This year, for the “Gardens Go Hollywood” theme at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show in Seattle, we based our display on the 1979 sci-fi movie “Alien,” adding a vacation twist and naming the deck, “Alien on Vacation.”
The build took five months and featured a tropical garden in front, flanked by two curved staircases with Heatcon-bent stair rails leading up to a TimberTech XLM deck. Just behind the garden is what looks like an “Alien” egg, but is actually a mini-amphitheater (that I call a “Suspended Human Entertainment Pod”) for sitting in and enjoying digital media, a movie, or music (photo, bottom right). Continuing the “Alien” theme, I created a decking inlay of what a vacationing Xenomorph might look like, complete with martini glass and sunglasses (photo, center right). It’s not visible here, but we outlined the inlay with LED lighting. We used modified Deckorators lighted glass for the deck rail (photo, top right), and above the deck, we built curved trellises with TimberTech PVC and curved shade arbors with McNichols metal infill.
Other cool features included an automated sliding water wall (designed and constructed by Kim Katwijk). Behind that, another automated system could drop an egg-shaped section of deck out of the way, and then in its place, elevate a matching panel with a stainless steel barbeque attached. Jay Brown of Jay’s Custom Concepts was responsible for all electronics wiring and automations.
Jason Russell owns Dr. Decks in Tacoma, Wash. You can see more photos of this deck at his websites, alienonvacation.com and drdecks.com.
