When my wife and I were building our house, we were given an option/spec sheet, much like buying a car. One of the options was a deck upgrade, from 10X12 to 10×16. I know, it doesn’t seem like much, but that extra space would have been very helpful for a grill, or a larger table. We went with the smaller deck so that we could put hardwood down throughout the bottom level. Good decision at the time, but we were stuck with the smaller deck, which sometimes makes outdoor living space a bit tight.

Our solution? Two fold. One, the gazebo you see above. At 10X10, it fit snugly, but perfectly on our deck. This has made it a good living area, for outdoor couches and stuff. Two, we had a stamped concrete patio put down, which makes the deck area flow a lot better. We’ve been extremely impressed with the gazebo, though. A very simple, and inexpensive idea, it really adds a lot more than the price tag would suggest that it could.

Make sure that you watch it in high winds, perhaps take off the canopy, and it looks to be a good all-weather space that you can enjoy year ’round. Even if you were too cheap to buy the bigger deck.

Check out the product page at Home Depot.