A Cedar Trellis With a Bench Built In

It started as a request for something to block the neighbor's view. It ended up as a cedar trellis with a bench built into the base.

The homeowner had just planted a row of climbing roses along the fence line. She wanted something for them to climb and something to screen the yard from the property behind. A privacy fence would have handled the screening. It would not have done much else.

Built to be used

So we designed the trellis with a bench in the base. Solid cedar, mortised into the posts, with the lattice rising above it. The bench gives you a reason to walk out and stand next to the thing, instead of admiring it from the kitchen window.

The joinery is the same as on our pavilions. Cedar or Douglas Fir, mortise and tenon, drawbored oak pegs. A smaller structure does not get a smaller standard.

Small build, same standard

A trellis, a garden arch or a timber gate does not need to be a pergola to be worth doing right. If it is going to live outside for twenty years, it deserves real joinery and not staples and a bag of screws.