|
Does your front door satisfy you? Is your back door merely a way
of getting out of the kitchen to go to the trash can? Is there a starkness
about the front of your garage which a trellis filled with roses would
relieve? Perhaps the answer in all cases is a trellis and a vine. Your front
door can be made different from its neighbors, your kitchen door a
charming entrance which it is a pleasure to use each day.
. . . what style of trellis to use
Is your home modern, traditional, French provincial, of Spanish or
Mediterranean inspiration; built of brick or frame; one or two stories
in height? All of these factors will be pertinent in your planning.
If your home is modern, perhaps it could stand a little restrained
design: something slightly oriental in feeling, or perhaps just geometric
without being dull and rigid. That is the trend in the newest modern
homes today. If your house is traditional-Cape Cod or Georgian-you
can give it a lift by using a trellis which is somewhat modern, but is
restrained enough not to clash with the pure lines of the traditional
house.
Possibly you will want to follow the 18th Century precedent of using
one of the modified Chinese patterns such as were employed for
balustrades or porch railings, arbors, and fences in those early homes.
Because they were simple in design, they somehow fitted very well with
that classic inspiration from Italy which brought forth the English Palladian houses in the 18th Century from which our own colonial architecture descended. Therefore, if you feel you need a precedent, you
have an excellent one for choosing a Chinese fretwork design for your
trelh's.
If you are fencing the back garden or building a privacy fence around
your terrace, as so many of us are doing today, use a trellis as a gateway
or as a fence topper, or to tie the fence in with the house. This will add
a friendly touch and keep it from looking too coldly architectural by
softening it with living greenery all through the growing season. And
when the leaves have fallen, it will give the fence more interest during
the bleakness of winter.
If you don't find exactly the trelh's you have in mind in these pages,
look through the other sections of this book and see if you may possibly
find a design among the fences or other structures which you like. Adapt
it. Be creative and use the design you like, but make it of the weight of
material needed for your purpose and adapt its proportions as best you
can to the space your trellis must occupy.
|
