What a cool space. Your view up to the old wall and the woods behind it is beautiful. I would begin by removing the railing as long as safety is not the issue. Possibly updated railing system, steel cable, or glass panels? Deck pic below shows the steel cable type we put on a recent project.

Maybe create stone stairs down from the edge of deck to the new space. Not a huge fan of the Roman pillars with this deck but you can make them work. Use the space between the wall and the deck to ease into the woods behind it. I see tons of perennials and color as well as a staircase up to the wooded area. I don't see the granite boulder other than in the drawing. It could certainly be utilized as a focal point, water feature possibly. Would need to drill some holes for piping most likely. More pics would help with this for me. Deck stain? Depends on color of house etc. Might even look at doing a faux stone treatment or something to those columns.

What's the height of your deck and does code require railings? Do you have kids that would be impacted?

I would stain the deck the same color as the pergola.

Nice deck and patio LSDoctor. This is the

iew we r trying to access from a patio. Cuz if the rock, we can only get half depth as we planned, so we r taking down the railings and add steps( to compliant w the code)to create more open feeling.

Thanks. Indeed, steps and no railing will be awesome. Just tripled your usable space there. Going to be a "place to be" for sure. Might try and use some natural stone slabs for the steps if you can. Depending on what your patio paving material will be, might be a nice look.

Thanks. We r using versa lock grey wall and unilock trio almond grove paver. How much would natural stone cost in materials for a 30 ft long 3 step stairs cost? Thx