Raised Deck with Sunken Hot Tub
Outside a colonial brick home with black shutters, this timber deck features a sunken round wooden hot tub, a white privacy screen, white railings, and manicured boxwood shrubs bordering the lawn.
Design notes
Colonial design is symmetry and restraint. Look for a central axis from the back door, matched beds and hedges either side, bluestone or brick terraces with tight joints, and white or black picket and post-and-rail fences. Planting is disciplined — boxwood, hydrangea, holly, dogwood and shade trees — and furniture is classic: teak benches, Windsor chairs, a market umbrella. Georgian brick, clapboard and shingle houses all suit it.
What to look for
- Board direction and how it changes the apparent size
- Edges: built-in benches and planters instead of rail where allowed
- Stairs wide enough to double as seating






