A Pergola Riot
Golly.
I thought y’all would be excited about my pondering about a pergola over the entry deck of the Carriage House.
But…yeah…golly.
The big complaint is this: “pergolas can only be used in a backyard.”
I pointed out that this was not true.
But the complaints keep rolling in.
Thus, I offer:
My own house. Yep, that’s a pergola across the front.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
NY Yacht Club.
51 Comments
Leave a Comment
Your email address will NEVER be made public or shared, and you may use a screen name if you wish.
Some of those are REALLY sweet!!!
Agreed, Bill! I used to live in St. Pete, FL, and always loved seeing front pergolas on the many 1920s neighborhood.
When I later lived in NYC I always loved walking past the NY Yacht Club and its dazzling pergola (see last picture, above).
So you feel really strong about this pergola. I didn’t say anything, it’s your house. I assume you don’t have photos of how it used to appear. The rendering that you showed of a porch roof was fantastic. I thought, that would look as if it had always been there. Something Squires might have done, making front entrance very welcoming. I agree with you on where a pergola can be used, but in this case, it would dress up the back porch/deck and be a better fit.
Hi, Mark! I don’t feel really strong about the pergola. It’s just an idea right now. I’m kinda intrigued by the idea.
I’m gonna guess that people like the roofed porch plan because my sketch makes the idea understandable. And I’ve zero doubt it will look fabulous.
But I don’t have a sketch of the pergola idea. Not yet. So, based on the comments, people seem to think it will look horrible. But, if I do choose such a direction, I would only do so having zero doubt about it looking fabulous.
Because…I don’t do horrible!
I loved your first design with the matching- to the Cross House- porch post. I say do a pergola somewhere else, dammit!
Michael, the single column holding up a roof or pergola would match same on the Cross House.
Pay no attention to them. I have three pergolas and one is out front.
Do the pergola or do not. There is no try.
Uh, whataminute.
Hahaha correct you are, Master Yoda…er mlaiuppa.
And some of those are really ugly (too heavy, without plants).
Doesn’t it also depend on the building code where pergolas “can” or “cannot” be used? E.g. in Vienna, Austria you can build a pergola (or a car port or similar construct) in your backyard or garden without problems (and even without permit if it is not larger than 12 square-meters) but you have to apply for a permit if you want to construct anything on the front side (i.e. street looking side) of your house and you often would not get the permit, because the thing does not “fit” in the “look” of the street/quarter.
Other than building code restrictions I think that pergolas in the usual sense are more useful in the backyard, because you want to sit there, with your friends and/or with a cocktail and have some privacy and enjoy yourself. At the front entrance it can be constructed like a pergola but one would not use it as such unless the house stands on a huge compound and reasonably far away from the street.
I am not sure that I would call the construction on the third floor of the NY Yacht Club a pergola, but I don’t know what else I would call it. It is not really a balcony, it’s not strictly a roof terrace either (though a search for “roof terrace” yields similar photos, eg https://www.pinterest.de/pin/643170390503406428/)
Hi, Jutta.
Any architectural feature can either be beautiful or ugly, depending on the talent of the architect.
Vienna is a vastly different city than Emporia, KS! Emporia would only be concerned about the structural integrity of any porch I do (either roofed or pergola).
Front porches are highly common. Indeed, the Cross House has a really big one! I don’t understand why one wouldn’t enjoy sitting on the front porch of the Carriage House no matter if it had a solid roof or an overhead pergola. Either way, it would be a pleasant place to have some wine and enjoy the sunset. And..yikes!…wave at passerby’s! If you prefer privacy you would use the rear deck. But a roofed front porch offers no more privacy than a pergola porch. Well, you would have privacy from birds with the former!
The terrace of the NY Yacht Club is topped with a pergola. It’s fabulously dramatic when walking down the street.
Several of your examples look like the Sears Honorbuilt homes shipped around the states in the 20’s,30’s, and early 40’s. the bathroom could have a Juliet Balcony on the door 🙂
Agreed, Rick. Some might be Sears homes.
If I build a roof over the front porch the turret door would be removed and the wall shingled over.
If I build a pergola I’ve mostly given up on doing an upper deck as I think its railing would be too visually overpowering. But, I could keep the turret door and install a railing into the door frame. So, not quite a Juliet balcony. Ditto for the rear door above the kitchen door.
A compelling reason for going the pergola route (minus a deck) is the significantly increased sunshine to the entry and diamond window, as compared to a solid roof. I adore sunlight.
