Here is a 500 square-foot patio arbor that has a classic clean look. It
has a two-tier canopy of all brilliant-white PVC plastic tubing.
And
because of the long straight lines of the beams and the plastic canopy lath,
this structure looks like it would be quite straight-forward to build -- But
it is deceptively much more difficult than it appears -- not a project for
amateurs.
The lower canopy tiers are made of 3x3 hollow square tubing with
diamond-shaped exterior end-caps. The broader top tier is made of robust 2x4
hollow tubing with flush interior end-caps.
The superstructure is made from 4x12 tandem beams on 6x6 posts. The
bridge-beams are made from 6x10's. All timbers are resawn top-grade #1
Douglas fir, painted 3 times.
The tandem beams are mounted to the posts with
double foot-long 5/8 inch recessed bolts. All 11 posts are anchored by hefty
brackets set in concrete. The bridge-beams are held to the posts with 6x10
hefty joist-hangar brackets. Yet not a single bracket or bolt is visible
anywhere. That's a key factor in achieving the "clean" look
The rear screen is 3D plastic PVC privacy lattice set into a suspended
wooden designer-frame.
The
interior was made interesting by cutting arches into all of the lower and
mid-level tandem-beams and the front bridge-beam.
The central canopy underside was made to appear vast (actually a 14 ft
span) by truncating the lower tier canopies just inside the innermost tandem
beams between the front and rear bridge-beams.
The next photo was taken later when the sun was touching only the top of
the canopy. See how the reflectivity of the glossy white plastic lath and
the brilliant-white semi-gloss painted beam surfaces under-light the
canopies and accent with under-shadow the straightness of the top-most
tandem-beams.
At
first glance this structure appears to be one of those common
stack-of-sticks arbors. But it makes
one pause and take a much longer look just to fathom all the little design
features. For weeks after we built this arbor, visible from the approaching
direction on the main street running alongside the right fence, the owners
saw many cars making a U-turn and people getting out to gaze and gander. It
could only be these numerous small details that all added up to make it a real
traffic-stopper.
