 When the crew began production on the pilot , they were tasked with designing the stock locations where " ... the show would return to again and again , and in which most of the action would take place , such as the Krusty Krab and SpongeBob 's pineapple house " . The idea for the series was " to keep everything nautical " , so the crew used a great amount of rope , wooden planks , ships ' wheels , netting , anchors , boilerplates , and rivets in creating the show 's setting . Bubbles filing up the screen is also a nautical technique used to transition from scene to scene . 
