Patio Awnings-The Many Benefits Of Patio Awnings For Your Home
This piece looks at the key considerations in choosing the best patio awning for your home.
The word patio has Spanish roots, and it means backyard. A more accurate translation would be 'back garden', but in either case, the meaning is clear enough. It's an extension of the house, towards the back, and it serves as a sheltered boundary between the house and the outdoors.
You could either have a full blown roof to the patio, or the roof of the house itself could have an extension over the area of the patio, but nowadays, more and more people are choosing to have a patio awning instead. An awning for the patio is meant to be some sort of a cover, to protect against the weather, to provide some shade from the sun, or to just serve as a covering for what might become the favourite place of the house for people to gather.
Patio awnings are usually bright and colourful, because patios themselves are usually an informal part of the house. White, interspersed with some bright offsetting colour, such as a cheerful blue or green, can make the backyard of your house seem that much more cheerful. Choose a colour that goes along with the rest of your house, of course; you do not want your patio awning sticking out like a sore thumb. Some plants under the patio awning can also make a wonderful addition to the look and feel of the patio - do think about choosing some for your patio.
Patio awnings can either be permanent structures, or can be retractable, collapsible contraptions. There are arguments in favour of either option - while permanent structures have relatively lesser costs in terms of maintenance, collapsible patio awnings are relatively more flexible - for instance, one can keep them out of sight during spring or summer. Whichever option you go in for, make sure that you use material and workmanship that does not affect the quality and the durability of the patio awning.
Patio awnings are quite useful things to have. Besides providing shelter from the weather, they also provide a measure of protection from dust and leaves from the garden falling on to the patio. They also protect the young ones from the harmful effects of the sun, including ultraviolet rays. Of course, given that they are awnings, one shouldn't expect complete, full-blown protection from the weather, but that is the case with almost all awnings.
All said and done, a well-constructed patio awning can provide the perfect touch to that thoughtfully designed patio, leading to hours of family fun under one roof... or rather, awning.