Let’s make a bold declaration: When it comes to high-end, custom waterscapes, it is no longer acceptable to show what some professionals call the “white goods.”

That means no more white plastic hardware to clash with deck and pool materials. On these projects, white lids for skimmers or automatic fills, or white plastic deck drains, should be a thing of the past. In addition, it’s time to move away from un-color-coordinated metallic cover-box lids. Even fittings inside the pool should not distract.

These items break up the fluidity of a flagstone deck or the depth and texture of a colored pebble interior. “When people are paying that kind of money, they don’t want the same thing everybody else has,” says Ken Whitlow, owner of WaterColors, LLC in Lilburn, Ga. “If you’ve got a big, plastic white drain sticking out of the deck and it’s a nice limestone color, they’ll ask, ‘What could we do besides that?’”

In short, unless the pool or deck is white or an extremely light shade, you should see no white plastic anywhere. Here, we’ll discuss ways to eradicate this visual menace once and for all.

• Skimmer/auto-fill lids: In all too many projects, the pinks and tans of an Arizona flagstone deck, or the grays of a bluestone, are harshly interrupted by a stark, white lid.

White skimmer lids are no longer a necessary evil.