It started with a simple request: “We just need a deck.” In 2023, the homeowners in Cottage Grove came to us asking for a straightforward, maintenance-free composite deck—nothing, in their words, fancy schmancy. Then they saw our feature-wall work during the first meeting, and the conversation changed. By the end, they committed to a space themed around the Witch Tree, the ancient cedar sacred to the Ojibwe that grows improbably out of stone on the shore of Lake Superior.
The existing deck hung ten feet in the air off a walkout basement and was dangerously built — demolition revealed it had never been anchored, with its own weight the only thing holding it down. The stairs were so deteriorated the family hadn’t used them in eight years. We rebuilt it completely, wrapping the space in a substantial pergola-beam structure and a layered metal art feature wall.
Because the Witch Tree is ancient, we made the design language ancient. We clad massive beams in Millboard’s vintage-collection boards, molded from hand-selected 150-year-old French boxcar floorboards for weathered character. Recreation hand-forged straps bind the timbers, secured with 40 hand-hammered, square-head lags custom-made for the project — no two alike. Old-world cross-bracing and a rock-clad rim complete the effect of a structure that seems to have grown out of the bedrock.
The centerpiece is a hand-etched aluminum sunset that actually sets. We etched the scene into quarter-inch aluminum with an angle grinder and finished it with hand-mixed translucent paints in a single session, because we had only one chance to get it right. To make the sun set, we layered the artwork dimensionally and hid a V-shaped light strip behind the standoff water panel, so the light blazes at the horizon and fades as it spreads — just like the real thing.
Above it, fiber-optic stars and independently lit color-changing leaves run on two separate light engines. The canopy can glow lush green, swirl through autumn colors, or switch off entirely, leaving a striking black silhouette against the sunset. It’s a living scene that means something personal to the family every time the sun goes down.
