There’s no denying the facts; summer in Calgary is the best season of the year. The seemingly endless string of sunny days comes coupled with high temperatures and warm breezes, making you want to spend all day every day out on your patio. However, there can be times, especially in the mid afternoon, where the temperatures make you want to seek some shade for a couple of hours. Instead of heading inside, it’s time to think about covering your patio, and you’ll find a few different options to choose from.
Outdoor Coverings
When you’re looking at providing some much needed shade for the space directly outside your home, you’ll see a variety of options if you’re looking for a free standing addition. One of the most common is a patio umbrella. This is a free standing structure which looks like an enormous umbrella. It can be raised and lowered to save space, and most models can swing round to help you match the movement of the sun. The other most common option is a pergola with a cover. A pergola is another free standing structure that you can attach directly to your patio or deck. It’s a simple post and beam structure, with the beams creating a beautiful lattice structure. The cover can be made from fabric or vinyl to provide the shade you’re looking for.
Why Choose a Pergola
When you’re picking between your free standing options, it quickly becomes clear that a pergola with a cover is the smart option every time. It gives you the following benefits:
- Permanent shade – the most obvious reason to pick a pergola with a cover over a patio umbrella is that you get permanent shade all year round. A sun umbrella has to be put up and down each day, and you then have to spend time rotating it to just the right position to get the right amount of shade. A pergola provides a broader and more complete level of shade across your whole patio, keeping things cooler all afternoon.
- Framing your space – a pergola will also help you to frame your outdoor space and create an aesthetically pleasing look from both inside and out. While it’s unlikely that it will cover your entire patio, it can easily take up 75% or more of the space. The posts will give your patio some structure, and you’ll find that you’ll naturally congregate underneath the shade of a pergola making it feel like an outside room.
- An opportunity for growth – finally, you can create a whole new vibe under your pergola by buying some climbing plants and placing them at the base of each of the posts. You can then train these to twist up each post and across the lattice to give your pergola that classic Italian trattoria feel as well as giving you some additional shade. Jasmine and wisteria are common plants for this and will both give off a lovely perfume in the hot late summer afternoons.
