I’ve poured and finished pools in this state for nineteen years. So when people ask me what’s “trending,” I usually roll my eyes, because trends in this business mostly mean somebody saw something on Instagram and now everyone wants it. But this year is different, and I’ll tell you why.

The calls have changed. Two years ago people wanted waterfalls and fire bowls and color-changing lights, the whole circus. Now? I’m getting homeowners who say “I just want it to look clean.” That’s it. That’s the whole brief. And honestly, thank God, because those grotto builds were a nightmare to service.

 

The rectangle won

I fought this one at first. Client in Estero wanted a plain rectangle, negative edge on the west side, nothing else. I kept suggesting, you know, a little taper here, a shelf there. She looked at me and said “I don’t want to look at my pool and think about it.”

She was right. I’ve come around. The rectangle with a good negative edge is the cleanest thing you can build, and it’s not even close. The water goes still, the horizon takes over, done. No shape to get tired of.

The lighting is where people actually spend the money now. Thin LED runs under the coping, maybe a couple under the tanning ledge. I install them so you can’t see the source. At night the pool just sort of glows. Had a guy in Venice tell me it looked like the water was lit from inside, and yeah, that’s the goal. Costs about a third of what a fiber optic setup used to run, and it doesn’t break every other season.

 

Materials: what I actually recommend

Limestone and travertine, mostly. But here’s the thing nobody tells you: all travertine isn’t the same. The cheap stuff from certain suppliers pits out in two summers and traps dirt in the holes. I’ve got a source in Ocala I trust, but it costs more, and I have this argument with clients every single week.

Off-white plaster over bright white, always. Bright white plaster reflects so hard it hurts your eyes at noon, and it shows every speck of dirt. The off-white reads warmer anyway.

And texture, I’ve been pushing more raw concrete and pebble finishes lately. Smooth polished surfaces look great in photos and then show every leaf and footprint. People don’t think about that. They think about the photo.

 

The indoor-outdoor thing is real

Not marketing. Real. The level thresholds and the big sliders, they change how a house lives. I did a job in Jupiter where the decking inside and out was the same travertine, and the owner matched the couch fabric to the loungers. I thought it was overkill until I stood in the kitchen at sunset with everything open and couldn’t tell where the house stopped. That one stuck with me.

Caveat, though: this only works if the drainage is right. I’ve been called out to fix three of these “seamless” builds in the last year where somebody skipped the trench drain and now the living room floods in a thunderstorm. Seamless is great. Seamless with water in your house is not.

 

Infinity edges, and what people get wrong

Everyone wants the disappearing edge aimed at the ocean. Fine. But half the lots I work don’t have an ocean view, so we aim it at the sky or at a specific tree, and honestly those look better. I did one in Nokomis aimed at nothing but a slash pine and the reflection of the clouds, and the owner told me later it’s the reason he bought the house.

The stepped pools, where water slips from one level to the next, those are beautiful but expensive to do right. The sound only works if the flow rate is dialed in. Too much and it’s a waterfall. Too little and it’s a trickle. There’s a narrow window and it takes testing. Most builders don’t bother. Don’t hire those builders.

 

The green stuff isn’t a gimmick anymore

Solar heaters, variable-speed pumps, salt systems. I install these on nearly every job now, not because clients ask, but because I got tired of callbacks. The variable-speed pump alone cuts a power bill by a third. The app controls are nice, I can check a system from my truck, but the real win is that these systems just fail less.

Landscaping, though. That’s where people cheap out and regret it. I’ve watched homeowners spend ninety grand on the pool and then put in plants that need daily water. In this climate. With the sun we’ve got. Use the natives. The sea grapes, the grasses, the palms that were here before we were. They survive, and surviving is relaxing. A dying hedge is not relaxing.

 

Water features got small and I’m fine with it

No more three-tier fountains, thank God. Now it’s a sheet flow over a ledge, or a spillway you barely see, or hidden jets. They exist for the sound. I’ve got one client in Cape Coral who runs his sheet flow at night with the lights on warm and he says it’s the best sleep aid he’s ever bought.

 

The test I use

Can you see yourself out there at nine at night in January with a drink, not doing anything? If the answer is yes, we did it right. If the answer is “the pool looks great from the window,” something went wrong, and it’s usually that we put too much stuff in the yard.

Fire pits, sunken seating, a kitchen that actually gets cooked in, all that’s great. Pergolas casting shade you can sit under. But every one of those elements has to earn its spot. I’ve talked more clients out of features this year than into them.

 

What it comes down to

The best pools I’ve finished in 2025 are the ones where I did less. Fewer materials. Fewer colors. Fewer things to maintain or replace or stare at. Water, light, plants that live here.

I’ve been doing this long enough to know that’s not a trend. That’s just good work. The trend is that people finally want it.

If you take one thing from a guy who’s seen every bad idea twice, it’s this: stop adding. Start subtracting. Your pool will thank you, your power bill will thank you, and I won’t have to come out in August and fix a waterfall.