How Custom Decks Support Quality Time
Deck design is the key to creating a truly family-oriented outdoor lifestyle.
This is because decks are easy to customize to any style of home or landscape. Not only that, but they can also be any size you need them to be, and they can be tailored in such a way as to create multiple areas of interest that will appeal to every age group represented in your family circle.
A back deck design in particular is an ideal way to give the whole family a view of the Houston landscape. The advantage that such a deck will offer you is that your landscape developer can build it in a way that its inner border follows the linear progression and geometry of your home’s outer wall.
If your house has more than one corner, like we often see in highly geometrical custom home design, the deck can literally wrap around its perimeter. The degree to which the deck can extend into the yard can be varied as well, with some areas jutting out like observation decks, and other areas that are built lower than others to offer special seating, shade under umbrellas, or even outdoor cooking on a grill.
You can plan an entire weekend with your spouse and your children and spend 90 percent of your time on your deck without anyone ever complaining of boredom. A large deck design can be subdivided and built out into a multitude of special interest areas that cater to varying personal tastes.
For example, you may have a young son or daughter who loves to draw. Nothing is better inspiration to a child than the canvas of nature itself. You can set up a seat and a small table at one of several prime vantage points along the outer edge of the patio. He or she can then draw your landscape in freehand, or draw birds and other wildlife playing in the yard.
We can make this special portion of your deck design very safe and comfortable for your child as well. Rails will provide safe enclosure, but still allow for clear visibility. Shade from umbrellas, an overhanging tree, or a small custom roof structure can turn this little view deck into a gazebo like observation deck for the artistically emergent.
In another part of your deck, your older children may want to get online via laptop or cell phone. Why not let them have their fun in the comfort and shade of a special seating area that surrounds a table area that accommodates laptops, cell phones, and IPads? While they may be paying more attention to electronics than they are to family, trees, and gardens, they are at least still present with you to some extent, and in an outdoor environment that offers them the best of the old world and the new.
Such a weekend with family may also include other members of the extended family. Your parents may want to come over for at least part of the afternoon. If they are older persons, they will no doubt want to catch up on what’s going on in your life. Once again, special deck designs can be built that will accommodate good cheer and quality talk time.
One thing we can do to create a very comfortable environment for catch up time is to elevate a portion of your deck design and fill it with potted plants. Something as simple as this gives a visiting relative a feeling that they have been both elevated to a position of honor and surrounded by a living wall of organic energy.
Another way to get everyone in the family of all ages to really come together is to feed everyone. Everyone likes food of some kind, so a patio design with a circular, sunken grill area in the middle that is covered by a gazebo-like shade top is ideal for grilling right there in the middle of the family fun.
With a large and custom deck design like this, you can setup multiple tables from one end of the patio to the other to give every age group in your family their own preferred vantage point and comfort level.