Enclosing A Deck Part 3 – Decorating Ideas
In Part 1 of this series I spoke about the history of my wife and I wanting to enclose our upper deck, in Part 2 I wrote about our design decisions and selecting a builder. In Part 3 I cover the process we are following thinking about adding the finishing touches to our deck once it is completed. We are still at least 4 weeks out from our enclosure being started, but my wife wanted to starting looking at what was available. Thinking about decorating can occur anytime, so why not start early getting inspired. You just might see something that you want to incorporate into the enclosed deck before it is built. For example we are now thinking about two outlets on each wall instead of one. That comes from our thinking more about lighting and wanting to have enough light if the occasion calls for it. We really don’t want a bunch of extension cords running everywhere.
Part of enclosing the deck is putting down a plywood floor on top the old one. That seals out the elements and bugs, but leaves a floor that will need to be covered. Our obvious options are carpet, wood, ceramic tile, vinyl, cork, and laminate. My wife considered cork because it can retain heat and make for a warm floor after the sun sets. However there are too many cons with cork and she decided to skip it. We considered carpet because it is warmer and soft on the feet, but my wife wants something that looks neat and clean. Area rugs can be purchased and changed out over time, and bring similar benefits as carpet. No carpet! Vinyl, not sure why I listed it. :) My only contribution to the process was that I did not want to do laminate. We have it in our downstairs family room covering a larger area and it looks fine, but in the patio if we leave a window open and it rains into the room the laminate can be damaged easier. In the end my wife wanted tile because it is easy to keep it clean, and picking out lighter colors helps brighten the room. We are down to tile with only the style and color to decide on.
A big part of decorating is deciding on your colors and/or theme. My wife and I like beach themes when we are at the beach, but not in our home in Ohio. Just doesn't fit. A country decor is cool in the country, not in the city. Many people may disagree with that and that is understandable, we just don’t care for the idea. So we really don't have a theme, just colors in mind. The colors right now are yellow and blue with a tad of purple that gets picked up from our kitchen and great room. So now we have colors in mind and need a tile that blends in with the color pallet.
We went to a lot of local stores looking at patio furniture and seat coverings to get inspiration and see what is available. It is usually easier to identify what you don’t like when out looking around. Our deck is only 10 feet wide so bulky furniture could easily consume all the space and leave you with a claustrophobic feeling. So we need to find something that has a smaller foot print, yet comfortable to sit in and take a nap! Whatever that furniture turns out to be, we know what colors we would like to have.
We are still considering what to do about a TV. My wife wants to have a small TV perhaps in the 26” size, but where do we put it? We are considering a table, but I have suggested a wall mount so we don’t use up any space for the TV. No decision there and in the end my wife needs to decide how she wants to do that. I just need to make sure I get the Dish Network cable into place so we have easy connection. For sure there needs to be internet access that should be covered by our wireless network.
Once the deck is enclosed and the tile is put into place we will start to get into a lot more detail for decorating, but right now we have a good idea of what we want. Stay tune for Enclosing A Deck Part 4 – Building and Materials.
I hope these posts help you with your plans for an enclosed deck or patio. Feel free to post comments or questions on any of the posts. I plan to provide detailed pictures of the building process once it begins.