Build your own Timber Frame Garden Pavilion. Plans available for download in PDF Format.
Part 1 of 3
See the How to Video.
We wanted to build an open structure as a center piece for our garden and as a shady spot to sit, work, or socialize. I wanted it to be built in a timber frame style with simple joinery and posts on 10 by 10 centers.
Part 1 – Build the Timber Frame Pavilion
Timber Frame Style Design
Here’s the 3D model I created in Sketchup.
The peak height of the pavilion is 11’3″. The large sloping shed roof faces the south with another smaller roof on the front facing north with a clerestory type opening above. The structure is built from red cedar and fir, and topped with a metal roof.
I’ll add a rain gutter off the back to collect water for the garden. The rafters and beam ends have a quarter ellipse profile in the same fashion as the woodshed I built earlier in the summer. The head clearance is 7 feet and in the future I’ll add a wooden deck or concrete patio.
The posts will sit on galvanized metal saddles attached to an anchor bolt embedded in a 9x9 inch concrete pier. The footings are dug down below the frost line and sit on a hard clay layer.
Connecting the posts are 2x8 side girts. These extend past the front posts.
And will allow me to build a small front roof section angled opposite to the main roof.
CAD Model – Beams
Topping the posts are two 6x6 beams. A pair of 2x8 beams will support the front roof section.
14 curved corner braces will give rigidity to the frame. 2x8 rafters span the top beams with blocking added between them for lateral strength.
Over the front beams sit 2x6 rafters topped with 1x6 strapping.
On the back I have 1x8 strapping over the main roof rafters.
I’ll trim out both roofs with cedar 1x4’s before installing tar paper and metal roofing.
