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Full feature article · Pergolas & Patios
The Importance of Shade and Cover in Backyard Home Designs
Pergolas and patios turn an unusable backyard into a space you enjoy all year — shade, style, protection for furniture, and a home for dining and cooking zones.
The single change that transforms most backyards is not planting, paving or a pool. It is cover. A backyard without shade is used for a few hours on mild days; the same backyard with a well built pergola or patio becomes the room the family lives in from spring through to the middle of winter. Cover is what converts outdoor area into outdoor living.
Shade also protects the investment already sitting outside. Ultraviolet light destroys cushions, timber finishes, outdoor rugs, televisions and barbecues far faster than rain does. Furniture under a solid roof lasts several times longer than the same furniture in the open, which means the cover often pays for itself in replacement costs alone before any comfort is counted.
Choosing the structure is a decision about light. A slatted or louvred pergola casts a moving pattern and keeps the space bright, which suits dining areas and pool surrounds. A solid insulated roof creates genuine all weather cover for a kitchen, lounge or television zone, at the cost of some light to the windows behind it. Glass or polycarbonate keeps winter light in while stopping the rain, and needs shade cloth or planting above it to be tolerable in summer. Many of the best backyards use two structures with different roofs for different jobs.
Orientation and sizing decide whether the structure works. Western sun is the enemy, so plan for a vertical screen, blind or planting on that side rather than relying on the roof. Allow at least three and a half metres of depth for a dining table with chairs pulled out, more if a barbecue or bench sits under the same roof. Set the height generously — low pergolas feel oppressive and trap smoke and heat from cooking.
Build the services in while the frame is open. Downlights and a dimmer on the beams, a fan for still summer evenings, strip heating for winter, weatherproof outlets for cooking appliances and speakers, and gutters plumbed into the stormwater rather than spilling onto paving. Retrofitting any of these later means cutting into a finished ceiling.
Finally, connect the cover to the house and the garden. Paving that runs at one level from the interior floor through to the covered area removes the trip hazard and doubles the apparent size of the living room. A screen of tall planting or a hedge on the boundary side gives privacy, and a climber over one end of the pergola softens the structure so it reads as part of the garden rather than a carport in the wrong place.