100 of Our Best Trellis Ideas and Garden Arbors Tips

Proudly made in the USA, we have built thousands of trellis and arbor ShadeScape® kits. Here are over 100 arbor and trellis design tips and ideas to make a yard beautiful. From simple to complex, it may just spark some ingenious ideas of your own.

An arbor or trellis can give sophisticated style and shade just where it is needed at the times you would most likely be barbecuing. Other arbor and trellis alfresco environment ideas could be a cocktail counter, snack bar, or cozy dining area.

Hosting movie nights outside is a lot of fun. We build lots of outdoor theater settings with cabanas, pavilions, gazebos, and pergolas. An arbor or trellis can be just as equipped to fashion your own personalized outdoor movie theater.

The garden is the perfect canvas for trellises to paint in interest, and add richness while giving wind protection. Garden trellises are timeless — even a small square trellis delightfully enhances a humble garden. A garden trellis is also a problem-solver. It hides an adjacent building or unattractive view — is a foundation for vines and vertical gardening.

Cradles, rockers, and swings — we have loved them since we were a child and we never grow out of love for swings. Adding an aesthetically pleasing swing to a backyard is more than ornamental; it has sensory therapeutic benefits turning a garden into a more healing landscape. The right swing can provide years of relaxation with the warmth and beauty of wood bringing a calming outlook. Best of all, these sturdy timber frame arbor and trellis kits can hold are built to last!

People are enamored with tall things, spaces with height, stature, and elevation. It is why people travel the globe just to stand in awe of towering monuments, naturally formed or man-made by aspirant geniuses. In an outdoor room, where the ceiling is the sky, an arbor sets vertical lines in horizontal surroundings. It gives a place for the eyes to go upwards for a stronger presence — a sense of grandeur.

Increase the entice with an illuminating glow with color-changing lights. It has long been understood by architects and artists that color not only generates a certain atmosphere but also affects emotions and mood. Green and blue are calming and reduce stress. Yellow is a happy color and red increases energy. Whatever colors bring you delight will create a happier ambiance with your firelight.

We have had clients cover their entire pool with ShadeScape® shelters.  An arbor can give a lot of comfort taking very little space.

Top a fence, fencing, concrete posts, wall, or other existing responsible architectural structures with a trellis or arbor.

In the many years of designing and fabricating outdoor living environments, we have found that when most people want an arbor they are often looking for an aesthetically pleasing accent to the larger outdoor living shelters. And, it makes perfect sense. Used with a cabana, pavilion, pergola, or gazebo — arbors do draw the eyes to include more of the surrounding landscape for a larger composition.

An outdoor living room built with trellises  —open walls, and a clear view of the sky— beautifully customized and dividing the space for a set use. You don't have to cover all sides to gain the feel of an enclosed section designed for a specific purpose.  Trellis on as many or as few sides as desired.

Trellises used in conjunction with a cabana, pavilion, pergola, or gazebo draw the eyes to include more of the surrounding landscape for a larger composition.

Wood, flagstone, concrete pavers, grass or the natural earth — there are dozens of inspiring ideas and designs for creating a gorgeous garden pathway. Creating a portal with an arbor gives a sense of order. Garden and landscape portals are timeless — a nostalgic, reminiscence of our Old English and Early American heritage — and a first-class modern architectural showpiece.

This arbor plan has NO POSTS at all. Now, this is thinking outside the ordinary model of an arbor!

Walkways, pathways, entryways — they all lead to someplace else. But what about the journey itself? That is all part of the adventure. The dynamics dimensions and style of an arbor or trellis cover can completely change the dynamics of a landscape. Lights are always beneficial to a walkway, pathway, or entryway for protection, and charming ambiance but only at night.

To bring a sense of curiosity, discovery, and learning to a landscape — if the designated space is large enough — is to bring in some curves or detours to your shelter.

The width of a gateway is governed in part by its use and available space. Depending upon the overall layout — in general — a wider gate will have a more affluent appeal. If you are looking to give your gate formal flair, widen the opening.

The above Theme Park massive gate plan has an extra-tall wicket door on either side of the double gate. A wicket gate is a pedestrian door built within a wall, fence, or door as seen on the right ShadeScape® Theme Park Gate Plan. Wicket doors can be a door within a door such as a doggy door or a pedestrian door built into an extra-wide gate or wall. In this way, a wicket door can give the formality of an expanded opening and include the benefits of a narrower alternative door or passageway.

Typically, on smaller structures such as arbors, a swing gate is sufficient as it will not swing out that far. The only time you will see a slide or rolling gate on an arbor would be if it was integrated with a fence or wall and there was some advantage — such as a tight space — for the gate to slide parallel to the fence line. For larger areas, slide gates are often easier to open and close. If it involves an extra expansive opening, the gate could be geared with a remote control — for an automated back-and-forth slide.

Gates set within a trellis wall such as seen in this ShadeScape® DIY trellis plan are a fine example of when a rolling gate is a plus. Installing latticed screens on the trellis will still allow the light to get in while giving additional privacy.

Of the thousands of ideas, you don't see exactly what you are looking for, that is the beauty of a ShadeScape® shelter. You can discuss your ideas and how you envision your wedding arbor to be with a Design Manager. Our Design Managers know the industry and with your suggestions and support, they can pull your project together.

For those of us —who often feel the need to change the living room furniture around, desiring constant environment makeovers, an outdoor structure such as a timber frame pergola, pavilion, arbor, gazebo or swing can be an exciting foundation for celebrating life and splashing new rainbows of color and textures of change very easily. The timber frame is great for attaching decorations for special occasions, events, and holidays.

Hang a punching bag. Paint a hopscotch pad. Encourage mind and body exercise.

Interacting not only instills a sense of care and value throughout the property as a whole but it strengthens our vital connection to the earth and childlike love for the outdoors.

Shade shelters do offer shade and protection. They also offer an upper deck on the roof. Trellises can be heightened and arbors can be utilized to the top for all sorts of dual purposes. Here is a pergola project that is a ground covering for poolside shade, a diving platform, and a waterfall —all combined in one ShadeScape® pergola kit.

If you decide to build an outdoor theater for movies or a puppet stage, plan where you want your trellis or arbor to suit your movie viewing without the glare. The sun is the brightest of all lights, a light from the house can be turned off but not the streetlights.

Walls, hanging curtains, permanent or non-permanent folding walls, and lattices can all block light. T.V. door covers protect the television and can be designed to block light.

Wide-open space can dilute the impact of an event's decorations. Adding shade and a focal point, an arbor or trellis gives the perfect walls, and place to attach and display decorations for events, celebrations, and holidays.