Use a Pergola Design to Add Charm and Beauty to Your Garden

A pergola can add a particular, unique quality to the look and feel of a garden or as an accessory to your house. It can be used to suspend flower pots, provide support for climbing plants, hang a swing or hammock, or simply serve as a decorative element. A pergola design can be a free standing structure or an extension of your home. This article will provide some ideas and tips to help you pick a design for your landscape.

If you’re thinking that you would like to build a pergola for your garden area your first step will be to get hold of a set of comprehensive plans. A detailed plan will show you step-by-step how to construct your pergola and may even have video tutorials to steer you through the more intricate details.

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Pergola design

Many people use a pergola to cover a part of their patio or deck. This is a simple design consisting of four to six posts with cross pieces overhead that form a sort of roof. After the pergola is built you can match the surrounding structures by painting or staining it.

Pergola and deck designs are ideal if you are looking to build a something that looks simple yet is aesthetically appealing. It makes for a nice partially shaded outdoor area where you can unwind and take a break from the day’s activities.

Using trellis work as part of a pergola design is a popular practice with many woodworkers. This design creates a sort of courtyard bounded by one or two trellis work walls. These types of pergolas can be built on an existing slab or patio and will further compliment deck designs.

You can build a simple pergola and place it over the front porch as a substitute for a standard roof. The paint or stain color of the pergola should match the color of your shutters or house trim. When your project is finished you’ll have what appears to be an extension to your home’s entryway. It gives your home a unique appeal while providing some limited shelter.

If you are looking to host a wedding at home, you can build a wedding pergola which you can set up for a few days and remove it after the wedding or leave it permanently as a place to host parties and other events.

Sometimes a pergola is built so that is runs along the side of a house where there are areas that allow for seating.

Pergolas will often have a rustic looking appearance in their design. You can use rough logs and unstained beams and weave alder twigs or willow in the roof to achieve this look.

Things to remember while building a pergola

1) Always check the permit requirements before you start building. This will avoid a lot of unnecessary headaches.

2) Use pressure treated timber to build your pergola if you don’t want the rustic look. Make sure you apply a high quality wood preservative to the cut edges and any other untreated areas.

3) Make your pergola look like a natural canopy by letting vines grow wild on the structure. A pergola provides a great place to grow plants that thrive in the shade creating an encompassing garden effect.

A pergola is not a difficult project to build for the DIY homeowner and with proper planning the result can be a charming addition to your home or garden. You can research many more designs to get innovative ideas that can help you build a beautiful, multi-functional pergola.

If you want to discover more about the different types of pergola design go on over to http://www.ShedPlansInstantly.com where you can grab my popular FREE 10 Day Mini-Course titled “Ten Essential Secrets of Shed Building”. It’s a great resource for thousands of outdoor projects including pergolas.

By: Brad Erickson

Watch this video for more Pergola ideas: