywanderer or @stocktankpool and with the hashtag #stocktankpool. Happy DIYing!
