Design Tips for Beautiful Pergolas

From gorgeous designs to personalizing touches, check out these distinctive shade structures and get ideas for decorating your garden space.

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May 15, 2015

By: Laura Ostendorf and Marie Hofer

Related To:

Giant Reading Room

An arched pergola frames this beautiful outdoor room. The homeowner loves to read, so Jamie Durie integrated a small library into the design.

From: Jamie Durie

Bold Lines

A dramatic wood-and-shade-cloth pergola creates a warm, contemporary look for this patio designed by Pamela Berstler.

Tucked Away

This charming nook, designed by Joan Grabel, gets its appeal from the delightful details: tiny hanging lantern lights, retro furniture and lush container plants.

From: Park Slope Design

Play to Your Landscape's Best Feature

Who says your garden has to be snuggled up next to your house? Break away from convention and let your garden define itself — in this case, by the spectacular view. Design by Scott Cohen

Privacy for an Urban Patio

When space is limited, design matters even more. Here, the linear articulation of the pergola trickles down the sides, adding visual interest while also providing privacy.

Pockets Full of Plant Life

Vertical walls of plants provide the privacy screening for this outdoor dining room. The decorative light fixture adds a delicate design element that pulls the space together.

From: Jamie Durie

Waking Up in the Outdoors

Moving doors covered with a vertical garden of orchids make up the entire back wall of Jamie Durie's bedroom, which opens into this beautiful outdoor space. Lush vertical gardens surround this outside space, too.

From: Jamie Durie

Bonsai Shelves

Designed by Jamie Durie, this beautiful stepped display for bonsai trees is part of a contemporary Japanese-style pavilion that also houses a suspended daybed.

From: Jamie Durie

Sensory Experience

A pergola smothered with jasmine frames this seating area from HGTV fan debbieharris.

All in One

Designer Jamie Durie redefined this outdoor space with a pergola-and-bench design that's near the outdoor dining area (next slide). The horizontal beams along the top do double duty as planters.

Dining in Style

This beautiful dining room, on a raised deck, is an extension of the home's kitchen and features an elevated fireplace. The white trim, distressed finish, shingles and picket-fence-like "walls" complement the home's New-England design style.

From: Jamie Durie

Double-Decker Pergola

In his own backyard, designer Jamie Durie used the roof of a poolside dining pergola as the foundation for a second-story deck.

From: Jamie Durie

Woven Roof

For a Bohemian look, designer Jamie Durie used hand-dyed rope to create the webbing for this pergola ceiling, then suspended multiple hanging baskets from the wood supports.

From: Jamie Durie

Not an Everyday Pergola

Add flavor to your garden, and make it your own. This outdoor chandelier of candles and hanging plants sets a playful mood and brings the space to life. Mix and match a worn wooden table with some antique metal chairs, or march a row of potted plants down a ledge. Most importantly, have fun.

Design by Sandy Koepke

Photography by Jennifer Cheung

Design Tips for Beautiful Pergolas

Related To:

Giant Reading Room

Bold Lines

Tucked Away

Play to Your Landscape's Best Feature

Privacy for an Urban Patio

Pockets Full of Plant Life

Waking Up in the Outdoors

Bonsai Shelves

Sensory Experience

All in One

Dining in Style

Double-Decker Pergola

Woven Roof

Not an Everyday Pergola

Shop This Look

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