Wooden Deck Designs to Add Flair to Your Home

When people look to beautify their yards, they often think of things like plants, trees, shrubs, flowers, and mulch (and lots of it). But, a deck can add beauty to your home and yard, especially when there are so many wooden deck designs.

Why Consider a Wood Deck?

As you ponder a home improvement project, you will want to consider a wood deck because of its benefits. Decks are so versatile.

Today’s wooden deck designs are not your grandfather’s decks. They have come a long way with innovative designs, features, and accessories.

Here are a few reasons you should consider a wooden deck:

• They add beauty to your home and yard
• They add functionality to previously unused space
• They add value to your home, now and when you decide to sell

Decks Add Beauty

While designers demonstrate incredible creativity with the decks, let’s not lose sight a wooden deck is built from natural materials with unique and interesting grain patterns that create a natural work of art.

But, when you get beyond the natural beauty, a deck can be elevated with a cascading staircase leading to the platform. Stylish rails with inlaid lights can add character, charm, and warmth.

The aesthetics of your project is enhanced with the different stains or finishes you choose to complement your wooden deck design. All of this can add a bit of your personality to the overall design.

Decks Add Functionality

When homeowners look to improve their outdoor living space with a natural wood deck, the crews typically build it where nothing existed previously. So, space that went unused finds a new purpose. They add to the square footage of your home.

A deck provides a great place for entertaining guests or just relaxing with family and friends. It helps extend the inside of your home outdoors, giving you another option of where to dine or just recline.

Decks Add Value

Today’s decks blur the line of where the inside of your house ends and where the outdoors begins. With all of the flexibility (this means practically endless design possibilities for your outdoor environment) decks offer, you can begin to see how wooden decks are an excellent way to add value to your home and increase its curb appeal.

Trex reported some deck and patio projects can recoup more than 100% of their costs when it comes time to sell your home. While no one ever builds a deck to sell a home, it’s nice to know there can be a return on investment when you decide to do so.

Best Wood for Decks

The top three kinds of wood deck contractors use are cedar, redwood, and pressure-treated wood. There’s a reason these deck materials are popular, but each has its challenges, too.

As for using redwood as your deck material, it was more popular a few decades ago than it is today. Though it’s a rich color and possesses a natural ability to resist rot and insects, transporting redwood from the West Coast of the United States to the Midwest is expensive. Even with its rot- and insect-resistant properties, each redwood deck board should be pre-stained (or pre-sealed) to ensure greater longevity.

Because of this, cedar (with its beautiful natural color) and pressure-treated wood have risen to the top two positions. You can read more about why cedar and pressure-treated wood are good choices for your deck here.

Some Wooden Deck Designs to Transform Your Outdoor Living Area

The terrain and slope of your yard, the construction of your house, and the open space on your property will all play a role in the design of your wooden deck. But, you have a great deal of latitude when it comes to the final design.

A Multi-Purpose Outdoor Room

Because decks add more square footage to your home, your deck can serve as an outdoor room, whether it is covered or not.

With more people enjoying the benefits of working from home, there’s no need to be cooped up in a home office (or with your laptop on the kitchen table), when you can work outdoors. Your day will go quicker as you enjoy your real wood deck and your gorgeous outdoor space … all while breathing in fresh, not recirculated, air. So, your deck can be an outdoor office.

If you have an elevated deck, you can use that space as an outdoor room for entertaining, relaxing, or dining, But, you will also have usable space underneath. Depending upon the height of your deck, you might have additional storage space, a place to store your riding mower, or even an additional outdoor room with a cover.

Outdoor Kitchen and Bar

Depending upon the wooden deck designs presented to you, some of the options might include an outdoor kitchen. You can add a grill to not only dine outdoors but cook, too.

You can also include an outdoor bar in your design. It could be as simple or involved as you want.

Multi-Tiered Outdoor Deck

One way to add depth and another dimension in a small space is to build a multi-tiered deck. If your back door is 3 or 4 feet off the ground, then you can have a couple of tiers. One of the spaces can serve as an outdoor dining area, and the other can serve as an outdoor living room.

Covered Deck

A covering can improve and enhance the functionality of your deck. There are several different options from which you can choose:

• Pergola: While a pergola is characterized by about four posts (or more) with cross beams creating an open top, it can provide some shade when vines grow along the cross beams. You can also add a cover made of fabric.
• Gazebo: You can turn a deck into a gazebo by adding a freestanding overhead structure. While gazebos have traditionally been round, they can be square or rectangular. It adds some protection from the elements and adds shade.

What is Better: Wood Decking or Composite Decking?

Wood decks are beautiful. They are made of natural materials. The types of wood used are sustainable materials because of foresting practices. There is so much to like, but should you build a deck of wood or a composite deck?

You need to build the deck that you love and desire for your home, but if you choose a wood deck, you will need to do more maintenance on it. Decks made with a composite material last longer and require less maintenance. Learn more about composite decks here.

What Wooden Deck Designs Do You Like?

If you are looking to have a deck or other outdoor structure built in Central Indiana and the Greater Indianapolis area, we would appreciate you considering Artisan Outdoor Craftsman.

Our creativity and attention to detail help us stand out among our competitors. Artisan Outdoor Craftsman started as landscape architects, so we can think beyond the deck. We understand how to create a beautiful, functional deck, and how to make the landscaping around it complement it.

When you are ready for a beautifully designed, professionally constructed custom deck, along with accessories and other structures, get in touch with Artisan Outdoor Craftsman to get your free estimate.