After our Memorial Day Weekend wedding, we visited Cape Cod for our honeymoon. We stayed in a quaint little cottage and spent our days visiting quiet little towns, taking bike rides, and strolling through the neighborhood streets. Every way we turned, we saw beautiful trellis archways that led to a garden or framed a cottage’s entranceway. This, of course, became the inspiration for another one of our summer projects.

We’re lucky enough to have a beautiful backyard with a concrete patio, rose garden, and tree that drapes over the yard perfectly to help escape from the summer heat.

But from Dan’s perspective, the view of the back of the house itself was always lacking. After admiring the trellis archways in Cape Cod, we decided that building one of our own would be the perfect way for us to add some dimension to the back of the house.

 

This called for yet another trip to our favorite store to stock up on 2x4s and lattice fencing.

We built the archway in three different pieces – the two sides and the top. The sides of the trellis were made up of the lattice fencing, framed in by the 2x4s. The top was also framed in with the 2x4s, but used 1×2 slats instead of the lattice.

Once each section was assembled, the next step was for us to paint them white. Because the wood and lattice were a bit rough, and there were a lot of nooks to get into with the lattice, this took a few layers of paint by brush, and a few more with Dan’s sprayer.

He then topped them with a layer of Thompson’s water sealer to help keep out the Buffalo elements.

And now it was time for the hard part. Installing. The idea was for each side of the archway to sit about a foot into the ground with concrete poured in to help secure it.

After digging the holes, the monstrosity had to be stood up and put into place. I’ve failed to mention until now, but because we were trying to frame the door and the light, and leave enough room for the back entrance to not be crammed, this sucker ended up 8 feet wide and 8 feet tall. That made for a not-so-easy installation when it came time to stand up the archway and moving it into place. Yes – it toppled over once. And yes – I was to blame (Dan tends to overestimate my muscles, AKA he thinks I’m a guy and can move mountains). But after surviving that brief catastrophe, we were able to get the archway up, concrete set, and into place.

The trellis archway definitely adds a lot of character to the back of the house, and will be a constant reminder of our honeymoon spent on the Cape!