This Arlington Home’s Custom-Built Deck Will Inspire Your Backyard Design Dreams

When Erin and Scott Parsons built their six-bedroom, 6,500-square-foot dream house on Arlington Ridge Road in Arlington, they made sure to incorporate a rear upper deck and cascading hillside garden into their design plans. (Erin Parsons, a schooled architect, collaborated with architect Robert Sastro on her family of five’s new build.)

“The house itself sits on a stunning double lot overlooking a beautiful city vista,” says interior designer Liz Mearns of Imagine Design, who has worked on furnishing the entire house. “The rear deck leads out from the family room on the home’s open floor plan, so there’s easy access to get fresh air, entertain friends, and enjoy the view.”

The expansive tiled deck, with steel-cable railings topped in weathered wood, sits amid verdant treetops. A textured indoor-outdoor rug defines the furniture layout, which breaks down into a seating area with ample space for a group and an intimate café-style table where a couple can enjoy an alfresco meal, morning coffee, or glass of wine.

“Connecting indoor spaces to the outside is always a part of our design process,” says Mearns. “I always treat patios, decks, and porches as inviting extensions of the main interior living area. That means comfortable layering of furniture with throws, performance-fabric pillows, and outdoor rugs, and adding other elements to keep a cozy vibe, such as a pretty tray, lush planters, or chunky candles.”

Mearns prefers to keep her textiles neutral yet textured, as her intent is always for “the scenery and plantings to be the star.”

The landscaping was done by Susan Fyffe of Fyffe Landscape Architecture.

This story originally ran in our June issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to our monthly magazine.