That sounds wonderful! I was wary about the roof idea, but an open pergola (maybe with greenery) and a juliet balcony (we call them french windows) sounds so nice, and relatively easy to do. 🙂
I think that is a better idea. If you put a deck on the pergola you would cut a lot of light from the door and the window. A pergola offers some protection from the elements but also light, even if you grew something on it. I think Juliet balconies for both of those doors looking out over a pergola is a good compromise. You get light and air from the doors, especially if both have glass and the decks underneath still have light filtered through the pergola, whether it has plants or not.
And if you decide you want to extend the roof over the front porch, you can easily take the pergola down in the future and do that.
Pergola heaven! I like them. Don’t see too many in the desert SW because we need more shade . . . that said, you might see a few with plants or with beams closer together. I recall seeing pergolas in more gardeny and temperate San Diego, where you do want more light and air on your patios.
Pergolas are fine in front. I was going to put one on my 1909 Craftsman bungalow, but I moved before I could. Follow your instincts.
I’ve no doubt you will be going period correct and it will look fabulous. 🙂
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_Square_pergola
Can’t wait to see the finished rendering.
Bless you, Jim!
So many strong, wrong, opinions! I don’t distrust your vision one iota, Ross. Everything you touch is always in the best interest of the house! The customer is always right in matters of taste, and you are the customer as you are the one spending the dough! Whatever you do, its going to look good and be respectful to your surroundings.
Thank you, Candy! BIG hug!
All of those except the yaht club are either strange or ghastly.
I’ve followed this blog from day one. You conveniently jump back and forth from “preserving the historical narrative” or being whimsy. This pergola is something that flipper lady in Minneapolis would do, Nicole Curtis. Don’t be her.
It’s acceptable to decorate whimsy, but not ok to add permanent features that are.
Travis!
My approach to the Cross House has always been significantly more rigorous than my approach to the Carriage House, which has been wholly transformed from its original purpose and design. It has even been cut in two and the north wing rotated!
You also seem to overlook that a porch was in the NW corner in 1894. So, I’m recreating a lost feature.
And as pergolas were popular in the 1890s, how is adding one (if I do) not period-correct?
Yes, but do something nice to it, no pergola in front. It’s better to leave it open if your funds are the issue. Focus on the inside, make it rentable.
I know the carriage house has been significantly altered, but you know a pergola is wrong
I don’t have an opinion on what to do or not to do because it’s your house. Do what YOU want. BUT, what I do have to say is, you are wanting to make a deck on the top of the pergola so you can use the door up there?? Am I remembering it right? Wouldn’t that close up the roof of the pergola making it not a pergola? Just a thought then a question.. Have a good day.
Ok, I read other comments about the roof over the pergola and you had a wonderful idea of the Juliet balcony. I think that would be awesome. I love the idea of a pergola. But again, it’s your house. You do you! If that’s what you want then hey do it! 🙂
People are wild. And to feel so strongly negative about pergolas… I do not understand!
Rules were made to be broken (although I did not know pergolas had rules at all). Design is not a box. Dare to be different! Or not so different, since many of those pictures are lovely and look great.
It’s like when people say you can’t mix metals or patterns or colors… or whatever. Yes you can! You can do anything. And done right, it will look wonderful.
Signed, a
An interior architecture graduate who loves breaking the mold of “normal”.
Thank you, Erin.
I agree: there are no rules when it comes to architecture and design. Edwin Lutyens was famous for breaking rules and his buildings are normally quite glorious as a result.
In the late 19th-century a group of painters in Paris scandalized decent society by breaking the rules. Today we know them as the ‘Impressionist’ which included such now revered artists as Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, and Degas.
Me no likey the pergola. The porch drawing looks fantastic. It seems to better fit the structure. I’m also not a fan of keeping the turret door. It chops up a very nice feature. My two cents…since you asked! 😊
Not a single picture shows a pergola as attractive or functional as a front porch.
Hi Ross,
When you started in on decorating the parlor I was in doubt however, once the room was finished I was AMAZED!
Follow YOUR vision! If You Build It, They Will Come (around)
Happy New Year, David
This. This, right here.
The beginning of the parlor transformation, and the plan for it that was explained beforehand, gave me pause. But, the attention to detail on all the work prior, made me want to wait-and-see (and it was worth it). I’ll trust Ross’ vision, all day long.
