I've been planning our deck for a while, it got put on hold last year because we had a change of heart as to which deck will get priority - the pool deck at 100+ feet from the house or the house deck - we decided on the house deck which will be about 5x the budget due to it's immense size and the materials we are going to be using for the railing system. However, that did not stop me from preplanning all details of the pool deck, so here's what we've come up with as our guidelines.

First - I did not see mention of it above, but even though you're in the country, I recommend a latching gate at the pool deck stair access at minimum, we are also out in the country with a minimum of 400 feet of land between the pool and any fence line, we have horse fencing around the perimeter of the property, but I still feel that a gate is a good deterrnet for anything including that stray dog that'll go up there snooping and leave you a present.
Deck boxes are a good idea - or built ins - with bench tops so they have dual functionality, however, 10x16 is relatively small and your area will get consumed quickly.
I would rather leave a 3-4 foot stone perimeter around the base of the deck for things such as the cleaning equipment and tool storage bins, with the possibility of some shrubs along this area as well to eventually hide the 4' height of the deck as they mature - this should provide you a good clean edge for lawn maintenance purposes too. On the deck (your size), I would only place one good sized storage box that also acts like a bench, which primarily houses the pool toys - go with a plastic box, it's moveable/removable, easily cleaned and not so prone to earwigs making it home.