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Cedar Pergolas for Your Back Yard Design
Now is the time to make plans for your landscaping project. If you've been thinking that your landscaping needs some renovation or distinction, consider adding a cedar pergola or arbor to your backyard. Cedar pergolas add a solid, vertical focal point to your landscaping. They're durable and natural-looking, and they provide a pleasant setting for entertaining friends or for just relaxing with the family. Here are some other surprising ways cedar pergolas can enhance your landscaping.
Instant Shade
Newer homes are wonderful in so many ways, but they usually lack large trees that provide shade. If you find yourself wanting more shade before your tiny trees have time to mature, consider adding an arbor or pergola to your yard. If you think ahead, you can place it in an area of the yard that will always be shade-deprived, even when you have mature trees. And unlike trees, cedar pergolas don't require watering or raking in the fall.
Background for Foliage
Here in the Cleveland area, we're fortunate to be able to grow many beautiful climbing vines like wisteria, honeysuckle, climbing roses, trumpet vine, and clematis. These climbing vines provide lush foliage and colorful flowers to add texture and color to your landscaping, but you have to give them something to climb on. Cedar pergolas not only give your plants something to climb on, but they provide a gorgeous setting for your family and friends to spend time in.
Structure for Lighting
Landscaping lighting is both utilitarian and decorative. It allows you to continue socializing after the sun goes down and adds to the safety and security of your home. It also highlights focal points in your landscaping and produces a dramatic effect. The trick is finding places to install the lighting. Cedar pergolas offer a perfect solution to this problem. You can install your lighting on the pergola itself, providing light beneath the pergola or casting light to other parts of your yard from the pergola.
Home for Electronics
But don't stop with lighting. As long as you're going to have electricity running to your pergola, you might as well install speakers and a flat screen TV. With these amenities, you can host football parties or broadcast music at your pool parties. When you use your cedar pergola as a home for electronic equipment, you extend the living square footage of your home. It's like creating another living room--one that lets pleasant breezes waft in and out completely unfettered.
Built-in Luxuries
Cedar pergolas can be constructed with built-in luxuries like stone benches, ledges, and tables. There are several advantages to constructing your pergola with these features. First, your pergola will have a truly natural look. With the stone features, your pergola will look as if it grew up right there in your yard--it's been there all along. Second, it looks timeless and sophisticated. If you install a lovely cedar pergola and then place mismatched furniture beneath it, the whole look will be hodge-podge and disrupted. Finally, built-in stone tables and ledges will last and last. They're indestructible, even when your teenagers have their 100 closest friends over.
If these lifestyle enhancements sound good to you, contact us to find out more about cedar pergolas and arbors. If you plan ahead, you can have your new pergola ready before summer--in plenty of time to plant that clematis and invite your neighbors over for a cookout. Here at Green Impressions, we work closely with our customers to find out exactly what their needs are and how best we can create the landscaping of their dreams. For additional ideas and inspiration check out our pergola portfolio pages or Contact us to make an appointment to discuss your project ideas.
Author: Joe Schill