Garden Pergola

The brief: Design a garden pergola as part of a large garden  in Surrey.

We were approached by Jennifer Gayler Garden Design to design a garden pergola as part of a large garden she was working on in Surrey.

After a meeting with her at the garden to discuss her vision of the space and how the pergola would fit in with this we submitted estimates for a fairly basic structure and a more detailed forged structure to give the client an idea of what options were available.

This was followed by a meeting with the client and the designer to discuss the design options in more detail. We showed the difference in construction methods and detailing and the paint finishes available and the final design was built up with input from all parties under our guidance. The unusual centre detailing started as a digression over coffee about the customer’s favourite cigar until I mentioned it was entirely feasible to incorporate it in the design.

We submitted a detailed design drawing and on receipt of the order we conducted a full site survey to create the detailed specifications. Due to the texture of the old wall behind the pergola the width of the arches fixing into it was varied to ensure the legs into the patio lined up.

The main arches are tapered into the centre feature and the forged texture and punched rather than drilled holes add extra interest. The whole structure is assembled with small pins through the horizontal bars to keep the lines as clean as possible.

The completed work was blasted, zinc treated, painted and assembled on site. The detailing on the cigar is in paint and gold leaf.