The House that Cedar Fixed
Cottage Country Makeover You Won’t Want to Miss – Episode 4: “The Wrapround Deck”
Looking to enhance your outdoor living space? Follow Colin & Justin in this exclusive Real Cedar web series and get some great decking ideas, as the dynamic design duo transforms a dated 1980s, Ontario cabin into a luxury lakeside wilderness lodge. In order to add value to their property and enhance their cabin-living experience, they’re incorporating inspired applications of Western Red Cedar into their renovations, which include a revamped interior as well as the addition of a sunroom, pergolas and a funky Bunkie. They’ve also added a gorgeous 2,500 square-foot wraparound deck. Read on for more decking design ideas.
Enhance Your Outdoor Living Space
When it came to remodeling this lakeside cabin, installing a stunning cedar deck was absolutely essential for the internationally renowned designers.
“A house like this is all about the great outdoors,” says Collin. “We now have an area for a dining room, a sitting room, a firepit – anything we want on this deck. This is a bridge between the house and the great outdoors and it’s super important.”
Composite Vs. Cedar Decking
As seasoned property developers, choosing green building material such as naturally beautiful durable cedar over plastic looking composite was an easy choice.
“By golly, we love Real Cedar,” says Justin. “We like the way that it looks and the way that it performs. But much, much more than that, we’re all about the environment, and Real Cedar comes from sustainably managed forests, environmentally sustainable stock. It’s replenished all the time. We love using it and we’ve been using it for many, many occasions.”
And you’ll get no complaints from their deck builders either. After all, cedar is a favorite among most building professionals. For good reason too: It’s easy to work with, lays straight and the tools love it.
“Our contractors say to us time and time again, they love working with us because we always use Real Cedar and they really like the reliability of the product,” says Justin. “It’s really structurally solid and it lasts and lasts. It gets better and better with age. It’s just a great product all round.”
Customize Your Wraparound Deck
In terms of choosing a finish for their wraparound deck it’s good to know that Western Red Cedar is pitch and resin-free, so it accepts and holds a wide range of stains beautifully. But for this project, Colin and Justin are just going to let the wood weather naturally.
“Outdoors, Western Red Cedar does something fantastic,” says Justin. “As the light hits it, it begins to take on a lovely silver quality. Now we painted this cabin in the really dramatic dark graphite grey tone and the wood looks really lovely. It’s honey-hued at the moment but as time endures, and this begins to silver, this whole place will come alive. What we’re doing is protecting ourselves from the need to stain the wood. Leave it natural, as we’ve done, and let Mother Nature paint her palette for you.”
Choose the right grade of cedar for your decking project