Full feature article · Weekly Feature
Pergola and Patio Photos of the Week — 23 September 2026
This week's automatically published photo feature — pergola and patio photos of the week with a close look at shade, shelter and outdoor rooms, plus the design decisions behind each visual.
Design ideas travel best when they are broken into decisions. This week's feature does exactly that, taking a set of home and garden visuals and pulling out the choices behind them that any owner, builder or designer can copy on a normal block with a normal budget.
This week the focus is shade, shelter and outdoor rooms. Louvred, timber, wisteria-clad and resort pergolas, patios and shade structures. The eight visuals selected below all come from that part of the library, and each one has been chosen because it shows a different answer to the same design question rather than eight versions of one idea.
The designs featured this week are: Outdoor Pergola and Patio Design with Rough-Sawn Hardwood Rafters and Lounge Setting, Firepit; Vine-Clad Garden Pergola Design with Chunky Oregon Beams and Poolside Lounge Zone and Sheltered; Timber Pergola Entertaining Design with White Rendered Piers and Shaded Daybed Corner and Evening; Timber Pergola Entertaining Design with White Rendered Piers and Shaded Daybed Corner and Evening; Louvred Roof Patio Design with Blackbutt Decking and Adjoining Sun Deck, Bar Bench; Outdoor Pergola and Patio Design with Rough-Sawn Hardwood Rafters and Lounge Setting, Firepit; Resort Cabana and Shade Structure Design with Powder-Coated Aluminium Louvres and Long Dining Table,; Timber Pergola Entertaining Design with White Rendered Piers and Shaded Daybed Corner and Evening. Read them as a set — the useful comparison is not which one is prettiest, it is which layout suits the shape of your block, the direction your living areas face, and the way your household actually uses the space outside the back door.
Design the levels and the drainage before anything is built on top of them. Set the height of every terrace, step and lawn against the finished floor level of the house, fall surfaces away from the building, drain behind every retaining wall, and run spare conduits under every path and paved area for the lighting, irrigation and services you will want later.
Start with the plan rather than the products. Mark boundaries, the house footprint, doors and windows, existing trees, the fall of the land, the summer and winter sun path, and the views out of the rooms you use most. Almost every good decision that follows comes from that one drawing, and almost every expensive mistake comes from skipping it.
Solve shade before furniture. A roof, a pergola, a canopy or a well placed tree is what converts a paved area into a room that is used through summer and through rain. Furniture arranged in the open sun looks good in photographs taken in October and sits empty in February.
Browse the rest of the collection to see how the same principles apply at different scales, from courtyard sized gardens through to full estates, and from tiny homes through to oceanfront houses.
