Create Or Extend Your Current Porch This Easy Way
An attached front porch pergola roof covered with climbing vines
Here is a typical ranch style home
Now you see same ranch home with a front porch pergola, shutters and landscaping
Here is a typical two-story home
Now here’s the same two-story home with a front porch pergola
A pergola-covered front porch with functional outdoor space
Charming Decktop Pergola Swing
The perfect complement for this airy aerie pergola is the light feeling of swinging on a swing. The woven seat of the swing is tasseled. Heavy ropes attach the seat to the pergolas roof, and throw pillows add a different texture and pattern, muted color, and a casual feel. Billowing tiebacks add to the feeling of lightness, freedom, and flight.
Pergola Over Front Door: Examples With Pictures
A pergola is typically a wooden structure with an open latticework that lets vines climb and grow upon them.
It can be used as a cover for outdoor living areas like patios or decks, or it can be used to enhance the natural beauty of your house exterior.
If you are looking for ways to make your home stand out, you might want to consider a pergola added on top of your main entry door.
The pergola over the front door can be partially covered with vines and flowers. This is to allow for more privacy while also allowing some sunlight to filter through creating pretty shadows on the ground beneath it.
A pergola can be beautifully designed giving more attention to the front door. Its surrounded by lighting creating an even nicer atmosphere at night time when they are returning home from work.
Here are ten examples of how you can use pergolas on top of your front door:
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Garage Door Attached Pergola
Compact and simple, this garage door pergola is an affordable weekend project and an easy way to dress up a garage. Two matching assemblies of horizontal girders and knee braces support a pair of long crossbeams, which are topped by a series of short 2×2 rungs, creating the appearance of a horizontal ladder.
For this type of attached pergola, proper mounting and support are critical. The two end assemblies feature stout timber screws that lock the components together and also secure them firmly to the wall by means of a vertical 2×2 cleat. It’s essential that the mounting screws attach to the wall framing itself and not to the surface trim of the siding.
Because of its lightweight and strong weather resistance, Western red cedar makes a good choice for this attached pergola. A pair of 2×4 crossbeams can safely span 8 feet, but check your local building codes. Wider spans will require increasing the crossbeam size to 2×6 or 2×8 lumber.
Polynesian Bliss Poolside Pergola
Recline and survey your poolside domain from the regal white seating in this pergola. White fabric canopies draped along the roof and slatted sides protect the inhabitants from the sun. One table waits with liquid libations while another offers a romantic white lantern for the night. A pole lamp bows, suggesting an attendant with a cooling fan to wave.
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Do I Need A Permit For A Pergola
Sometimes pergolas require a permit, other times they do not. City code and, when applicable, HOA requirements ultimately determine if a permit is necessary.
Permits are more commonly required when pergolas are large, attach to existing structures, or use concrete footings to secure their posts in the ground. Regions that encounter snow, strong winds, or seismic activity also tend to require permits more frequently. Solid-roofed structures are more or less certain to require a permit.
Prefabricated pergolas typically come with structural drawings that can be used when submitting for a pergola. This can generate considerable savings by cutting out the expense and hassle of hiring an engineer to produce permit drawings.
Prefabricated Pergolas And Pergola Kit Cost
After factoring in delivery and installation, prefab aluminum, fiberglass, and wood pergolas will run from $8K to $15K for a standard sized pergola. Increasing size or adding accessories can add as much as $10K on top of this standard price range.
With the higher purchase price, you generally get a higher quality product that will be more durable and look more like a permanent landscape feature. You may also get a warranty, or the option to include accessories.
Keep in mind that kits or prefab structures that claim to be DIY-able may not actually be simple to install. Many prefab pergolas seem more appealing than a custom build at first because of their lower price tag, but require professional help to install which will add to the total cost.
Kit and Prefab Pergola Recommendations:
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The Toja Grid is a great modular option offering incredible versatility at a low price, but be aware youll need to purchase wood separately the list price only covers brackets.
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The aluminum pergolas by Paragon Outdoor and Bon Pergola are also solid low cost options.
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Forever Redwood has a host of pergolas spanning the style spectrum, and supports sustainable forestry practices in their material sourcing.
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What Is The Purpose Of A Pergola
Weve established that the pergola was initially designed to provide protection from the sun, and to some extent, pergolas are still used for this purpose today. However, in the modern day, pergolas are also used for other reasons.
Since pergolas can be fitted with watertight roofs, they can also be used to provide shelter from the rain, which is useful if you want to spend time outdoors even when the weather isnt ideal.
Many people also choose to build a pergola in their garden because these structures can be decorative.
Because traditional pergolas have lattice roofs, you can grow vines and other plants through the gaps in the structure to add some extra rustic beauty to your outside space.
