With the deck now complete, I thought I'd share a little inspirational board I put together months ago to help me envision the deck decorating.  Because, building it is only half the battle.  (Wow, that should be Our First Nest's motto).

Since we finalized the design of the deck I've known where I'd like the zones to go.  We'd like a grilling area, food set-up area, seating, and eating.  That may sound like a lot, but I'm not sure if I've mentioned this but, the deck is HUGE!  I don't think we'll have any trouble getting everything we want to fit.  Since it might be hard to visual where everything is going, I made a little diagram to help see all the zones:


Zone #1:  This will be the permanent spot for our grill.  The notch that I've mentioned before was designed specifically so our grill sits along the railing with a couple of inches on both sides.  Mike and I figured this would be his zone and wanted it close to the door for easy food trips, and close to the eating and food set-up area.  We also wanted Mike to be separate from everyone so he can focus on the grilling, but also able to be a part of the party if he wanted to.

Zone #2:  Here will be the food set-up.  We plan on bringing out the fold-out table and keeping the food here so that it's close to the door and the grill, but also doesn't clog up the other areas.   Since we won't always have a full table of food to set-up, this will be utilized for big parties and probably kept empty the rest of the time.

Zone #3: This is the area I'm most excited about, the seating area.  My plan is to someday get a big outdoor sectional with some chairs for some R&R time.  Mike and I both love sitting outside and this is going to be a great place to hang out with our Nook and Kindle to relax. 

Zone #4: Obviously all that is left is the eating area.  Like I mentioned in my last post, my parents generously left us their deck furniture that has been sitting on our porch for the last year, (yeah we're those people).  It's a great set, (and even has a lounge chair that's sitting in Zone #3 as we speak), but it's not really big enough.  It's a table and chairs for 4 and we'd like something more like seating for 6.  Mostly for the extra seating, and because the area is big and a small table and chairs looks a little out of place.  For now, they work great, but down the road we're looking at a possible DIY table.    
 
Since I've had a lot of ideas about this deck I starting making a little board to keep all the ideas together and I realized I had only made one zone; the seating area.  I did say that I'm most excited about this area, didn't I?  I used some items from my favorite Swedish inexpensive furniture store to show you what I'm thinking about:  


1. This is similar to the color of our siding, and in an outdoor area, this is like the paint color, so everything we put on the deck has to look good with this.

2. I'm not sure how I'm going to do it, but I'd love to incorporate some sting lights and maybe some lanterns for some soft lighting when the sun goes down.  Mike's not completely on board with these, probably because it'll be his job to figure out a way to hang, power, and maintain them!

3. This sectional from IKEA is something I've been eying forever.  I'd love to have something similar to lounge, read, and hang out like an outdoor living room.  A lot of the outdoor sectionals are thousands of dollars, but this one is pretty reasonable at only $650.  I'll have to find an IKEA that has one put together to see if it's worth the investment.

4. I love lounging with blankets and having some designated outdoor ones are a must.  This one looks durable, but at $12.99, I wouldn't be too bummed if it got a little dirty.  A fireside session will be needed to give it that bonfire smell, of course.

5. To bring more color onto the deck I'll use colorful planters like this one and that one, as well as fill them with colorful plants.

6. You can't have a couch and blankets without a bunch of pillows.  These outdoor pillows are perfect for the sectional, or just adding some comfort to those that want sit along the stairs.

7. Every outdoor space needs some shade, and this umbrella can be used over the table or over the couch.

While we're quickly running out of nice weather here in Northeast Ohio, I'm looking forward to creating a nice outdoor space for lounging next spring/summer.