If you’re looking for a way to enhance your backyard and make it more practical, spacious or visually appealing, one of the best ways to do this is by building a pavilion.
A pavilion is a small decorative building typically located in gardens and can provide shelter or facilities that can really enhance your enjoyment of your yard. Pavilions can be as simple or complex as you like, from brick and mortar buildings with heat and electricity to a small wooden structure or even a cloth gazebo.
The beauty of a pavilion is that it is extremely versatile and can fit into almost any yard, and can also be used for everything from hosting and dining to storage and working.
There are many different styles to choose from, and you can make your pavilion as striking or understated as you like according to your own taste or the overall plan for your yard space.
In this guide we’ve collated some of the best ideas for your backyard pavilion, taking inspiration from a range of sources so that you can see exactly what is possible with a pavilion, and can get a better understanding of what will work best for you and your space.
We’ve also looked at some of the key benefits a pavilion can provide so you can help convince any doubters of the merits a pavilion can bring.
What Benefits Can a Pavilion Offer?
Visual Interest
A pavilion adds a ton of visual interest to your yard, filling empty voids which are hard to fill, creating a focal point for various activities, and building up and supporting the theme or overarching aesthetic of your yard.
Protection From The Elements
Pavilions are also great for being able to enjoy your yard when the elements are conspiring against you! If you worry about getting sunburnt but still want to sit in the yard and enjoy the summer ambiance, a pavilion is an amazing way to do this, keeping you cool and relaxed even at the peak of summer.
Alternatively, they can keep you protected from rain in the spring and autumn, meaning you can still enjoy the barbeque or the hot tub even when the weather is trying to keep you indoors.
Pavilions allow you to extract maximum value and enjoyment from your yard regardless of the weather.
Space For Hosting And Entertainment
Pavilions make a great place to host, whether it’s a barbeque, dinner party, or relaxing fireside chat. While a patio or deck can offer this, a pavilion creates an even more intimate and cozy vibe for you and your guests to enjoy and can add a lot of atmosphere to your parties when used correctly.
Ideas You Can Use
Now that we have you convinced, let’s take a look at some of the best ideas for pavilions that you can use yourself!
1. Timber Framed Pavilions
A classic style of the pavilion is the timber-framed option, which offers excellent strength and durability, while also looking incredible. You can use various styles of roof with timber frames and aren’t limited to the color and style you go for, meaning you can go for an Asian-inspired look or something more traditional.
2. Contemporary Pavilions
Contemporary pavilions are often much more solid and sophisticated, typically being built of stone or concrete and being powered or even treated as more of an outhouse or annex.
These buildings do offer more utility and permanence but aren’t as open plan and this can affect your enjoyment of the pavilion and the flow of your garden space so consider placement and size very carefully.
3. Gazebo
Gazebos are often much smaller and simpler, being easier to erect and maintain, while still offering a lot of the utility and enjoyment a pavilion should offer. Gazebos are maybe a little smaller and less sturdy, but they don’t affect the natural flow of your garden as much and feel very natural and unintrusive, blending more naturally in gardens with a lot of plant life and landscaping.
4. Ramadas
Ramadas are a sort of larger, squared-off Gazebo that provides a lot of the same benefits of the Gazebo in terms of flow and natural appearance, but provide a larger and more solid structure that can be enjoyed by more people and allow more space for things like a fire pit or entertaining space, as well as hot tubs and furniture.
5. Simple Textile Gazebo
Textile gazebos are even easier to erect than standard wooden gazebos, but they are very flimsy and are ideally only used in the summer when they are used to create areas of shade for relaxing.
Textile gazebos won’t last long if left outside all year round and can be damaged by wet weather and wind, so take care to make sure you attend to your gazebo and bring the textile inside when you need to.
6. Asian Inspired Pavilions
If you’re a fan of Japanese gardens and the incredibly neat yet flowing energy these spaces provide, an Asian-style pavilion can add a ton of atmosphere to your space and amplify your overall theme massively while still offering the great benefits of a pavilion we mentioned earlier.
7. Fire Pit Pavilion
A common feature of most pavilion spaces is fire pits, which make for excellent entertaining spaces and focal points where you can focus energy and keep warm into the late summer nights when temperatures start to drop but the party isn’t quite over.
8. Cottage Style Pavilion
For smaller or cozier gardens, a cottage-style pavilion that is surrounded by lush plant life can create an otherworldly escape for you to read, sip warm drinks, and be transported away to a more tranquil setting.
9. Circular Pavilions
Most pavilions take on a square profile, but if you have the space to accommodate it, a circular pavilion can be much more social or fill awkward spaces while looking very aesthetically pleasing. A circular pavilion often looks more natural and blends in better than a square pavilion also.
10. Open Concept Pavilions
Finally, if you want something that offers the most flow to your garden, an open concept pavilion can offer this by creating the least amount of obstruction to your plant life and other features in your yard.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, a pavilion is an incredibly powerful and versatile addition to any garden space and can fulfill multiple roles, blending in or standing out as required.
While good execution is difficult and planning is key to ensuring your pavilion offers the best impact on your garden, the rewards are well worth the effort and these excellent features can add value to your property as well as to your quality of life in general.
