Make Your Outdoor Space Your Own With a Custom Deck

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If you think composite decking is just for outdoor flooring, you’re missing out. Using decking creatively can give your outdoor spaces a personal touch, reduce maintenance and increase weather resistance. How about a beautiful new outdoor kitchen, living area or even just a bar area or table? Or exterior siding that coordinates with your patio? Check out the five ideas below to bring new life to your outdoor spaces with this long-lasting, stylish material.

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This photo and last courtesy of Premier Outdoor Living

1. Add Standout Siding

Use composite decking as cladding for your home’s exterior or even just as an accent cladding to add durable protection, create a coordinated look or add eye-catching contrast. The decking shown here is a wood-look mineral-based composite that is fade-resistant and won’t rot, split or peel the way wood might. Contractor Tommy Hopp of FWD Construction in Anchorage, Alaska, appreciates the material’s flexibility. “Composite can replace any traditional wood structure or surface,” he says. “It can be used to cover different surfaces. This gives the potential for anything from outdoor furniture, siding and cladding to outdoor kitchens and living spaces.”

You can mix colors and vary plank lengths to add even more visual interest. In the space seen here, Deckorators Voyage decking in Khaya, a medium brown, was used for the outdoor flooring and cladding, while a picture frame board in Dark Slate sets off the beams and columns. A contemporary cable railing in textured black completes the look.

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Photo courtesy of Unique Deck Builders

2. Create a Coordinated Outdoor Kitchen

As Hopp says, composite can be used in place of any wooden structure. Using it for both the flooring and the cabinet or appliance cladding will give your outdoor kitchen a cohesive look — and it’s strong enough to safely support the weight of appliances and cabinetry. This space makes stylish use of Deckorators Vault decking in Mesquite; it’s a mineral-based composite that has an excellent strength-to-weight ratio and won’t splinter, sag or crack.

Bonus: Unlike wood, this type of decking is stain-resistant and easy to maintain, perfect for outdoor food preparation.

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3. Highlight a View

Using composite decking in a single neutral color across a big patio puts the focus on the views — and it’s strong enough to hold the weight of both furniture and a party’s worth of guests. A mineral-based composite deck like the one seen here, Deckorators Voyage in Sedona, has a textured surface for increased traction, helping prevent slips and falls.

Bonus: Because it doesn’t expand or contract the way wood does, this decking is well-suited for a variety of climates.

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This photo and next courtesy of FWD Construction

4. Choose an Ideal Railing

Railings are to decks what accessories are to outfits — the finishing touch that can make all the difference. Consider your home’s style, your decking color and whether you’d like to keep views as unobstructed as possible when choosing your railing. Classic black, perhaps? Or something subtle and open? “A black aluminum railing with black balusters or stainless steel cable is a very popular and modern design,” Hopp says.

Customize the railing with a handsome cap atop the post and maybe include built-in solar lighting, as Hopp did on the deck seen here, which faces beautiful views of Cook Inlet in Alaska. “The lighted post caps provide good vision from the deck, and the cable allows you to look past the railing and enjoy the view,” he says. He chose Deckorators’ ALX Contemporary Cable Railing in textured black and ALX Solar Post Caps.

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5. Harmonize an Outdoor Living Room

As wood-look composite material can be used for both decking and furniture cladding, you can make an outdoor living room as attractive and cohesive as an indoor one. Here, FWD Construction used durable mineral-based composite decking and added a contrasting pergola to delineate the lounging area. Coordinating seating and tables complete the space.

“It’s decked in Voyage Sierra with a Dark Slate picture frame,” Hopp says. “A dark slate board runs down the middle, separating the deck into two functional areas: one for lounging under the pergola and one for grilling and eating.”

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Composite decking comes in a variety of colors to match home elements in any style. The home seen here includes Deckorators Voyage decking in Costa and Khaya colors, picture frame board in Dark Slate and an ALX Contemporary Railing in textured black. A deck board on one of the railings holds an attachable light and can serve as a drinks rail, while a bar created out of composite decking offers a space for mixing those drinks.

More: To learn more about mineral-based composite decking and the products featured in this story, visit the Deckorators website.