Louisville Kentucky is an amalgam of Midwestern sensibility and Southern charm. In Louisville, bourbon is considered a food group and the annual pinnacle social event, the Kentucky Derby, sees residents decked out with a flourish of over-the-top fashion. So, it is no wonder that residents embrace this combination of sensibility and extravagances when entertaining at home as well. This was the case with one local residence that sought to create a true year-round entertainment space in their backyard. Building out an exterior courtyard with a grill station, fire feature, dining space under a motorized adjustable louvered pergola, and a manicured putting green, this Louisville home rivals any entertainment destination in the city.
- 📍 Louisville, KY
- 🏡 Type: Residential – Motorized Louvered Roof Pergola in Kentucky for Outdoor Entertainment Space
- 📅 Date: April 2023
- 👷 Installed by Stickler Construction – LouveredOutdoor.com
Product Choice
- Product: R-BLADE™ motorized louvered roof pergola
- Size: 750 sq. ft.
- Options: Patio fans, embedded LED lighting, structural gutter
- Color: Bronze columns and roof frames with white louvered roof
- Benefits: All weather shaded outdoor entertainment space
Project Overview: Louisville, KY
Louisville enjoys the full breadth of all four seasons with plenty of rain in the spring, hot humid summer afternoons, and snow flurries during the winter. When these homeowners wanted to create an all-weather, all-season outdoor entertainment space, they called upon Azenco’s pergola installers in Kentucky, Stickler Construction. Working with the design team, they envisioned an outdoor living space appointed with features for every season. A fire pit feature offered an evening gathering place and radiant heat for the chilly winter months. A grill station offered space for Louisville’s famed barbecue to come to life at home. The patio flooring was a combination of synthetic grass and bright white stone pavers, and a two-hole putting green allowed the residents a chance to hone their short game from the comforts of the backyard. To ensure the outdoor sitting area was accessible all year round, the Stickler team leveraged an Azenco R-BLADE™ adjustable louvered roof pergola for a truly custom pergola design that created shade as well as protection from the rain and snow.
Design Challenges For a Pergola in Kentucky
Crafting this unique outdoor entertainment space in a courtyard formed between the home and an out building presented a few interesting design challenges for the team. The designers showcased the amazing flexibility of the R-BLADE™ system to seamlessly fit the innovative pergola into this one-of-a-kind backyard.
1. Courtyard & home’s Dining Room Connection
With a pass-through bar connecting the courtyard to the home’s dining room, the homeowners wanted to be able to sit in the adjoining dining room and maintain views into the backyard unobstructed by the new pergola. So, the team integrated pergola risers to elevate the pergola height. The R-BLADE™ frame was anchored to the home above the pass-through bar window, and the opposite end of the pergola was affixed to the out-build atop the risers. This layout also eliminated the need for traditional support columns for the pergola span, helping to maintain the uninterrupted sightlines around the patio.
Mounting the pergola in this manner delivered on the customers’ needs but also created a new unique pergola design challenge. The outbuilding featured a standard rain gutter system along the interior roofline where the pergola would need to be anchored. To make sure this connection was sturdy, the team engineered a structural gutter for the building to which the risers on the pergola could mount. With the structural gutter in place, the R-BLADE’s hidden internal gutter system could capture every drop of rain and snow melt, and ship that run off to the structural gutter system to be deposited away from the entertainment area.
2. Extra Ventilation
Leveraging the R-BLADE’s natural bioclimatic architecture, the patio would enjoy a nice breeze as air flowed through the open pergola louvers. At the touch of a button, the homeowners could angle the pergola louvers to create shade while maintaining that airflow, or close the louvers completely to seal out rain and snow for year-round entertaining. For the hottest summer days, to effectively cool the patio, the Kentucky team ingeniously integrated patio fans beneath the louvered roof of the pergola. This astute design ensures optimal ventilation and provides the ideal ambiance for relaxation and comfort. To light the new entertainment space after hours, the pergola frame featured flush-mounted LED lights with ramp controls to set the perfect mood for an evening of Kentucky bourbon sipping with friends.
Color Selection For A Pergola In Kentucky
A quintessential representation of Louisville’s combination of Midwestern sensibility and Southern flair, this home combined the extravagant entertainment features with a subtle exterior color scheme of white clapboard and black accenting trim. Rather than choosing a perfectly matching black and white pergola for this outdoor space, the design team opted to bring a bit of color variety to the pergola roof by coating the frame and risers in bronze gray and the louvers in pure white. The unique colorway ensured the new pergola seamlessly fit with the home’s exterior and appeared to be an original part of the architecture.
Working expeditiously, the Azenco manufacturing team was able to fabricate and deliver this R-BLADE™ with its custom risers in just three weeks allowing the Louisville, KY installation crew to complete assembly in just three days on-site.
- Fabrication: 1 week
- Three days on-site installation
If you are looking to bring the utmost year-round flexibility to your home’s outdoor entertainment space, please contact us to learn more about our innovative outdoor structures and be connected with our Kentucky local expert dealer at 305 306-3204.
