The Benefits of Drawing Your Own Pergola Plans

Why should you draw your own pergola plans?

Well, first of all, it’s really easy. I know, you don’t believe me, but I promise you it is true.

Just about any free drawing program will create the illustration pictured.

If you follow the steps outlined in this article, then you know how easy it is to come up with dimensions to drop into this layout.

The layout is your foundation – now just fill in the dimensions and roof line

The ledger board will be 10 ft long. The distance from the house wall to the posts is 8 ft. All this drawing needs are the roof pieces to be filled in, but as you’ve already learned, the harder part is already completed because you have your foundation – your post locations and dimensions – already figured out.

You know what you want your overhang to be – usually that’s 6-12 inches all around. You know the height of your ledger board will be 9 ft up. I think you are pretty much done with your pergola plan!

This is YOUR personalized pergola plan

How fabulous is that? Whether you took the free one we gave you which you can use as is, or if use our tips to adapt them to your own, or if you draw them from scratch, they will be just for you specifically.

You know you will love it because it will be a pergola design created by you, for you and your yard.

Submit your pergola plan to apply for permits and HOA approval

This is perhaps the BEST part of drawing your own blueprints. You can use them to submit to any local agency that may need to approve what you want to build.

With some really basic picture editing software, you can even take a photo of the site, draw an outline of the pergola over it and provide a real life look at what you plan to do. It is much faster and easier to get approval when you submit as much information as possible.

So have fun with it! There are many easy to use drawing and picture editing programs you can find for free.

Of course, if you are really good with a ruler and graph paper, there is always the good old fashioned free hand route.

(I couldn’t do that because I can’t even draw a stick figure properly!)

Get a Free Pergola Plan and Take Our E-Course

Join 500 homeowners and receive our lesson plan on preparing to build your own pergola. Please sign up with your email on the banner above or in the box below and take our survey.

Your responses help us to build our site. In return, you will receive a free pergola plan and also be enrolled to receive a 3 week Pergola Building e-Course that will teach you everything to get you started on your own DIY pergola project.

If you’ve decided that you really want to add a pergola to your property, then your next step is to check out our Guide to Building a Pergola in One Weekend.