You can tell when someone has chosen an excellent deck colour for their home. When you drive by someone’s house and think: “Wow, that looks nice” it’s generally because something about their home pops out at you. At just a glance, a deck can be that thing that complements a home’s existing look, adds visual interest and instantly increases a home’s curb appeal. However, how do you choose deck colours that work well with your home?

Here are some quick tips to help you think through the process of selecting the right decking colour option for your home:

What is the colour palette of your house already?

Chances are, you already have a combination of colours on your home that you enjoy. In that case, choosing your composite deck colour will be a reasonably easy task. The colour of your deck should work hand in hand with your existing colour scheme and seem to flow naturally from one element to another. Using the basic premise of the colour wheel, you can pick colours that work well with your homes existing colour scheme.

According to Better Homes & Gardens, it is best to choose a complementary colour to your home’s exterior colour instead of a direct match. In this way, you’re adding some visual depth to the structure and causing your deck to stand out as its own, unique architectural element. When things become to closely matched, they often bleed into one another and wind up looking forced, or worse, boring.

• Brown decking choices complement homes in any range of colours in the brown family. If your home is beige, tan, brown, or even yellow, any shade of brown decking board will look great with your house.
• If your home is white, your decking colour possibilities are endless.
• If your home is red, grey or blue, a complementary choice of grey decking would work best and stand out nicely against your home’s dominant colour.
• Reddish-brown boards, reminiscent of cedar or cherry, look nice with a wide range of house colours but will pop with green or grey tinted homes.

Composite decking colour families

You may not know exactly what shade of decking you’d like, but you likely have a colour family you like best. When you think about other decks and patios, you can probably bring to mind which ones you preferred based on their primary colour family. We can divide our composite decking colours into four distinct colour families to help you choose what will work best in your yard.

Greys: Grey has become a trendy choice lately, especially if you enjoy the weathered, coastal look. We have two options to choose from in this line of colour.

• Graphite. This rich, medium to dark grey colour adds relaxed sophistication to any space, coastal or city-side.
• Aspen. Is light and medium grey, intertwined with undertones of taupe.

Reddish brown: These colours give a deck a more contemporary vibe and always look fresh and new.

• Jarrah. This colour is a majestic, vibrant red.

Warm and golden browns: These are reminiscent of tropical resorts and look inviting when they are lit in soft afternoon sunlight. Tallowwood. This is a golden brown that offers a dramatic wood look evoking thoughts of warm, tropical locales.

• Spotted Gum. This is a warm Australian hardwood, and our composite look-alike is an inviting shade of golden brown with darker brown streaking for added dimension.

Classic brown: A more traditional choice which appeals to a broader variety of consumers due to its timeless and neutral appeal.

• Acorn. This shade is a deep, multi-chromatic shade with a combination of dark and medium browns.

Think through transitions

Remember to think about the visual connection between your indoor and outdoor spaces. If you have a large sliding glass door or wide open, picture windows, for instance, you might want to think about how your interior flooring will match, contrast, or complement your new decking colour. You’ll need to stand in your home and visualise how much of your decking will be seen from the inside. What does it look like when the curtains are open, or the door is ajar?

Remember to check out your landscaping

The area surrounding your deck can have an impact on how the colours of your deck will look as well. If you have mostly green spaces around your deck like grass, bushes, and shrubs, then green is the dominant colour, and you’ll want to choose your decking colours accordingly.

If you have more stone or mulched areas around your deck, then the look will change, and your dominant colour may be more brown or taupe. If you have a lot of flowering plants, or vibrant patio furniture you may want to consider a more muted colour palette for your decking to offset the brightly coloured items in your space.

It is possible to mix colours too!

Sometimes homeowners will choose to mix in a few boards of a contrasting colour into their deck. You can change the look of your deck, and give it a custom appeal by framing the outside edges of your deck in a different colour. This technique, called “picture-framing,” might create the interesting look you’re hoping for and give you the freedom to use to colours you enjoy. Creating patterns in your deck, or sectioning off spaces with a visual border can give you designated eating or conversation areas too.

Go ahead, order a sample!

Since there are so many things to consider when you’re building your new composite deck, you don’t want a colour choice to be an overwhelming factor. Colour choice is a huge decision, so there is no reason not to order a sample pack before you decide. It can take some of the stress away from the decision making process when you can hold a board in your hand to compare the colour to your home’s exterior. You will want to see the board in natural light at different times of day, and compare the colour to any existing landscaping you have in your space.