Easy Garden Arbor

A small project that makes a big impression!

- Jeff Timm

This arch would make a beautiful portal to your yard or garden, and it’s easier to build than most. Made from just six parts, it can be built in less than a day—even if you’re a rookie carpenter. The design is versatile, too: It can support climbing plants, serve as a gateway in a fence, frame a walkway through a hedge, or stand alone as a striking wooden structure. You can stain it for a rustic look or paint it for a more formal one.

Money and materials

The total materials bill for our cedar arbor was about $250. Depending on where you live, you may have other varieties of rot-resistant lumber available, such as cypress or redwood. If you choose treated lumber, you’ll find everything you need for this project at home centers.

For tools, you’ll need only standard ones like a drill, a circular saw, and a jigsaw. Make sure your framing square is a standard model (16 x 24 in., with a longer leg that’s 2 in. wide). If yours is an oddball, buy a standard version ($10) so you can easily mark out the brackets (see Photo 2). A few days before you dig the postholes, call 811 to have underground utility lines marked.

Cut the parts

Begin by cutting notches in the tops of the posts (Photo 1). If you’re using “rough-sawn” lumber as we did, you may have to change the length and depth of these notches to suit your 2x8 headers. (The dimensions of rough-sawn lumber vary.) Set the cutting depth of your circular saw to 1-1/2 in. to make the crosscuts for the notches. Then set your saw to full depth to make the other cuts.