Summer is here and everyone is looking for ways to beat the heat, while still being able to enjoy the outdoors. One way to cool off is to find some shade, and if you can’t find shade, you can create it with a custom Pergola from American Deck & Sunroom. Pergolas will make your open air life complete. Also known as shaded arbors, pergolas add shade and protection to a patio or deck. Pergolas are less expensive than a full roof cover, but they can still be customized to match your home’s design and color scheme. Even on a cool night, pergolas provide a relaxed setting for a together or just to kick back with your family and enjoy watching the fireflies blink in and out of the night sky.
What is a Pergola?
Made up of posts and beams, a pergola is a structure with no walls and no solid roof. Instead of a roof, beams are held up by the posts of the pergola, and the beams can then be draped in hanging or climbing plants, such as wisteria. While cheaper than a full roof cover for a patio, pergolas offer great customization and design opportunities. Each customized pergola can be designed to match your home or to accent it. The shade offered by pergolas can come from the beams themselves, draped fabric, or by flowers, climbing plants, and vines that are laid atop the beams.
What Pergola is Right for Me?
Although you can build your own pergola, we don’t advise it. Pergola kits are available, but since a pergola is made up of heavy wood and beams are usually placed to rest above your head, it is important to make sure the job is done by an experienced builder, like those employed by American Deck& Sunroom. In addition to pergola kits, you can also purchase pergolas that are already assembled. However, the problem with kits and preassembled pergolas is that they don’t match your home, deck, or yard as much as a customized pergola.
Our experienced builders can help you by designing the perfect, fully customized pergola for you. When it comes to pergolas, the three most important design staples are size, scale, and style. You don’t want a pergola that dwarfs your home or one that is dwarfed by your home. The pergola should be proportional to your home and garden and allow enough space for the seating area, walkway, or other space beneath it.
Unlike size and scale, style has more leeway. For instance, traditional designs go well with gardens of period homes, like Victorian or Colonial style homes, but that doesn’t mean a more modern, sculptural piece wouldn’t look great juxtaposed with the historic design aesthetic of your home. Aside from the design of the structure, materials are very important. There are a variety of material options to fit anyone’s design sensibilities, including: oak, driftwood, metal, wrought iron, fiber glass, rounded wooden poles, stone pillars and beams, brick pillars, and custom-shaped wooden beams. No matter your preference of materials or style, we can build a pergola that is a perfect fit for both you and your home.
Where Should I Place my Custom Pergola?
There are many considerations to take in when figuring out where to build your pergola. One such consideration is your landscape. Pergolas can not only sit atop your landscape or patio, but they can incorporate your landscape by building the pergola beams around a tree, placing the pergola alongside flower bushes, or building the custom pergola over a preexisting seating area, fire pit, outdoor kitchen, pool, or hot tub. Pergolas can be either free standing, affixed to your deck, or attached to your house to form a semi-covered patio. Trellises can also be placed on three sides of a garden pergola to close off the seating area and provide a defined space. In addition to being stopping points on your landscape or deck, pergolas can be great transition pieces to the front of a house or a backyard walkway. Anywhere and anyway you want a custom pergola, we can make it work and make it look beautifully intertwined with your property.
Remember…
At American Deck & Sunroom, we don’t build houses. We don’t just build pergolas. What we do is design and build beautiful outdoor spaces…extensions of your home that flow with your existing property and architecture. And because we specialize, we go beyond the, “If you can dream it, we can build it,” catchphrase often quoted. After nearly 20 years in business and nearly 13,000 designs and counting, we have the experience to design outdoor spaces you’ve never even dreamed possible.