Pergola Zen – As customers increasingly seek to create an extension of their indoor space to the outdoors, we’ve seen the popularity of pergolas rise dramatically. Pergolas stand out for their ability to create different, functional and customizable outdoor spaces. With its open sides and slatted ceiling, the pergola offers cooling breezes, dappled shade and a strong sense of connection to the surrounding yard. Their open structure creates an interesting visual impact yet is relatively light, allowing them to fit gracefully into a variety of sizes.

Our design team has put together a guide to one of the most requested design features, including cost, materials, styles, alternatives and more.

Pergola Zen

The pergola is a time-tested freestanding structure, first seen in Egypt around 1400 BC and widely used by the 17th century Romans during the Italian Renaissance. Today’s pergola consists of columns that support the roof of a decorative open structure (as opposed to the roof of a closed structure such as a gazebo), with no walls underneath.

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The purpose of a pergola is to block harsh glare from the sun while allowing soft light and fresh air in. A typical pergola will not completely block sunlight, but some designs feature louvers or canopies to provide full shade.

A pergola creates a pleasant outdoor space that is partly closed, partly open. The ceiling above creates an intimate feeling, while the open section maintains a strong visual connection to the surrounding courtyard, making the space below the ceiling feel larger than its footprint. You will usually see a pergola placed over an outdoor space that is intended for a long time, such as an outdoor kitchen, dining room or living room.

As a structural item, a pergola is often a focal point of landscape design and serves as a style cue—a modern pergola helps everything in your yard feel more modern. Practically speaking, a pergola also provides the infrastructure to install various accessories (which we will explore below).

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Wooden pergolas are known for their beautiful appearance and natural look. Wood as a material is easy to work with – it will take any paint or stain, can be shaped into decorative flourishes like traditional styles and is a good choice for DIY or custom builds. All these reasons make a wooden pergola very flexible and easy to use in any style of landscape design.

Keep in mind that wooden pergolas used to be more economical, but the price of wood was higher. Nowadays, wood is a medium to high priced option for pergolas.

Although wooden pergolas allow for flexibility in design, they are the least durable and highest maintenance material. A new coat of paint or stain every year or two is needed to protect the wood from the weather.

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Fiberglass pergola has a smoother surface and smoother feel than wood. Like wood, fiberglass can take any paint color, but looks best in modern and traditional landscape designs. One benefit of fiberglass over wooden pergolas is that they are very durable and require almost no maintenance.

Because fiberglass is so durable, it can span longer distances than wood—up to 26 feet in some cases, which is useful for minimizing poles as a barrier in outdoor spaces.

Aluminum pergola has almost the same benefits as fiberglass – it is light, strong, elegant and suitable for modern style and requires almost no maintenance.  Aluminum pergolas are rust-resistant and usually powder-coated, so the paint color won’t fade with wear.

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Vinyl pergolas are the lowest cost option when it comes to materials. They also tend to perceive lower quality because the surface is visually different from wood, fiberglass or metal. Another potential downside is that vinyl pergolas are usually limited in color – you’ll see them offered in neutral white or bright colors.

Although vinyl pergolas are low maintenance, they are not as durable as wood, fiberglass or metal. If durability or design flexibility aren’t important to you, but price is, a vinyl pergola might be the way to go. However, there are other low-cost options to consider.

To anchor to the ground. For most pergolas, this means creating an underground concrete base for each pole, although lighter kits sometimes simply attach the poles to an existing concrete deck or slab.

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The anchored posts must be perfectly vertical with the correct spacing to match the precast beams – if you are off by even half an inch, you will need to re-anchor the posts. For this reason, we usually recommend having a contractor install your pergola, even for some pergola kits. Contractor installation tends to cost between $3,000 and $6,000 over the purchase price of the pergola, but it’s usually worth it.

Sometimes a pergola requires a permit, sometimes not. City code and, when applicable, HOA requirements ultimately determine whether a permit is required.

A permit is most often required when a pergola is large, attached to an existing structure, or uses a concrete base to tie its poles to the ground. Areas that experience snow, high winds or seismic activity also tend to require permits more often. Structures with solid roofs more or less definitely require a permit.

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Prefab pergolas usually come with structural drawings that can be used when shipping the pergola. This can generate significant savings by reducing the expense and hassle of hiring an engineer to produce permit drawings.

In addition to materials, the type of pergola you buy—a pair versus a custom build—will affect the cost. In general, prefabricated pergolas tend to cost less than custom ones.

With either option, remember that the cost of professional installation and installation must be considered in addition to the purchase price of the structure or materials. As mentioned above, this is usually between $3K and $6K.

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Custom pergolas vary greatly in cost based on the cost of materials over time, size and anything else about your design that makes installation difficult. Basic ones can be quite affordable, but it’s not uncommon for a custom pergola to cost $20K all said and done. You can control costs by keeping the design clean and simple. Complex or structurally challenging designs quickly accumulate costs through additional labor requirements.

After including shipping and installation, prefabricated aluminum, fiberglass, and wood pergolas will run from $8,000 to $15,000 for a standard-sized pergola. Upgrading or adding accessories can add up to $10K above this standard price range.

With a higher purchase price, you usually get a higher quality product that will last longer and look more like a permanent landscape feature. You can also get a warranty, or the option to include accessories.

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Keep in mind that kits or prefabricated structures that claim to be DIY may not be easy to assemble. Many prefab pergolas look more attractive than custom builds at first because of their lower prices, but they require professional help for installation, which will add to the total cost.

We consider pergolas to fall into two big buckets: traditional and modern. In short, traditional pergolas have decorative flowers, modern pergolas do not.

Traditional pergolas often have ceiling beams that protrude from the central frame of the pergola (these decorative protrusions are called “rafter tails”). Posts can be round or square and can be cut, either narrow sides or thick bases (such features add to the overall cost). A luxurious traditional pergola can have columns sunk into square columns with stone or stone veneer.

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These decorative features are endemic to wood pergola designs, but some vinyl and fiberglass pergolas offer interesting versions of the same decorative features seen here—just make sure you get a quality product.

This traditional style pergola is a prefab vinyl structure that costs less than $3k. Gravel plantings and low-maintenance plantings are other elements that make this backyard renovation on a tight budget.

A modern pergola is sleek and deliberately unadorned. All angles are 90 degrees, and the poles are square. Modern fiberglass and aluminum pergolas express a more polished feel, as shown above.

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You can tilt a modern pergola for a more rustic look by choosing a wooden model and combining it with contemporary patio furniture.

One of our favorite uses for a pergola in landscape design is turning a front or back yard into a porch by adding a pergola on top. We love this modern fireplace lounge. It is very accessible from various entrances to the house and matches the exterior style of the house perfectly.

Modern pergola suits different design styles. The modern white pergola in particular manages to look compact in an otherwise quite traditional design (pictured rows of boxwood and hydrangea).

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The terrace effect to the attached pergola porch is even more stunning in the front yard. The beauty of this natural wood creates aesthetic warmth and a more functional outdoor living space.

There are ways to create full shade with a pergola. Some pergolas are equipped with adjustable louvers, allowing you to control the level of shade under the ceiling. It is also common now to add “pergola canopy” fabric to the pergola ceiling, as seen above.

You can also install a shade screen or retractable screen under the ceiling to block the light coming in, but also allow it to be exposed to the sun as needed, as seen above.

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A high quality pergola can be used to hang a seat! This is a great fun fire seat, evoking the cheerful atmosphere of a porch swing that creates an inviting outdoor living space for friends and family to enjoy.

Historically, pergolas have been used for support

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