This is a change of pace update on the historical home in Bronxville, NY that I’ve been working on for the last two years. My wonderful client S, keeps having more and more projects for us to work on.
A few months ago S told me that she wanted to redo the pergola off of her dining room.
“Please find me something different from what I currently have, Laurel. It’s horrible. It wasn’t done right.”
Okay, no problem. I didn’t mind what she had, but on closer inspection, it was quite flimsy. In addition, it was rotting and falling apart even though only a few years old. Here are a couple of images, so that you can see what I mean.
Always up for a challenge, I went on my quest for the ideal pergola for this historical home in Bronxville.
I did searches for pergolas and mostly came up with pretty much what she already had.
Then I found these designs which held some promise.
This one is charming but probably more because of the garden it’s with. And it’s not really right for us.
I Liked the frieze idea with the quatrefoil cut-outs. Posts way too Victorian. Perhaps we could adapt it?
The lattice is very petty however, that wouldn’t hold up with the brutal winters we sometimes get in the northeast. No can do.
S and I met with our contractor, Stuart Newsome. At this point, I said that I would explore the frieze idea, but when I started looking for designs, didn’t come up with anything that inspired me.
However, in my research, I stumbled upon an idea I thought would be perfect. I sent it to S and she loved it.
We called another meeting with Stuart who also loved the idea. We are adapting Garden Structure’s design since ours is going to be attached to a parapet wall on one side and the house on the other. Therefore, the arches will only be on the exterior side.
Stuart created one of the pergola posts for us to approve.
We went back and forth whether it should be a double post or a single post. We don’t want it to look too craftsmen, but we do need it to be substantial enough to hold up the pergola roof. And we need it to be grand enough as befitting this historical home in Bronxville. We ended up deciding that the double post was a better idea but that it needed to be less chunky than in our inspiration pergola image.
Here is Carlos, Stuart’s assistant holding up one post for approval on the parapet wall.
We approved it wholeheartedly! Stuart got the proportions right and it’s going to look awesome with the arched piece going across in three segments. All of this is being hand-crafted by Stuart Newsome and his team.
Part of the post is wood, but the parts that will get the most wear and tear are in PVC. [the white bases] When it’s all painted white, the entire post will appear to be made of wood. We will not have the buttress effect you see in the photo as we won’t have the corresponding arches on the house side due to the French doors going into the dining room.
Dining Room in a Historical Home Bronxville, New York
This is going to be a lovely addition outside the dining room for relaxing or having a bite to eat on a warm summer day.
Well, next summer! :]
Please have a beautiful and refreshing weekend!
xo,
