Building a pergola in your yard is a major DIY project, but adds value to your home, as well as to your garden enjoyment. Adding shade and structure to the garden, a pergola differs from an arbor in that is is usually a more “room like” structure, with posts supporting a roof covering of some type. In other words, an arbor on steroids. Perfect for creating romantic walkways, adding a seating area, or making a portion of the garden a major focal point. If you can dig a post hole and handle a drill and a saw, you can build a pergola with these DIY tutorials! So start planning, an as soon as the weather allows, set aside a weekend to build a pergola for your garden! Our feature project, above and below, is Ana White’s weatherly pergola. She always has such great tutorials, with drawings, material lists and instructions.

Another of Ana’s weatherly pergolas… See, you can do this!

 

We found this nice contemporary pergola project on ‘Instructables’, lots and lots of step by step photos on this one.

 

Find out how to build a backyard pergola from ‘Popular Mechanics’… I love how this one has the decorative notches on the beams and crossbeams, and how they show you how to build one on top of a concrete surface.

 

This tutorial from ‘DIY Network’ shows how to build a pergola, and even has little videos of certain steps. Really helpful!

 

The DIY Maven from ‘Curbly’ shows you how to make a pergola with a Skilsaw… and she makes it look pretty dang simple.

 

That’s it for tutorials, but we did find a couple of inspirational pergolas to get you planning…after all, now that you’ve learned so much from these tutorials, you’re ready to wing it a bit, right? :)

From Pinterest, this is a good example of how a pergola can take a ho hum patio and make it amazing…

 

And finally, if you need a little more modern style inspiration for your pergola, here’s a couple from ‘Houzz’! Let us know in comments how your projects go!