Get This Look: Eye-Catching Angled Deck Boards

Smart Deck Design Uses Lines To Draw The Eyes To Features And Accents

Ever wondered why you can walk onto some decks and instantly know your'e in a luxurious living space, almost before you've even had a chance to look around?

What you're likely experiencing is the power of lines. It's something thoughtful deck planners build into every aspect of a deck, from deck boards to railing to lighting to furniture and other features. Thoughtful deck design uses the visual power of lines to direct the eye to the deck's best features.

Read on to see a deck that is fully utilizing the power of visual lines, and learn how to harness that power in your own deck, whether you're building from scratch or upgrading a weathered deck you've used for years.

The sun spills onto a beautiful composite deck alongside a luxurious pool

The Look: Diagonal Deck Boards To Highlight Features

Follow each tag to the numbered headings below to learn more about each element of this look.

An aerial view of a lakeside deck with tags showing the elements that create the look

How To Get This Look

Decks are generally full of long, straight lines. Long deck boards and railing sections draw the eye horizontally, while railing posts and balusters create a contrasting vertical flow of lines. Each of those lines is an opportunity to catch the eye and direct it, creating movement in your deck design and highlighting the areas of the deck that you want to give the most focus to.

The deck above is a great example. Let's take a look at the elements that make this deck work, from the parts and pieces themselves to the visual design elements.

Trex Transcend Decking In The Rich, Earthy Spiced Rum Color

A close-up of Trex composite decking on a beautiful lakeside deck

This deck uses Trex's Spiced Rum decking finish. That color is in the Trex Transcend line, the top-quality collection of Trex's popular composite decking.

Spiced Rum is a multitonal decking color, which means it blends several colors into each board. You can see the subtle range of brown and tan tones streaking through the board in this close-up:

The color and texture of Trex Transcend Spiced Rum decking

But when it comes to multi-tonal boards, Trex Spiced Rum is on the subtle end, especially when seen from a distance. That helps keep the lines of this deck clean by not distracting the view from the deck board pattern itself, which we'll dig into below.

To get a better feel of how Spiced Rum compares to the other finishes in the Trex Transcend collection, you can follow the button below to see all 8 color options.

Shop Transcend Decking

Picture Frame Deck Board Accents Made With The Classy, Sophisticated Vintage Lantern Color

One of the best ways to set your deck apart is to use two different color deck boards for a two-toned deck. This deck combines the main Spiced Rum color with Trex's Vintage Lantern decking as a secondary color.

A deck with deck boards installed at a 45-degree angle to promote natural traffic patterns

Vintage Lantern is the darker color you see outlining the deck and cutting through the area in the bottom left. It's a dark brown-toned deck board, also from the Trex Transcend collection.

Vintage Lantern is a solid-colored deck board without the multi-tonal streaking of the Spiced Rum. That makes it ideal as an accent color used around the edges of the deck (in a pattern called a "picture frame" or "race track") or separating two different spaces (this is called a "breaker board").

Shop Transcend Decking

Deck Boards Installed At A 45 Degree Angle To Direct The Eye

Now here's the kicker: this deck combines the two colors of Trex Transcend deck board into a decking pattern that harnesses the power of lines and draws the eye to the deck's primary feature - a gorgeous pool.

Not every deck is lucky enough to be built around a pool. But every deck can use this same principle to create sight lines and invite the eye to its focal point.

The sun glints off of deck boards installed at a 45 degree angle with the house

Why Are Deck Board Patterns Important?

Installing your deck boards in a thoughtful pattern creates lines that draw the eye where you want it to go. It also helps guide your deck guests to important features like stairs, sitting areas, or other features.

Check out this wide shot of the deck again, focusing on the deck boards installed at a 45-degree angle relative to the overall frame of the deck. Look at where the lines of those angled deck boards lead to:

In the lower section, the diagonal deck boards lead directly to two key features: the stairs and the pool. This creates a path that leads the eye - and the feet, for guests who are on the deck - to the two best perks of this deck: the gorgeous pool and the lake view beyond the stairs.