I stand by my previous comment that, as a renter, I would be extremely turned off by a pergola. And maybe that’s just because I apparently hate them? I honestly didn’t have much of an opinion about them beyond “Nope, that sounds impractical and like it would look like a cheap and fast fix”, but it turns out I think that literally every single one of those examples (including the yacht club!) would look better with an actual porch (except the yacht club – I think it would best with neither). The last one before the yacht club photo looks *extremely* like a back door to me, and I think that it wouldn’t if it had a solid roofed porch.
Maybe it’s because I don’t see the point of them? They seem to me to be a pointless decorative feature that doesn’t keep the rain or the sun out – and if you’re slapping a roof on it, why not just build a real porch? And I guess I also think that the pointy bits look aggressive and unwelcoming – shades of Buffy sharpening stakes! Though I guess that it’d help keep any flying vampires at bay. 😛
Again, just my .02 and I’m sure that if you do decide to do a pergola that it’ll at least be solidly done and well built. And hopefully less pointy than some of those examples. 😉
And on a totally different note: I adore that almost half butterfly wing detail on the front of your house! It’s so unique and eye catching.
Pergolas are quite common in the mediterranean. There they are covered in vines and thus do very well in keeping the sun out. Additionally, plants create moist and thus cool the area around them – so an overgrown pergola can actually be more effective than some of the more enclosed porches.
I guess I’ll join the riot. A well done pergola could be magic here and I have no doubt it would be well done. Pergolas are whimsical, welcoming and have a cottage vibe. The funky turret is also whimsical, the front entrance should be welcoming and the Carriage House is a barn who became a cottage. I think it could come together beautifully.
One of my reservations about porches is that they DO block sunshine, and like you, I crave sunshine. A pergola provides a feeling of enclosure without blocking sunshine. I would NEVER train a vine up a pergola attached to a house, though, because vines are terribly destructive. And you might have an issue with renters planting vines to climb the pergola. Another negative for pergolas is that they do not provide any shelter from rain or snow while waiting for the door to open, but most people are already carrying an umbrella or have a hood for rain. But I think the sunshine benefit to the rooms far outweighs any negatives about pergolas. Sunshine!
That depends entirely on the design. I have a 10 foot tall pergola between my house and garage. I put 60% shade cloth across the top when you can’t see but provides just enough shade so my fuchsias don’t burn. I used Grecian columns for posts. There are only two large beams down the side and 2×6 “joists” running across with 2×2 running top top down the length again. It is light and airy but provides some protection. Not enough for the fuchsias so I put some 60% shade cloth across the top which you do not see and hardly notice, but it offers enough shade so my fuchsias do not burn in the summer heat.
Most of those photos are your stock out of the box kit sort of pergolas. But I doubt Ross is going to go that way. He is going to design his own just like I did. After seeing the parlor and the library I have no doubt the pergolas over both decks will look fabulous.
Do what pleases you Ross, it’s your house.
Recently found this web site and thought you’d be interested in checking it out. Here’s a clue, hand blocked wall paper.
AllysonMcdermott.com
Very interesting process. The company is in England.
Several of the examples you posted show a “real” porch roof over the front door, with a pergola to the side. If you had left the front door in its previous position under the turret, then I think a pergola off to the side in the nook (where the porch is now) might have been appropriate. Since that’s no longer an option, I vote for a full porch roof in the front and perhaps a pergola out back.
Yes, that’s exactly what I thought!
Maybe because I’m from Germany and we are having lots of rain for the last weeks, I would like to open and close my umbrella under a porch roof without getting wet. I think pergolas are always an open structure without roof. But maybe all this only shows my lack of imagination.
You will make it right, Ross.
Es is toll, jemanden aus Deutschland zu finden. Sei kein Fremder!
Whew, people do have some STRONG opinions. I loved the porch you sketched but I think anything you go with will be well thought out and expertly executed, so I have no doubt that the pergola, should you chose that option, will look stunning. Moreover, what I’m most puzzled by is the WILD trim on the front of your present house. Is that trim? I have never seen the like before.
I noticed that wild trim, too! It looks like what’s found on the “Cinderella” homes from the 1950s-60s, but the rest of Ross’s house looks a bit older to me.
Dear Nathan and Brian,
I installed the wild trim in the 1990s to give my house some character. It had none. Zero.
The wild trim is all over the house.