Front Door Pergola For Curb Appeal
A pergola can give an otherwise plain home exterior some instant curb appeal. They are a classic addition to homes of all eras and styles: cottages, ranch homes, traditional two stories, and even modern and contemporary homes.
Luckily, there are affordable freestanding and attached pre-built pergolas to add to your patios and porches, giving you options for shade, adding garden style charm, and even helping you define a space for an outdoor living room. Ill share a few shopping resources to create this look in your own home.
This post isnt meant to be a DIY pergola tutorial instead, Im walking you through a little history about pergolas, what they can and cant do for your home, and the pros and cons of a pergola attached to a house.
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How To Use A Pergola As An Entryway
Pergolas are open-air garden structures, most of which have flat, open-beam roofs resting on columns. Most are entryways to gardens, yards or front doors and are shady due to vining plants weaving through their joists. Although sometimes constructed of unexpected materials, such as the historic metal and glass pergola of Seattle’s Pioneer Square, most are built of wood. A pergola entryway can change a simple home or landscape from plain to distinctive.
Benefits Of Applying Pergola Over The Front Door
1. Stylish and attractive Exterior entryways are a stylish and attractive way to welcome you and your guests into your home, but sometimes they can be a little plain or even downright boring.
Adding a pergola with a garden attached to it can help with this problem if you have an existing exterior door, as the two create an inviting area at your homes entrance that lets in natural light.
2. Sunlight is filtered through the leaves Backlit by sunlight filtering through the leaves of plants below.
The patio area becomes part of your outdoor living space while giving everyone arriving at your house their first sight of what lies ahead for them inside.
And when you want to get out there yourself, all you need to do is step onto the patio from inside your home.
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Create Cedar Facing For The Posts
Mill cedar fence boards to create facing around the posts. Apply Loctite glue to cedar boards and attach to posts. The glue will hold the boards in place while allowing for adjustments as you line up all four boards on a post. Use a 16-gauge nail gun to securely affix cedar facing to the posts. Thanks for reading! Come visit at This Dear Casa!
Easily Add A Pergola To The Front Of Your Home
If you’d like to add some much-needed shade, definition and style to the front of your home, a pergola is a perfect choice. Whether you’re a novice DIYer or a pro, the installation process is quick and straightforward, allowing you to enjoy your new pergola the same day you receive it.
Ready to get started? Contact the experts at Heartland Pergolas for help, guidance and pricing on a stylish, easy-to-install pergola today.
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Tuscan Style Pergola Attached To A Copper Roof
This green pergola looks fantastic from this angle.
This is a perfect example of a modern-living residence with a two-story building featuring gabled roofs and bay windows.
The combination of the stone exterior, use of horizontal lines, and the copper roofing detail brings a grounded and relaxing feeling to this home. It also gives the homeowners a familiar sensation combined with contemporary appeal.
This mid-sized Tuscan-style home exterior also features a pergola. The pergola is painted green, similar to the trim of the doors and windows. Unfortunately, there is no detailed information about the paint used. However, Tarrytown Green from Benjamin Moore looks pretty similar.
The fantastic green is combined with soft yellow paint color for the exterior. It seems that the paint used is Barely Yellow from Benjamin Moore.
The pergola here is attached to the structure of the house. There are several ways to do it.
The most common way is to attach the beam to the existing homes rim joist. You can bolt it every 16 using stainless screws or galvanized. The rafters length depends on the size of the structure you are planning to build. Before ripping into the home, it is advised to check with your local building inspector to see the guidelines of an open structure.
Attached Pergola Over Patio
An attached pergola extends living space into the yard and serves as a graceful transition between outdoors and indoors. As this pergola illustrates, the suggestion of shelter is sometimes an effective substitute for actual walls and a roof. By defining this patio area, the pergola and planters create the effect of an outdoor room. The overhead framing also provides welcome shade for the large windows.
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// Outdoor Dining Beneath A Wood Pergola
Our designers used a modern pergola to enhance the outdoor dining space in this rendering. While the dining area is its own separate hardscape, it showcases some intentional design elements that blend with the rest of the exterior, creating a cohesive aesthetic. The pergola itself brings out the wood accents on the home, and the pavers in the dining space coexist beautifully with the pavers used for the walkway. One of our favorite touches is the pergolas built-in pendant light, perfect for evening dining al fresco.
Small Raised Pergola With Post And Beam Structure Attached To Roof
This is an example of a small yet trendy house. This tiny house is perfectly painted in dark brown color. No information about the paint used, but it seems that Chocolate Sundae from Benjamin Moore is pretty close.
This all-brown house is also combined with a weathered brick wall and dark-trimmed window as an accent.
