Backyard Pergola Ideas – Rustic, Solar, or Contemporary Shade

Adding a backyard pergola to your home is one of the better ideas as to how to upgrade the look and function of your landscaping all at once. Pergolas have striking architectural features that draw the eye, and can also create interesting shade patterns on the ground. With slight variations on the spacing and angles of the lattice members, a pergola’s impact on the aesthetics of your home and garden can be drastically changed. For this reason, it is imperative that you take the time to formulate well planned pergola designs.

While the designing of a pergola can be rather complex, the actual building of it is rather straightforward. The design elements are all there to see, front and center, and so the real task is to construct it very precisely so that no mistakes will be made apparent. Remember that there’s no siding or roof that’s going to cover up poorly worked joints or warped edges. It’s all there for everyone to see.

Although when used as arbors or trellises, pergolas can have their structure covered up by the leaves of the vines growing on them. This can help create a more beautiful pergola, but shouldn’t be relied upon to cover up mistakes. Vines will die back or lose their leaves for the winter, and then your secret would be made public.

Shade Ideas with a Pergola

The way a pergola interacts with the sun is perhaps the most interesting thing about it. As the sun moves across the sky, from the East in the morning to the West at evening, the shadows cast by a pergola can change dramatically. Similarly, the shade cast will also be changed as the seasons go by and the sun lowers in the sky.

Understanding this interaction allows for pergola ideas to be formulated with specific shading ideas in mind. These can range from the functional to the artistic, though often there is a great deal of overlap between the two. Trying to enhance this synergy between the form and function is one of the key aspects of pergola design.

The primary design decision that will affect shading is of course the ratio of open to closed space. In widely spaced pergolas, the slats won’t offer as much in the way of shade as in more closely spaced designs. This isn’t just true in the horizontal dimension, but also somewhat in the vertical one as well. Very tall slats, which are often desirable for the look they bring to the pergola, will cast more shade when the sun is low in the sky. This runs contrary to the functional aspect where it’s generally best to have more shade when the sun is at it’s apex, as those will be the hotter times of day and year.

Another important factor is the orientation of the slats. You can modify your designs to largely ignore movement of shadows during the day by orienting the slats East and West. This means the profile offered to the sun stays much the same throughout the day. Alternatively, you can orient the slats North and South. This has the opposite effect in that the pergola will cast shadows differently during the day, but stay the same throughout the year.

A Different Angle on Pergola Ideas

Understanding how orientation and spacing will affect shadows is just one aspect of the design process. The interaction between the inclination of the sun and the profile of the lattice offers further control for when and where shade will be cast.

A board which is on end will not give much shade at noon. This is because the sun is close to directly over head, and that is where the profile of the board is the thinnest. Later in the day when the sun is coming in from the West, the wide profile of the board is in effect.

In most cases this doesn’t do very much good for the people under the pergola. It means that when shade is needed the most, it’s not there, and only shows up when it’s not needed. To counteract this, imagine of you lay the board flat. Now when the sun is highest in the sky, the board casts the most shade because that is where the profile is widest. Of course if you lay all the boards flat on a pergola, it ceases to be a pergola and becomes more of an elevated deck.

Somewhere in between those two extremes is an angle that’s just right to limit the light during the warmer times of day, and let more light in when it’s cooler. The simplest way this can be accomplished is to tilt the tops of the boards to an angle where the profile is narrowest pointing towards where the sun will be when you want the most light. This way when you need the warmth, it will be there, and when you want it cool, you can have shade.

This is the driving principle behind solar pergolas, which can be a very energy efficient addition to a home. By regulating the sunlight that is allowed to warm the home, heating bills can be lowered in winter, while air conditioning costs can be reduced in summer. The fact that solar pergolas cast beautiful shade patterns and have striking designs is just icing on the cake!

Ideas for Material Use in Constructing Pergolas

In the backyard, there’s some materials that feel more at home than others. With the elements beating away at exposed structures, the materials they are comprised of need to be weatherproof. With the natural surroundings of the backyard and garden, they also need to fit in to an earthy color palette.

Wooden pergolas have the look down pat. Their problem is that wood tends to rot when exposed to moisture over time. Not all types of wood are affected the same, but even the toughest need some protection from rain and snow. Teak and cedar are good options for wood use in the backyard. They have natural oils that act to seal the surface. Still, it’s advisable to apply sealant to even these woods, to keep them looking beautiful and structurally sound.

Aluminum is a great material for pergola construction in many ways. It isn’t affected by moisture at all, and won’t rust or corrode like most other metals do in such an environment. At the same time, aluminum’s strength to weight ratio is unsurpassed in regards to commonly available materials. This makes it uniquely suited for the functionality required by a pergola.

Where aluminum is lacking though is in the look department. Well suited for some situations, such as modern or contemporary homes, an aluminum pergola can look great next to a swimming pool. However, in general the backyard landscaping is a more natural setting, and aluminum can look out of place. A good solution is to use wrought aluminum, which is styled to look much like wrought iron. This gives it that rich, textured look that goes well with natural environments.