Pergola/Arbor/Seat

Stephen Taylor
by Stephen Taylor
4 Materials
My wife is recovering from surgery and wanted a nice seat to gaze out over the harbour
The Lady of the House said that she would like a seat in the orchard to contemplate her navel! And being a good husband, with an unhealthy passion for powertools, I thought " I can do better than that"
I had a bunch of 4x4 (100mm x 100mm) poles that I bought eons ago for another project that never got done,


So using a circular saw I cut a recess at the top of 4 of them.
So I assembled 2 of the poles with some trellis using 50mm screws and dug a couple of holes with my post hole tool, I also added a horizontal upper from 40 x 100 decking to give the whole shebang some rigidity.


I then made sure it was all level and upright and concreted in with Postmix
I then cut a "bird lip" out of the upright for the seat back top runner, I was going to cut a second one lower for the bottom rail, but then thought better as it would weaken the post too much, so as I was very much "winging" this (making it up as I go along), I used the cut out "wedge instead as an infill to get my angle for the seat back.


Once both top and bottom horizontal were in I cut slats to fit for the back and attached with 50mm screws.
I used 2 pieces of trellis for the sides to get the correct position for the front poles assembly. These were attached using 75mm nails.


As I was doing this on my own ( as the wife has just had back surgery) some improvisation was called for. (Brute force and Ignorance always goes a long way in these situations!)


Once I had located one side, I could dig the second hole and square everything up.


Again all concreted in with Postmix
Then I put in 2 "fore and aft" pieces at each end to attach the seat slats using 75mm nails, then cut the seat base slats to length (1800 mm) and attached using 50mm screws.
I cut 13 x 1 metre lengths for the roof, cut off the corners and clamped together.


Then cut 2 slots as shown in each to fit (750mm apart)
I spaced out the roof slats evenly and nailed in position using 75mm nails


Just need to stain it and plant something to grow over it and I'm done


About 6 hours all told between rain storms.
Suggested materials:
  • 4 x 100mm x 100mm 2.4 m posts
  • 40 x 100 smooth decking (lots!)
  • 75 mm Galv nails
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