How to Design a Trellis on a Front Porch
You can design an attractive trellis for your front porch to support beautiful blooms that will frame your doorway. You could use a prefabricated trellis, but a quick trip to the lattice section of the hardware store will give you creative license to design your own structure. It can be a wall panel, a three-dimensional obelisk or a planter box trellis--you are limited only by your imagination. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Wood lattice
- Measuring tape
- Paper
- Pencil
- Saw
- Work gloves
- Hooks
- Hammer
- Fishing line
- Scissors
- Post hole digger (optional)
- 2 wood posts (optional)
- Cement (optional)
- Wire (optional)
- Wire cutters (optional)
- Staple gun (optional)
- Nails
- Planter box
- Potting soil
Instructions
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Hanging Trellis
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1
Choose a planter box, if you would like to use one, as the base of your trellis. Alternatively, if a section of your porch is narrow--with the wall in close proximity to the ground--you can skip the planter and lean your trellis straight from the ground to your wall.
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2
Measure your front porch and sketch out your trellis design. Try researching trellis designs online to get an idea of a look you want to mimic. You can find a link to some examples in the Resources section.
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3
Based on your measurements, purchase wooden lattice-work, either painted or unpainted, for your front porch trellis. Saw the lattice to your desired lengths if necessary.
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4
Place the lattice against the wall of your front porch about 3 inches from the wall, and tie fishing line securely at the top spaced every 6 inches. Take the ends of the fishing line and loop it tightly around hooks nailed into the wood rafters above the porch's wall and tie it off. Snip the remaining loose ends of fishing line.
Free Standing Trellis
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5
If you want to create a trellis flanked by posts as support, and without securing it to the wall or roof beams, use a post hole digger to dig two straight holes on either side of the trellis that are 1/3 the length of the wood posts you will be using. Dig the holes so they are larger at the bottom. Place the post in the hole and add rocks around the base to fill the extra space you dug at the very bottom of the hole. Pour cement into the hole. Repeat for the second post.
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6
Allow the cement to dry for 24 hours, then attach to the lattice using heavy-gauge wire spaced every few inches, looped around the edges of the lattice, secured by twisting down, and then stapling to the inside edge of the wooden post with a staple gun.
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7
Position the planter box at the base of your trellis and nail the trellis in place to secure it to the planter box. Fill the planter box with potting soil.
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1
Tips & Warnings
If your porch is made of wood, try placing the planter on a couple of wooden slats to lift it off of the porch so as to avoid wood rot.
Soak the ground with water before digging post holes to ease the process.
Research vines before purchasing one to grow on your house; some vines are extremely invasive and will take over your front porch or even work their way into your house. Avoid Boston ivy and wisteria. Jasmine, potato vine and honeysuckle are good options.
