Arched Arbor Designs
While arbors are generally rather simple designs, adding arches or other curves to the design can result in a much more complicated structure. Of course the beauty of the flowing elements can more than offset the increased difficulty and cost, which is why arched arbor designs are so common.
You see these very often over gates in fact. Another common place you might see arched arbors are in outdoor weddings, where the arbors (and flowers growing on them) are used both to create a sense of an outdoor room and as decoration at the same time.
Knowing how to create these arched arbors, and how the increased complexity will affect your costs and amount of work necessary, is important to being able to determine which style of arbor will be right for you.
Arbors Over Gates
Perhaps the most commonly seen arched arbor is the one that is built over fence gates. It’s almost a given that the white picket fences in your middle class neighborhood are going to have this type of arbor over the gate.
There is a good reason why arched arbors are used so commonly over gates. Of course it’s a beautiful design, but it’s also functional. The arch will help keep the vines and shoots from having to traverse corners, and reduces the distance they must travel to reach the top. This can be an important consideration in some cases where the vines or shoots are very delicate, or where they don’t grow for long distances.
It also will allow for more headroom with any given amount of materials used.
Simple Arched Looks for Arbors
One way to get the arched look for an arbor without having to increase the complexity of the design much is to simply build a square arbor. Then across the top of the sides of the arbor, an portion with a curved surface on the bottom can be attached.
This leaves the structure of the arbor as a very simple design that uses 90 degree angles and will be easy to build. At the same time, once the vines are growing over the arbor, it will be difficult to distinguish it from an actually arched arbor design.
The “faux” arched arbor works at creating this illusion when the arbor will be adorned by very thick foliage. However, sometimes the structure of the design is it’s own draw, and can be quite beautiful even when not masked by foliage. This can result in an arch that looks more like a triumphal arch. For instance, it can look a little bit like the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.