Add Some Shade to Your Yard with a Pergola

Sep 17, 2018

When the weather is warm and sunny, you want to get out and enjoy it with family and friends.  This could mean time spent swimming in a backyard pool, hosting BBQs, or simply lounging and admiring your beautiful landscape design.  When enjoying the great outdoors, however, the last thing you want is to get blasted by the sun and suffer a sunburn or get overheated.  This is why your yard could benefit from the addition of some shade.

If you want to add style and preserve your gorgeous view in the process, one of the best options for adding shade is the timeless pergola.  This site structure is less imposing than a pavilion, making it perfect for Rock Valley, Iowa yards both large and small.  Pergolas are also extremely versatile, which means you could incorporate more than one to add shade in different areas of your yard while preserving a cohesive design aesthetic.  Here are just a few suggestions for adding shade to your yard with attractive and functional pergolas.

Pathway Cover

Traditionally, pergolas have been used to cover pathways, gates, and so on.  This is a wonderful use for pergolas, which can help to accentuate entrances to your yard, as well as provide shade when strolling through the yard.

On their own, pergolas allow filtered sunlight through, but you can also incorporate landscape design by training vines, roses, or other climbing plants up support pillars and onto the roof structure of the pergola.  This is a wonderful way to increase shade, as well as foliage in your Sioux Center, Iowa outdoor spaces.

Don’t forget, it’s also common to add bench seating to pergolas to increase utility.  If you place a pergola over a wide entrance, you could put benches on either side, or you could build your pergola around existing retaining walls lining an entrance or pathway for built-in seating.  Adding benches along a covered pathway provides rest areas to literally stop and smell the roses.

Patio Cover

People naturally tend to congregate on paver patio and deck areas, where seating is often placed.  If you want to avoid the sun’s glare and create a more comfortable lounge area for family and friends, a pergola is the perfect solution.

A pergola could cover seating or a hot tub area.  It could run the length of a long patio or deck or skirt the edge of your pool.  Best of all, pergolas are open-air structures, which means you’ll enjoy shade without walls or lattice blocking the view of your gorgeous yard.

Other Areas

Pergolas are extremely versatile, which means you can truly place them anywhere in your yard.  Do you have seating near a fire pit or water feature?  A pergola helps to enhance these focal points and add shade at the same time.

You can also simply install free-standing pergolas anywhere in your yard you’d like to add shade and visual impact.  Pergolas come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, materials, and designs to suit every style and taste, so you can create the outdoor oasis that perfectly suits your home and your personal aesthetic.