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Building your own Gazebo

Why spend money on a gazebo when you can create something with a lot more character out of old things lying around the house? Here's a good way of spending more time in the garden and of sheltering from the sun or - more likely - taking refuge from the rain! Tip: Choose a sheltered location, out of the wind.

Material

To make a canopy for the gazebo use a large bedspread or an old sail or a piece of an old marquee. Of course, if you want to make a wet weather gazebo then remember to use watertight material!

• 4 squares of material to make 'corners'. (Measurements will depend on the size of your gazebo for Byw yn yr Ardd's gazebo, squares roughly 30cm/12" were used).
• 4 strips of material (Of the same length as one of the sides of the squares of material).
• Sewing equipment
• 4 poles and 4 long pieces of cord. (Again, the measurements will depend on the shape of your gazebo).
• 4 tent pegs.
• 4 small screw hooks and 4 metal hoops.
• Decorations to suite your theme.

This is the design for Byw yn yr Ardd's gazebo:

Step 1

Take one of the squares of material and fold it in half to make a triangle shape. These squares will be used to strengthen the corners of the canopy.

Step 2

Sew a strip of material with a metal hoop at the end down the centre of the triangle. (as in the picture below) - the hoops will be used to fasten the canopy to the poles.

The finished corner should look like this:

Step 3

Using chalk, mark on the underside of the canopy the place where you want the triangle to go then pin the triangle to the canopy. Sew the triangle to the canopy.

Note: You will need to line up the point of the triangle with the corner of the canopy but the triangle should be about a foot back from the canopy's corner so that the material can fall like a skirt over the poles. (See the picture below).

Step 4

Cut the poles to the required length. Byw yn yr Ardd chose to make a gazebo with a nomadic theme so two poles had to be cut very short and two left much longer.

Tip: If you intend pushing the poles into the ground then remember to leave an extra 3" on the end.

Step 5

With a bit of brow sweat, screw the screw hooks into the top end of each pole. Tie a long piece of cord to each hook. These, like the guy ropes of a tent, will keep the gazebo from collapsing. Now push the poles into the ground.

Step 6

Connect the canopy to the poles by hooking the metal ring over the hooks in the end of the poles.

Tip: When you connect the canopy to the poles it's important to create tension immediately by pulling the cords tight and hooking them to tent pegs.

Step 7 - Decorating the gazebo

The last step is to decorate your gazebo! Now you can really go to town andyou're your personal stamp on it! A sailing theme would be fitting for a gazebo with a canopy made out of a sail while a Bedouin theme would give that feeling of exotic opulence especially if you then sip mint tea whilst lying back under your handiwork! Byw yn yr Ardd wanted something exotic so warm Moroccan colours were used. A pity we couldn't also have the warm Moroccan weather…!