Pergola next to bi-fold doors a good idea

[VYF]

Hi we have a open kitchen plan with bi fold doors at the back of the house, stepping out into the patio. There are some outdoor chairs and tables in the Patio which i suppose is a pretty typical setup.

We want to build a Pergola outside the bi fold doors which hopefully will help us get more use out of the area. I have included a picture, this is not my house, it is a standard advertising pic. But it is exactly the design that I am talking about/

My question, if anyone has done this, does this result in a material loss of natural light coming through from the bi-fold doors? I don't want to regret the placement once everything has been put in place.

(The entire point of the open kitchen plan is to bring in natural light).

Well it will shade it yes. You can get retractable roof pergola which might work better.

I don't have one of these but it will undoubtedly result in some loss of light - it couldn't possibly not.

Are you in the UK? I always wonder about the actual usefulness of such a thing...it's not like we have months of blazing sun and heat to shade from and does anyone really ever step out of their patio doors and go and sit under it in the rain?

To be fair I do. Am sitting under a pergola now 🤣 At 12.30. It is glorious.

Just moon watching 😊

Our back patio is south facing and unshaded, and it is unusable in the height of summer. Far too hot

When you look outside from the house at eye level what do you see? Do you just see the garden or do u see all the pergola posts which basically is a bit claustrophobic ish...

as background my house is quite small and i enjoy the bifold doors giving the feeling of space and i don't want to lose that

On the flip side i feel having a pergola will be more inviting to us in terms of using the outside space...

We have ours not outside the bifold but outside a patio door next to it which fills in a weird nook to another part of our house. It’s tricky to explain. Hopefully the pic makes a bit more sense.

I don’t think I would like it over the bifold tbh. I also like this orientation because it tracks the sun from rise to set and I can watch the tele through the window 😂

Also means access through a door rather than the whole bifold.

If your house is correct orientation and you have enough space you might be able to achieve similar by putting pergola at offset.

Basically like this. If North is the side of the pergola then won’t block any light at all.

We have exactly this kind of thing. It does make the kitchen darker yes. However, it has been amazing in the summer, making a space that we couldn't keep cool actually usable.

When it went up I did have a bit of a shit, what have we done moment but I soon got used to it being a bit less bright in our dining part. I doubt most people would notice but I know it's not as light as it used to be.

However, the fact that we can keep the house cool in the summer and that we can sit out all year definitely makes the pergola worth it. We have screens on 3 sides and with those pulled down and the fire pit table on, it can be toasty warm for an evening.

Hi I am not understanding maybe simple logic. As it stands the back of my houses faces west then where should I put the pergola?

Just to make sure. I am in the UK.

So sun rises in East and sets in West.

If you offset and put where blue is it won’t block any sun.

If you put where red is it will.

You might need to borrow a compass or look at the shadows in the garden tomorrow.

So my bifold are east facing. So when I stand outside and look at the bifold the pergola is offset to the right hand side.

So for you it would be left hand side.

Hi thanks for the advice and for spending time for the illustration. My backyard is not big enough to be that flexible on where to put the pergola. I can either have it directly outside the bifold doors or not at all.

So I have decided to go with this option. Where the fabric roof is retracted there is no shade at all. When I need it I pull out the canopy.

Not sure on the cost but if manual retract should be cheap. The motorised version is likely to be quite over priced.