They are the house design equivalent of a 55 year old man's new red Corvette convertible . Flashy. Inappropriate. And an attempt to attract attention by overcompensating for something irredeemably lacking in another area. In this case, putting that thing on a snout garage doesn't disguise or make the snout garage any less snouty. Just like the Vette doesn't disguise the receding hairline and wrinkles. Either fix the actual design problem or stay away from the overcompensating overwrought fluffery that does nothing to disguise the actual design issue.

Yes. "Match" is determined by the architecture of your existing house and its various elements. "Matching" includes both the style of pergola (yes, there are many, many styles of pergolas) as well as finishing (painting or staining).

Want to post a photo of your house, or something similar, so we can better respond?

If you look carefully at the photo above, the "matching" isn't to shutters or (presumably) front door. The style of the pergola is more historical (or traditional--I shutter at the word!), and the finish matches the finish of the trim.

I like garage pergolas and -- if I had one -- would plant a climbing rose on it.

I do not like that garage in the example, but that wasn't the question.

The first photo is most similar to the style of my house, except my garage is front loading. The second photo is a good example to show how much space my house has between the top of the garage doors and the window at the top. It's a big, blank space that I think would benefit from having a pergola added. If the second house was mine, I'd probably not have snugged the pergola down so close to the garage doors, but would have allotted another foot or 18" between the two. Hope this helps in order to give opinions on what the pergola finish should match and what style of pergola I should choose. Thanks!

Second house showing space between garage doors and window that's similar to mine:

jewelisfabulous's ideas · More Info

The dark pergola is not very appealing in my opinion. And the proportions of the entire garage area are rather odd...

Take the money you would spend on a pergola for the exterior of the garage and put into a new car for the inside of the garage.

*Take the money you would spend on a pergola for the exterior of the garage and put into a new car for the inside of the garage.*

I have higher goals than having a $3500 car... LOL!

Jewelisfabulous, I love pergolas over garage doors. Hope to add one to our house eventually. I love the white one in your original post. Good luck!

Jewelisfabulous - we too, will have a large blank area above the garage because we have 10' ceilings and the garage floor is 1 foot lower than the house finish floor, so 11' to the top plate and another 6 feet or so to the top of the gable equals a big blank space. Also, it's only a single car garage, so tall and skinny. The pergola will look nice and match the trim of the rest of the house. My husband, the contractor, is going to build it, so it will not cost too much - just lots of elbow grease! He's also in his late 50's and I think he would look hot in a red corvette ;-)

We have a pergola over our garage doors, but...

It's in the back, over a basement garage

It is built out of pressure treated wood and have posts rather than brackets, do are very simple.

There is wisteria growing on it.

We did this 32 yrs ago when we added a full dormer to the back roof of the house. This made the house 3 stories tall in the driveway, the lowest part of the sloping back yard. This keeps things a bit more even and softens that big, tall area.

The only downside is that the wisteria grows like kudzu and would go up over the roof it it were not trimmed multiple times during the growing season. Fortunately, leaning our ospf the guest room window allows one to cut it back, and it can then be pulled down and the rest shaped, using a stepladder in the driveway. Also, it has had about five cluster blooms in the 30 yrs it's been planted!

I think pergolas anywhere are a good idea. They are interesting, create wonderful shadows, provide opportunities to integrate architecture and landscape, and are often simply wonderful "gentle-ing" devices for unthinking architecture.

I also like Mark's idea: "Take the money you would spend on a pergola for the exterior of the garage and put into a new car for the inside of the garage."

Here's the way it's done in Texas:

I tend to be of the "less is more" camp when it comes to exterior decorations and would only consider a pergola if it had a purpose.......like to support some sort of climbing plant.

I'm not a fan of the pergolas but we did add an eyebrow roof above our garage and I love it. We matched its slope/pitch to that of the dormers above it, and plan to cover it with the same standing seam metal roofing that we're using on other parts of the roof for accents (porches, roof returns, etc). It hangs out 2' over the garage doors.

Such interesting comments about pergolas and the like. I'd be the first to say that "decoration for decoration's sake" is not what strong architecture is about. And, certainly, if one is considering a pergola, arbor, trellis, or the like, it should be in character with and complementary to the architecture of the house, whether modern, transitional, historic or whatever.

What are some values of pergolas and similar devices? Well...here's some: 1) They help link and transition the architecture and the landscape; 2) They may be excellent for appropriate plant materials; 3) They can define an outdoor area or space and make it a "place"; 4) They may create interesting and constantly changing shade patterns, i.e., a "light sculpture"; 5) They can provide shading from the hot sun; 6) Integrated with outdoor lighting, they may create an outdoor room for evening use.

But, at the end of the day, as others here have said, you either like 'em or you don't.

Here's some photos which illustrate some of the design options for pergolas:

Those definitely are all beautiful in their way, but none would work above a garage.... :)

Jewelisfabulous, you are right--none of these freestanding pergolas would work above a garage door. The wall mounted pergola (last photo) could certainly work couldn't it? And do you see how elements from all of the pergolas could be wall mounted above a garage door?

Seems to me, such a design device could be especially helpful if the gable end of a garage was where the garage doors were located. It would help reduce the visual bulk and scale of such a potentially large wall. Do you agree?

For example, if a wall mounted pergola is designed to be consistent and harmonious with the house architecture, it's possible to for the addition of the pergola to be an asset:

"Seems to me, such a design device could be especially helpful if the
gable end of a garage was where the garage doors were located. It would
help reduce the visual bulk and scale of such a potentially large wall.
Do you agree?"

Yep! I considered one for our shop for that reason, but it really didn't fit in terms of style. I drive past a beautiful home w/ a white garage pergola, similar in style to the first garage pergola Virgil posted, and it looks perfect. It complements the home and adds character to dress up the garage side.

If it's a side loader, I wouldn't bother unless you have a corner lot. :)