What can you do if your back yard has absolutely no outdoor living structures? Anything you want!
If it’s devoid of any pre-existing elements other than grass? An empty back yard is your blank canvas, as these Sunbury, OH, homeowners found when they met with their Archadeck of Columbus outdoor living design consultant.
To be precise, this family’s home did come with a simple set of builder-grade back stairs leading from their back door into the yard. “Builder-grade” means no frills, just the basics, and certainly not enough to inspire outdoor entertaining or even relaxation. Enter Archadeck of Columbus to the rescue!
As you can see, these Sunbury homeowners chose to add a backyard deck, a large pergola for shade and a beautiful patio that includes a fire pit and seating wall. The colors they selected for these outdoor living additions blend perfectly with the original colors used on their home. The new structures don’t even look like additions at all; you would swear they were designed and built during the original home construction.
For their new deck, the homeowners selected low-maintenance TimberTech composite decking in the Antigua gold color, part of TimberTech’s Tropical Collection designed to emulate exotic wood grains. The white vinyl railings have black aluminum pickets, and the rail cap is made of the same TimberTech Antigua gold decking as the deck floor. To conceal the underside of the deck, we added deck skirting made of HardiePlank ColorPlus siding to match the house.
A white vinyl pergola was the perfect choice for creating shade over the deck, adding to the deck’s comfort quotient on the sunniest of days. A low-maintenance material, the white vinyl of the pergola matches the deck railings as well as the white outline of the home’s many windows.
The deck stairs lead down to an elegant patio featuring one area for outdoor grilling and another for a marvelous round fire pit and circular seating wall. Archadeck of Columbus built all of the hardscape elements with Unilock hardscapes in a color scheme matching that of the deck and the home itself. We used Unilock’s Beacon Hill pavers in walnut for the patio surface. The striking double border around the patio features Il Campo stone in mocha for the darker inner border and Brussels Block in sandstone for the wide outer border.
You’ll notice we used those same contrasting border stones to outline part of the patio as a special circle holding the gas-burning fire pit in its center. We built the circular wall of the fire pit with Unilock’s Brussels Dimensional stone in the sierra color, and we capped the fire pit with a rounded-edge Brussels double bullnose stone in the sandstone color.
The curved seating wall was built with the same selection of stones: Brussels Dimensional stone in sierra for the wall itself and Brussels double bullnose stone in sandstone for the capping on the wall. The smooth, rounded edge of the bullnose stones is perfect for seating. Finally, each end of the seating wall is accented with a pillar of the Sierra Brussels Dimensional stone, and the pillars are topped off with Unilock’s Ledgestone Coping in buff.
Now these homeowners have a back yard that’s as inviting as those of their neighbors. We love how the back yards in this Sunbury, OH, neighborhood run together without borders or fencing, giving the whole area a feeling of community. Socializing is part of this community’s fabric, and our client’s new outdoor living project — a pleasing combination of deck, pergola, patio and fire feature — fits right in.
Your Archadeck of Columbus design consultant is ready to help you explore options for making your outdoor living dreams come true. Whether you’re starting with a blank slate or want to add on to your current outdoor living space, contact us today at (740) 265-3905 or email us at westcolumbus@archadeck.net.
