Home gardeners and landscape designers love arched trellises for their sculptural silhouettes and utilitarian forms. The curved structures, which can offer support for clambering ivy, climbing roses, and flowering vines, are often used to define entries, stand as garden focal points, and direct attention and foot traffic to targeted views.
Arched trellis designs can be crafted from unstained timber, painted wood, resin lattice, twigs, branches, and an array of metals. Some act as freestanding vertical constructions or as arbor gates. Others align against walls and fences to lend distinctive shapes to a garden’s perimeter and to prop up the plants growing at their bases.
Whether it’s practical or decorative, an arched trellis should complement your home’s architecture and setting. These ideas can add beautiful structure and height to your garden, backyard, walkway, and more.
1. Divide your garden with an arched trellis.
Arched trellises provide a way to emphasize different sections of your garden. To mark the transition between areas, install one above the entrance to give a simple gate or walkway more prominence. Match the design to the surrounding fence to create a cohesive look.
2. Create a DIY trellis arch using an old window frame.
Repurpose architectural salvage to craft your own arched trellis. This wall-mounted structure was built using an old window frame with an arched transom. With the glass removed, a cedar grid fits into the opening and provides sturdy support for a large climbing vine. Securing the trellis to the wall brings the rich green foliage into beautiful contrast with the dark red brick.
3. Spotlight a view with an arched trellis.
Sightlines matter when you’re placing an arched trellis into your landscape, so consider the location carefully. This metal one was placed to direct attention to the garden’s focal point: a rustic shed crafted of stone. Equipped with a gate, the trellis also defines the garden’s border and entryway, while encouraging vibrant flowering clematis vines.
4. Repeat arched shapes throughout your landscaping.
This pair of arched garden trellises echoes the shape and details of a gate. Showcased against brick walls painted blue, the decorative trellises offer plenty of cottage style. The design combines weighty wooden posts topped in finial-style caps with broad frames and handcrafted latticework. The one-of-a-kind structure showcases classic forms.
5. Group arched trellises together.
This elegant quartet of trellises matches the formality of an English rose garden. The interconnected white arches stand out from a wall of greenery. The soft curves and colorful blooms balance the straight lines of the clipped boxwoods enclosing the border. Shaped boxwoods, which align with the bases of the wooden trellis posts, repeat the rounded contours of the arches.
6. Cover an arched trellis with roses.
A rose-covered trellis archway invites visitors to enter and admire a series of Mediterranean plantings. The curving pathway, the arch, and far-off mountain peaks form a serene composition of bowed shapes. Roses with thick canes and white blossoms play up the shape of the arched trellis.
7. Size an arch trellis to a walkway.
This substantial garden structure perfectly fits its setting. Designed to straddle the walkway at the top of the steps, the wood feature has square-lattice panels installed on both sides. The unfinished wood will weather naturally and further blend into the landscape. Meanwhile, the vines it supports will become more established with time and put forth luxuriant layers of leaves and blossoms.
8. Keep a wrought-iron trellis arch bare.
Good-looking arched trellises make a strong statement, even when they’re not covered in foliage or flowers. Drawing attention to a garden stairway, a broad wrought-iron trellis stands ready to support fledgling vines that are just starting to take hold at its base. The simple, yet striking, silhouette offers a pleasing contrast to the lushly planted surroundings.
9. Coordinate an arch trellis with your exterior color scheme.
White, black, and brown aren’t the only options for the color of an arched trellis. This one carries the turquoise color of the home’s front door out to the front walkway. Taking its cue from the grass and sky, the blue-green paint color emphasizes the arched shape (meant to stand bare of plants), which in turn makes the curved trellis a key player in the landscape design.
10. Borrow arched trellis ideas from nature.
Wild landscapes call for a rough-hewn arched trellis built from natural materials. In this garden, curly willow branches and hefty timbers form a fence that terminates in an unexpected archway. Look closely, and you’ll note that the foundation consists of trees on either side of a flagstone path. The trees’ upper branches weave together to form the arch, which supports a thriving, leafy vine. A gate hinged to one of the trees echoes the fence’s organic look.
11. Greet guests with an arched arbor trellis.
Passersby immediately know how to get from the sidewalk to this house, thanks to an arbor-like arched trellis that marks the entry. The sturdy design and lattice details suit both the home’s historic architecture and cottage-style gardens. The mini arbor is a featured element of a picket fence and colorful perennial borders. Old-fashioned roses scramble up and over the trellis to accentuate its silhouette and bring cheery pink blooms overhead.
12. Create a tunnel of arched metal trellises.
Arched trellises connected within a metal framework create a tunnel that guides visitors from one area to the next. The striking construction frames a foliage-lined gravel walkway leading to a stone-walled outdoor room. As the vines that creep across the structure continue to fill out, the arches will supply cooling shade along the garden path. Landscaping lights installed amid the plantings light the path to ensure safe passage after dark.
