Home Depot Style Challenge – Pergola

I know many of you already know this by my Instagram post the other night, but our big DIY project for the Home Depot Patio Style Challenge is a pergola.

I know that’s an incredibly dark sneak peek, but we were just sitting out enjoying our twinkle lights and warm weather and I just had to snap a picture.

Sadly, we’ll have to wait on any finished photos for now, but I promise, they’ll be worth the wait.

Instead, I thought I would talk about why we decided to build this.  I loved our patio before and it wasn’t in desperate need of this, but it’s going to be pretty cool!

I mean, go big or go home, right?

A pergola hadn’t been in the plan when I first heard that we’d be a part of this really exciting challenge.

I’ve always loved them, but was thinking on smaller terms.  I’m shocked actually.  It’s such a challenge for me to think on a small scale.  Chris is the practical one and he’s always bringing my dreamer ideas back down to earth.

But pretty quickly, I was thinking that a lovely pergola would be perfect in our backyard.

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If you’ve been around here for awhile, you know that we strongly considered doing a covered porch back here instead of a patio.

That issue sparked such debate in our household and among you guys too!  I got comments, but I also got e-mails, Facebook messages, and even voice mails from grandparents.

We ultimately decided to do an uncovered patio for the reasons mentioned in that post, but most of all, due to cost.

After renovating the whole house, there just wasn’t several thousand dollars left for an outdoor space.  Not right now, anyway.

So, we settled for a chipped granite patio that we’ve really enjoyed.

In comes the pergola.

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Obviously, it doesn’t “cover” a section of the patio, but I loved the idea of having a structure like this.  I think it gives the patio more presence.

Our pergola will be a decent size and will be over our sitting area.

Can you picture it?

It’s going to make such a difference!  And other things in this sitting area will be different too, but we’ll have to wait to talk about those.

But the biggest reason I wanted the pergola was to have the opportunity to hang things overhead.

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Namely, a chandelier.

Y’all, I am most excited about this part of the patio.  We have some exciting plans for a DIY chandelier that will hang down over the center of the sitting area.

I wish I could show you pictures.  In fact, I wish I could see it!  It still isn’t completed, but is on the list for this weekend.

I have a feeling it’s going to be awesome.