Pergola Design Choices: Pergola Attached to the House Versus a Freestanding Pergola

Here in South Florida adding a modern pergola to your outdoor living space can truly transform the way you use your backyard, patio or pool deck. With a fully automated adjustable louvered roof, you are able to control the amount of sun and shade on your deck with the push of a button. With the unique gapless louver system from our manufacturing partner Azenco you can even close the roof to completely seal out the afternoon rain showers. 

The clean exterior lines of our custom pergolas can accent any type of architecture from sleek modern to the American coastal style prominent throughout West Palm Beach, Boca Raton and Delray Beach. The first major design choice you’ll make as you explore pergola ideas and options is exactly where to construct your new shade structure, a decision that will largely be influenced by how you plan to use your outdoor living space.

Pergola Attached to House

Connecting a pergola directly to your home is a great way to create a seamless connection between indoor and outdoor living spaces. Paired with sweeping French doors or sliders, a covered patio can instantly expand your available living space in numerous ways, such as:

• Complete outdoor living room: A very popular addition throughout South Florida right now is creating a complete outdoor living room adjoining the home. Incorporate embedded LED lights into the pergola frame, a wall-mounted TV and comfortable outdoor furniture to bring the sheer comfort of the indoors onto your patio.
• Outdoor kitchen: Not only does an adjustable louvered pergola provide sun and shade protection for an outdoor kitchen, but it can also keep the rain from interrupting your culinary adventures. With the motorized louvers on our pergolas, you can easily vent heat and smoke from a charcoal grill or wood-fired pizza oven.
• Outdoor dining and entertaining: Even if you prefer to cook indoors, creating a covered outdoor dining and entertainment space just steps outside your kitchen is a great way to make the most of your outdoor living space. With the addition of motorized sunshades, you can easily have an intimate space closed off from the rest of the yard or roll the shades up with the press of a button for an airy outdoor setting.

Available Options for a Pergola Attached to the House

Today’s modern pergolas are marvels of engineering. Crafted from high-quality aluminum and powder coated with any color exterior you can desire, they are the perfect addition to any home. These cutting-edge pergolas also allow you to select from an array of unique features that can level up your outdoor living experience. Some of those available options include:

• Pergola roof risers: A riser is a short support column that is used to elevate the entire pergola roof above your home’s roofline. These structures can be invaluable in pergola design, especially for single-story dwellings. When adding a pergola roof to a home’s backyard, courtyard or deck, homeowners who have become accustomed to the wide-open space can sometimes feel that the newly covered patio feels slightly confined. By raising the entire pergola roofline this sensation can be mitigated. The pergola roof risers can also allow more sunlight to reach the now-shaded outdoor living space.

• Offset Support Columns: While pergolas are most commonly seen in standard geometric shapes like squares or rectangles, the custom pergolas we design can be fabricated to fit just about any uniquely-dimensioned outdoor space. To accommodate one-of-a-kind spaces, or to build a new pergola around existing structures, decking, etc. we often employ offset support columns. This design option is sometimes leveraged to enhance the styling of a pergola even if the surroundings do not require them. The offset support columns can add an avant-garde look to a pergola that is well suited to the Art Deco or contemporary stylings of South Florida.
• Patio Cooling Solutions: The design of our innovative pergolas can also be augmented with a pergola roof beam from which patio cooling fans can be hung. While opening the pergola louvers will naturally create airflow on the covered patio, for extra hot or humid days, the added circulation from a patio fan can be quite welcoming. For Floridians that find it too hot to relax even in the shade, more robust patio cooling solutions can also be considered. For instance, outdoor air conditions can blow cooling jets of air, or misting stations can provide a cooling mist of water for a pool deck.
• Motorized Retractable Screens: One of the most popular options our customers select for their custom pergolas are motorized retractable screens. The screens are hidden within the pergola frame, and roll down at the touch of a button. For customers looking to create added privacy on their patio, the screens can be fabricated from dense material that blocks views into the outdoor living room. For customers looking to add some sun protection as the sun sets, these screens can be made from a sheer material that still allows views into and out of the covered patio. They can even be outfitted with bug screens that keep pesky mosquitos away in the evenings.

Freestanding Pergola

Similar to a gazebo or pavilion, a freestanding pergola is a great option for creating a relaxation space disconnected from the home. While a gazebo features a fixed roof, the key advantage of the freestanding pergola is its adjustable louvered roof design. With the ability to control the sun and shade balance, or block out the rain entirely, choose a freestanding pergola for:

• Relaxing sitting area: A freestanding pergola can be erected on a deck or patio, or even in the garden. With some comfortable furniture situated in the shade of the pergola, a freestanding garden pergola can become an oasis from the stresses of the house.
• Waterfront destination: Especially here in coastal Florida, a standalone pergola situated by the ocean can offer some much-needed shade down by the beach. The open sides of the pergola allow for uninterrupted views all the way to the horizon.
• On the pool deck: A freestanding pergola can also be constructed over a pool to provide shade while lounging in the cool waters. Alternatively, a freestanding pergola can be erected by the side of the pool to bring your outdoor entertainment space right to the water’s edge, and even feature a cantilevered roof that juts out over the water.  

Pergola Next to the House

Because every pergola project is engineered to meet the unique specifications of the property, including local building regulations, storm resilience regulations, etc., it is sometimes impossible to directly connect the pergola to a home. If you still want to create the seamless indoor/outdoor feel discussed above, a hybrid approach can be taken. By designing a freestanding pergola that is built to butt right up to the building, we can simulate this same look as a pergola attached to the house. This technique is well-suited to covering pathways between the home and garage or to create a grand porte-cochère, like this one we designed and installed for the luxurious Admiral’s Cove clubhouse in Jupiter, Florida.

Should a Pergola Be Attached to House?

There is no hard-and-fast rule governing whether a pergola can or should be attached to a house. It is generally a determination made based on your style preferences, and just how you expect to use your new outdoor living space. The one time anchoring a pergola to the home can be especially beneficial if we are designing the pergola for windy areas. Especially here in South Florida, local build codes can require extensive storm-resilience. In some cases, anchoring a pergola’s frame to your home can help satisfy these regulations.

Conclusion

If you are considering adding a dynamic adjustable louvered roof pergola to your outdoor living space and would like to explore just what might be possible for your backyard, pool deck or patio, please contact us today and we will gladly help guide you through the design considerations.