Conversations with Matt Remacle

Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Remacle.

Hi Matt, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
The journey to Meraki Outdoor Living started over a decade ago, long before the business had a name. At the time, I was working in the corporate world and doing all the things I was supposed to do, yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was living someone else’s version of success. It looked good on paper, but it didn’t feel like mine.

What I wanted was freedom. Freedom of time, freedom of creativity, freedom to work with my hands and to build something tangible from start to finish. So I left the safety of a nine-to-five and stepped fully into construction, learning the trade from the ground up. Over the years, I worked my way through different roles on job sites, eventually becoming a project manager. That chapter gave me more than technical knowledge. It gave me confidence. Confidence in my skills, my leadership, and my ability to bring ideas to life.

As a project manager, I began to realize I was ready to take the leap. Starting my own business felt less like a risk and more like an alignment with values I had carried for years. Freedom had always been at the center of what mattered most to me.

About eight years ago, my wife and I made the decision together to start Meraki Outdoor Living. She came from a background in marketing and writing, I came from construction, and together we shared a bigger vision. We weren’t just building a company. We were building a life. One rooted in creativity, play, wonder, and the kind of freedom we hoped to model for our family.

From the beginning, we built Meraki the same way we approach our home life, with intention, care, and soul. We believe you can feel those values in every step of the process, from the very first vision call to the final walk-through of a completed space. Creativity is a core value for both of us, and it’s infused into everything we do. Not just in design, but in how we listen, how we collaborate, and how we show up for our clients.

Meraki, by definition, means to put your soul into what you do. That philosophy isn’t branding for us. It’s the way this company was built, and the way it continues to grow.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
We hold a strong belief that growing a business and feeling its success is not linear. We’ve had challenges from day one. Learning every role of the business, on top of growing our team for sure presented obstacles. We’ve had to evolve personally as the company grew. Asking ourselves hard questions and making sure we were not losing touch with our core values. Business, we think, directly correlates with your own personal growth. This is a hard truth but one we hold close. We dedicate a lot of time to personal development to make sure we handle obstacles with honesty, grace and grit.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
At our core, we create outdoor living spaces. But more than that, we help people turn their homes and backyards into a lifestyle.

Our work is entirely focused outdoors, designing and building decks, patios, pergolas, and thoughtfully layered yard spaces that invite people to slow down, gather, and live well. Every project is rooted in the belief that outdoor spaces aren’t an afterthought. They’re an extension of the home, and often the most meaningful place where life unfolds.

Creativity is a core value for us, both as individuals and as a team, and it shows up in every design we create. We’re especially drawn to projects that require problem-solving, where we can reimagine what’s possible. Turning a small or overlooked space into an oasis. Restoring an existing deck while honoring its original character and improving how it functions for modern family life. These are the projects that light us up.

While we’re often labeled as deck builders, we see ourselves as artists who happen to work with wood, stone, and steel. That mindset extends across our entire team, from our builders in the field to our project manager and everyone supporting the process behind the scenes. Each person brings intention, skill, and pride into the work.

The result is outdoor spaces that feel considered, personal, and lived-in from day one. Spaces that don’t just look beautiful, but feel like they belong.

Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Risk is where this company began, so we love this question.

Meraki Outdoor Living was born from a leap. We believe owning a small business, especially in today’s world, is a risk you take every single day. For us, risk isn’t something to avoid. It’s something we’ve learned to meet with intention, courage, and a lot of trust. We’re a family of risk-takers, and it’s a value we talk about openly with our children. One phrase we come back to often is a quote by Glennon Doyle: “We can do hard things.” It’s a steady mantra in our home, and it’s carried us through some of our hardest days, both personally and professionally.

Starting this business was one of the biggest risks we’ve ever taken. We were just months away from our wedding when my wife and I both left comfortable, stable jobs to pursue Meraki Outdoor Living full-time, with very little savings and no safety net. There was no fallback plan. In the early days, we were posting ads on Craigslist, telling anyone who would listen what we did, and taking on any side job we could get. Every extra hour was spent dreaming about the business, refining our website, taking marketing classes, and learning as we went.

There were moments when we had literal pennies in our pockets, knowing that if it didn’t work, we’d be starting completely over. But we believed in the vision so deeply that quitting never felt like an option. We kept showing up, even when it was uncomfortable, uncertain, and exhausting.

That same willingness to take risks shows up in our personal lives too. Recently, our family moved from a large six-bedroom home into a small mountain cabin to pursue a simpler, slower, more intentional way of living. It felt risky because it’s not a path we often see modeled, downsizing in order to gain more freedom. But it aligned with our values, and that alignment matters more to us than following a conventional script.

We like to say we’re a family that lives outside of boxes, and we believe our company reflects that same spirit. The people we work with share it too. Our team members are thinkers, creators, and risk-takers in their own right, and we’re incredibly proud of the culture that’s grown from that shared courage.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Merakioutdoorliving.com
• Instagram: Merakioutdoorliving

Image Credits
Leilani photos