Is your pergola looking a little underwhelming? Fortunately, with a little imagination, it’s easy to transform your pergola into the show-stopping garden feature of your dreams. Here are some quick and inexpensive DIY ideas for adding style and charm to your garden pergola:
Pergola ideas to glam up your garden
Plant it up
Wisteria, rambling roses and honeysuckle look wonderful trained across a pergola, but take years to mature. You can get a head start on nature by winding fast-growing ivy or clematis around the posts and adding planted containers, but if that’s still not speedy enough for you, faux plants will create a similar effect - with much less maintenance. Look out for trailing plants, like this artificial wisteria vine, to create a soft and romantic look. Measuring 2m 10cm (around 6.5ft), a single garland offers plenty of interest - or you could buy one to wrap around each post.
‘Place potted plants around the perimeter to create a welcoming feel, and suspend plant hangers full of bright florals,’ advises Sam Jenkinson, garden expert at Tiger. If you lack green fingers, go faux instead.
Take cover under a fabric shade
All you need is a length of fabric to make a simple but effective shade to shield you from the sun – and from neighbours’ prying eyes. Allowing about 25 per cent extra than the width of the pergola, weave water-resistant outdoor fabric in and out loosely between the slats, with least 50cm overhang on each side. Alternatively, beat the heat with a temporary canopy fashioned by draping canvas or wafty cotton across the top.
Invest in outdoor curtains
Lightweight curtains or fabric panels hung from wire or narrow rods fixed between the posts provide shade while diffusing harsh sunlight - and don’t feel you have to stick to white. ‘Consider a colour scheme, matching curtains to other elements such as seat cushions or an outdoor rug,’ recommends Fiona Jenkins, MyJobQuote’s gardening expert.
Keep the curtains from blowing in the wind by weighing them down with discreetly hidden binder clips or sticking velcro strips to the bottom inner edges that attach to the patio or deck.
Dazzle with cheery lanterns
Create a party atmosphere with an array of colourful lanterns in different shapes and sizes, suspended at varying heights from your pergola’s beams. Arrange the lanterns in groups of odd numbers, with a range of sizes in each group for a playful but random effect. Aim to have around twice the number of your smaller lanterns, than the largest style you've chosen.
We love this set of four brightly-coloured outdoor lanterns from OxyLED, decorated with a Moroccan-inspired design which will cast intricate patterns of light over your outdoor space.
Check out our garden lighting ideas round-up for even more inspiration.
Let there be light
There’s no better way of generating instant after-dark ambience than swathing the top of your pergola with twinkling fairy lights. ‘Daisy-chain multiple sets of fairy lights together and, starting at the furthest point, swag each string back and forth closely beneath the beams,’ says Emily Kelsey of Lights4fun. ‘Simply affix the lights to posts with cable ties to ensure a secure display throughout the summer season.’
Now that your pergola is sorted, why not check out our guide to the best garden furniture on the market? And treat your feet to a stylish new outdoor rug too!