The house began as a single room. Basically a shed. Then a room was added. Then a room was moved from somewhere and added. Then the living room was built circa-1960. Then a room in back was built in the 1970s, creating the first bathroom the house ever had. Then I had a small building moved, and connected it to the house with yet another addition. Then I built a “link” so the garage in the rear could became a master spa bathroom.
In short, my house was literally built one room at a time.
Due to the wild trim the house is known as The Dr. Seuss House.
Well it certainly works! I love it. As simple as the house may be, I knew it would have your special stamp on it. And it does.
I was already pro-pergola, but those photos make me think I NEED one over my own side deck.
I tried typing 3 times on the first post. Kept wiping it back away.
Ross, I have great faith in you and your taste, professional vision and commitment to properly building and finishing a project. You have surprised and impressed in the past.
A front porch anywhere should offer protection before entry, unless it is a very mild climate. Think furling the umbrella, fumbling for keys, waiting in the snow for the resident to answer the door. Porches have purpose.
This is on the west side of the house, the side that will get the most sun except the south. In the winter, a porch will block some of the winter sun, especially with the door facing north, this is true. In the summer though, it will also provide some midday protection from the heat while the windows will still get reflected light and full late afternoon sun. If you use the east/west orientation for the top parts, this will darken in winter and be more exposed in summer, the opposite of desired, except reflection of light midwinter, perhaps.
In most of your examples, the entry area IS covered. The few that are not often have a roof line draining on the poor shlub who would be standing there. Sure there are gutters, but it still is not ideal.
Look at #4 the overexposed one, # 15, the tan stucco one with brown trim. # 17, Gray with the bright red door at least has gutters!
Most of those remind me of modern styles, but both you and Erin have the schooling to say they are of the period. I will say they always struck me as more of a set decoration or a yacht club affectation , not functional and cohesive. How that plays into Squire’s style I leave to the experts such as yourself. I’d also like to see a picture from the street or the sidewalk across, to judge how it would contrast or complement the Cross house covered area jutting out toward it.
Woo hoo hoo! BOTH, please, Mr. Ross! The porch as you originally sketched it, echoing in design what Squires would have done but roofed in glass like a conservatory to let in the light, and a free standing pergola out in front where it can function as an outdoors living room, anchoring a garden space without competing with the existing architecture.
Okay, here is my thought, now that you have 46 comments on the subject. I love the pergola idea, but I do agree with some comments that you need an area to protect against the rain and snow. I think you should do about two feet where there is a covering right in front of the door. This will allow a person to close an umbrella and get out keys, etc, the rest should be a pergola.
Doing this, you could also allow for a tiny 2 foot balcony for the room upstairs, which I think would be nice. It’s a bathroom up there, right? So somebody could put some potted, non-flowering plants on the balcony and take a bath with the door open and have it feel jungle- like. I wish I had that option for my plants! If I lived in the carriage house, that’s where my plants would go, and I’d bring them in to winter in that area because plants love the humidity of the bathroom. I do hope I’m remembering the layout correctly…
While looking at the pictures of all of these pergolas, each and every one of them has an enclosed space by the door and a pergola to the side or in front, which is why I think that it’s needed. Furthermore, I think a thin dark cast iron railing would look appropriate without being too heavy.
Or, you can close up the turret door and just have a nice window without a balcony. But you still need the two feet to cover the door.
Hi, Kat!
I’ve mentioned that I’ve given up on a deck topping the pergola idea, and that if I do a pergola I would top it with clear plastic over the entry door, and that if I keep the turret door I will place a railing inside the door frame (a balcony would look too cluttered, methinks).
Again, all this is just an idea at the moment.
Goodness!! Do it Ross! Just to prove how amazingly awesome it would look! (I do think it will look great!) Isn’t it interesting how we are all so very invested in you and this project? That’s love, even if it manifests oddly sometimes…
Hugs and love from Mississippi 🙂
I just don’t love pergolas.
I live in a city that had lots of lovely pre-20th century architecture and then was exploded accidentally during the first world war, so the southern half still has lots of lovely Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian houses while the north half has a bunch of rapidly constructed 1920s row houses built without front porches. And all over those 1920’s houses with their originally flat facades you see awkward porches built at various times over the following 100 years, because no one likes being rained on while they get their keys out.
Pergolas make sense to me in the desert or very arid places, where the only thing you regularly need to keep off your head is the sun, but outside those regions I like a lovely, well-considered porch. And I absolutely loathe a covered pergola, which just like a hat on a hat to me.