In the upper section, the darker-colored breker board separates two distinct spaces on the deck. (In this case, it's a seating area and a dining area, as we'll see in later photos). The angled deck boards funnel the eye directly to that breaker board, quickly defining the space and highlighting the boundaries between different areas.

If you're interested in resurfacing your deck, or if you're building a new deck surface, creating an angled deck board pattern like this isn't as difficult as you might think. Check out our guide to learn how to install deck boards at a 45-degree angle, or give us a call at 1-888-824-5316 for free project planning help.

45-Degree Angle Install Guide

Clean And Classic Trex Transcend Composite Railing

A deck doesn't stop with the deck boards. This deck extends its thoughtful design to the railing by using Trex's top-quality composite railing line, also named Trex Transcend.

White and brown Trex Transcend composite railing runs along the edge of a deck and down the stairs

The Transcend railing line holds onto the classic look of wood deck railing, a staple in deck design for years. But where wood needs to be regularly stained, painted, and replaced as pieces warp or rot, composite railing locks in the look for years to come with minimal maintenance.

Shop Transcend Railing

The sturdy, substantial look of the wood remains; the regular maintenance doesn't. Each element continues the theme of long, clean lines, and mixes in a key benefit of Trex Transcend railing: color choices.

Trex Transcend railing comes in a wealth of color options designed to match or complement every deck board in the Trex Transcend collection. And you can mix and match colors across the elements of your railing for maximum effect. Here's how this deck makes the most of Transcend's abundance of color and customization choices:

Two-Toned Deck Railing With An Accent Color To Match The Secondary Decking Color

Bright White Posts. Choosing two dark brown deck boards could leave this deck looking dark or harsh. Choosing bright white railing posts instantly brightens up the space and provides an immediate contrast in color (white vs brown) and orientation (vertical posts vs horizontal deck boards).

With a composite railing, this is actually brought about by post sleeves, which slide over the top of existing wood deck posts or metal structural posts.

A hollow post sleeve used around a wood post to create Trex Transcend railing

Brown Vintage Lantern Rails To Match The Secondary Decking Color. Rather than extending that bright white across the entire railing, though, this deck uses a color contrast to tie the railing to the decking. The horizontal rails are in Vintage Lantern color, exactly matching the secondary deck board color:

All the pieces included in a rail kit for Trex Transcend composite railing

The result is a consistent motif across the deck: horizontal elements and the dark brown color. The railing and decking tie together beautifully, as both use the dark brown Vintage Lantern color as an accent:

White deck railing with brown rails designed to match the darker color of deck boards in the deck's picture frame pattern

White Post Accents. Meanwhile, the use of white on vertical elements carries on in the post trim: each white post is topped with a white post cap and polished off with a white post skirt.

As a bonus, the post caps are lighted using low voltage wiring, which will add another level of brightness as evening falls.

A lighted post cap for Trex Transcend railing

Round, Black Aluminum Balusters To Maximize The View. Finally, one more contrast of both color and shape.

Trex Transcend railing offers a range of different balusters to fill in between the posts and rails. Options include square composite balusters (which match the finish of the post sleeve and rails) and round aluminum balusters. Both come in three different colors.

This deck uses the round aluminum balusters in sleek black.

A black aluminum baluster for the Transcend railing system

The black is an obvious contrast compared to the white posts, but also adds a slightly more industrial accent to the abundance of brown already in this deck.

But the bigger contrast is in shape. So many elements of a deck are square: deck boards, wood posts, angular post caps - even the overall footprint of a deck is usually based on right angles and square corners. The round balusters add a totally new element of softer, rounded edges.

The other benefit of round balusters? They open up the view from your deck. As you can see below, you can see better around rounded balusters, even when looking from odd angles. With this deck sitting right along a lake with a brilliant view of the water, maximizing the view is a strong choice.

Round balusters are easier to see around than square ones, opening up the view beyond a section of deck railing

The beauty of Trex Transcend railing is in the wealth of color options. This deck also could have chosen two other colors of aluminum balusters that would have provided a totally unique contrast. Below are the bronze and white baluster options available with Trex Transcend composite railing.