Screened outdoor pool with a spa, white pergola, water features, a submerged lounge chair, and a forest view.

Pergolas

An open frame of posts, beams, and slats that defines a space and filters the sun. What separates a good one from a disappointing one is how much shade it actually casts.

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What It Is

What is a pergola?

An open framework of posts and beams with slats across the top, built to define a space and filter the sun rather than block it. Around a pool it gives you somewhere the light is softer: a place for loungers, a dining table, or an outdoor kitchen, without walling off the sky.

What separates a good one from a disappointing one is not the material or the style. It is how much shade it actually casts, and that varies enormously. Two pergolas that look alike in a photograph can give you twenty-five percent shade at noon or ninety, depending on decisions made before anything is built.

It is also the natural home for everything else in the yard. Kitchens, dining tables, and lounge furniture all want overhead structure, and a pergola is what they sit under. Lit properly, it is the best-looking thing in the backyard after dark.

White pergola by a swimming pool with green trees in the background.

Your options.

A modern pool area at night with a white pergola over a hot tub and a turquoise-lit main pool featuring a silver water fixture.
A modern pool area at night with a white pergola over a hot tub and a turquoise-lit main pool featuring a silver water fixture.

  1. Roof type

    Open slats, tighter shade slats, adjustable louvers, or a solid roof. The whole shade decision, and the numbers are dramatic. Widely spaced traditional rafters give twenty to thirty percent shade at midday. Tightening six-inch spacing to three roughly doubles it without losing airflow. Louvers run zero to a hundred, adjustable. Only a solid roof keeps rain off.

  2. Material

    Aluminum, wood, vinyl, or fiberglass. Aluminum needs almost nothing and holds a powder-coated finish. Wood is warmer to look at and wants refinishing.

  3. Attachment

    Freestanding, or attached to the house. Attached extends the house and reads as part of it. Freestanding can sit anywhere and does not touch the roofline.

  4. Sides

    Open, or fitted with screens, shades, or curtains. Overhead slats do nothing about low sun, and late-afternoon glare arrives sideways. Side panels, curtains, and planting are what handle it, along with wind.

  5. Size

    Built larger than the area you want covered, commonly fifteen to thirty percent larger. Sun comes in at an angle, so the shadow lands offset from the structure rather than directly beneath it.

  6. Add-ons

    Lighting, fans, heaters, speakers, a retractable canopy. Fans matter more than most people expect. Shade without airflow is only half of comfort.

Why a pergola.

It makes a room without walls

A defined place to sit, in a yard that otherwise has none.

Loungers under the pergola

Shade you can specify

Unlike a tree, you choose exactly how much light comes through.

Loungers under the pergola

It is the natural home for everything else

Kitchens, dining tables, and lounge furniture all want overhead structure.

Better at dusk than at noon

Lit properly, a pergola is the best-looking thing in the yard after dark.

Utilities sequencing, wind engineering, and the rules that change once a structure is covered apply to everything in this category, so they are answered once on the overview.How these fit together

FAQs

The six questions we hear most about pergolas.

Ask the Design Team
How much shade will I actually get?

It depends entirely on how the pergola is built, and this is the part people find out afterward. Widely spaced traditional rafters can leave you with only twenty to thirty percent shade at midday, when shadows are shortest. You are, functionally, sitting in the sun. Tightening the slats from six-inch to three-inch spacing roughly doubles the shade without losing airflow, and modern pergolas are built to a target: around fifty percent still feels bright and open, seventy-five is comfortable for most of the day, ninety is genuinely shaded while still reading as open-air. Louvers give you anything from zero to a hundred, adjustable. Ask for the number rather than a description, because provides shade is not a specification.

Will a pergola keep the rain off?

Only if it has a solid roof or closed louvers. Open slats are designed to filter sun, and rain passes straight through.

Which way should a pergola face?

It depends when you use it. Rafters one way block high midday sun best, the other way favors morning and late afternoon. Pick the hours you care about and orient to them. Sources disagree about this because the honest answer depends on your hours, not on a compass direction.

Does a pergola actually keep you cool?

A well-specified one does, but shade and airflow are separate problems and solving one can worsen the other. A dense roof that blocks sun also traps warm air under it, which is why a fan is worth more than another inch of slat coverage. Aluminum or wood makes no difference here: that choice is about appearance and upkeep.

Are louvered pergolas worth the extra?

They are the only version that handles both a hot afternoon and a cool bright morning, and many close automatically in rain. They also bring motors and controls into the yard, which is the part that eventually needs service, and they want power planned at build time. A fixed pergola has nothing to go wrong.

What should I ask any builder?

Three things. What shade percentage does this configuration give at midday? How is this engineered for wind here, and is it permitted? Which way are the rafters running, and why that way? Any manufacturer building to a shade target can tell you the number.

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