The pergola is small and built on top of a raised decking. The pergola is made out of light tonewood, both the flooring and the structure. It looks perfect in contrast with the dark brown siding. Even the furniture pieces were also carefully picked to match the main color of the pergola.
What makes it unique is, the beam structure of the pergola is built to mimic the gable roof of the main house. Both are connected.
This attached pergola, however, doesnt have a cover. But it looks perfectly shade due to the towering trees in the front yard of the house and the vines and foliages around the pergola.
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Paradiso Dream Pergola With Daybed
If youd like to sleep outside, day or night, this pergola creates the sheltered space you need. A thatched roof provides shade, and airy white tiebacks can be let down for privacy. For a magical space to enjoy the night, turn on the LED lights wrapped around the side and cross support at the front of the pergola.
String Lights For Magical Ambience
We love adding string lights to pergolas of any style, the magical effect they have on an outdoor living space from overhead is irresistible. Installing string lights around or across the ceiling is typically the most cost-effective option for landscape lighting on a pergola, but deck lights mounted to posts that can shine up or down, or both, is also an optionas this Volt light does.
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Attach Lengths Of Lumber
Next, attach lengths of pressure-treated 2 x 4 lumber along each side of your pergola frame. This is for extra stability and adds cross pieces beneath it if desired to create an accessible walkway below.
Keep in mind when installing these supports however that they will take up space under the pergola that would otherwise be available for planting. Therefore, you should plan carefully before adding them.
Corner Retreat Pergola With Suspended Lamps
This pergola provides comfortable bench seating for your garden while also supporting your garden by providing vertical space for staggered planters at each end of the bench. The colorful pillows tossed onto the benchs white cushioned seat and back echo the colors of the garden flowers, adding to the cheerful look of the nook.
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Build A Brown Front Door Pergola To Match The Beige Siding With A Gable Roof For A Cozy Traditional Feel
Next, take a look at how this traditional house uses a brown front door pergola that matches its beige siding for an effortlessly classy design.
The roofing here is a huge part of the architecture, which are gable roofs.
While they may need extra support to withstand strong winds, we love gable roofs because they provide fantastic drainage during the rainy and winter seasons. They also have more weather resistance compared to flat roofs.
The pergola itself is a dark brown color to match the neutral, earthy tone of the siding. You may notice that the siding combines solid colors and traditional brick, and these are great because they create more depth and richness.
You can see that the front door is also made of wood. This is an excellent choice for an even more classic feel, whereas incorporating more grasses and plants into your landscape can liven up your curb appeal.
Traditional Style Prefab Pergola
We think of pergolas as falling into two big buckets: traditional and modern. In a nutshell, traditional pergolas have decorative flourishes, modern ones do not.
Traditional pergolas often have ceiling beams protruding out from the central pergola frame . Posts can be round or square, and may feature ornamentation, be it tapering sides or thickened bases . Higher-end traditional pergolas may sink posts in a square bollard with a stone or masonry veneer.
These decorative features are endemic to wood pergola design, but some vinyl and fiberglass pergolas offer attractive versions of these same decorative features as seen herejust be sure to get a quality product.
This traditional style pergola is a prefabricated vinyl structure that costs less than $3k. Gravel hardscaping and low-maintenance planting are other elements that make this backyard makeover within a strict budget.
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Elegant Pergola Attached To A Sable Colored Roof
This is a large elegant brown home with a wood exterior and two stories. It is completed with a shingle roof to emphasize its traditional style. The roof is Elk Shingles in Sable color. It matches perfectly with the red bricks and the white trim.
From this angle, we can see that there are several spots on the outside that can be used as a seating area. One of them is the white structured pergola.
The pergola can be accessed from the circular patio bordered by the low stone walls. It is quite hard to see from this angle, but it seems that there is another seating area in that open pergola.
Next to the white pergola, there is a more covered and bigger porch that can be used as a seating area too.
This bigger pergola is supported by four white columns and covered by a similar roof used for the main property. On the other hand, the white pergola features an open concept. So, that is a more suitable spot to enjoy nature.
Try A Cellular Pvc Front Door Pergola In Prefinished White And Pendant Lights For An Inviting Driveway
If youre more into classic and traditional exteriors, you might love this timeless driveway with its white front door pergola and some verdant plantings along the path.
The pergola is made of cellular PVC, a durable material that you can easily find and gives off a sleek finish. It acts as a kind of gateway that leads to the front door, and we think it makes for a really stylish way to frame your house!
More specifically, it features two 5 1/2 square posts with a 6-feet opening in the middle.
There is also a single5 1/2 square carrying beam to support six 1 1/2 x 5 1/2 joists that are 3-feet long each. You can notch these for added stability and easier assembly.
For the last touch, hang some pendant lights on the posts that will flank this driveway and provide much-needed lighting at night.
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