PURPLE LEAF 11' X 13' Outdoor Pergola with Retractable Canopy Aluminum Shelter for Porch Garden Beach Sun Shade Grape Trellis Pavilion Grill Gazebo Modern Backyard Deck Metal Patio Pergola Beige

I am beyond impressed with this product - from the design, to the assembly process, to the customer service! Here are the key points:- It looks great! It's lightweight, but sturdy, with a wonderful finish on the aluminum and great quality canvas on the shade. Also, I was so happy to see that they don't use stickers that leave a residue on the product when you peel them off! BONUS POINTS!- It goes together easily! My husband and I were able to assemble it in less than 2 hours! Now, that being said, I'm one of those weirdos that enjoys assembling furniture in the dim light, with a glass of wine and some calming instrumentals on a Saturday night. It brings me calm when most people would be cursing everyone that thinks that Ikea is something other than a torture superstore.- The customer service was great! As said in a few other reviews - I received an incorrect piece, contacted the seller, and had a new one at my door before the week was through. They were prompt, helpful and communicative.- The only challenge we had during the whole process was getting the seal on the upright posts onto both the upper and lower sections in order to screw the support in. Not a huge deal though - just took a little more patience and elbow grease (luckily we had a fresh can ready). Honestly, I'm glad the seal fits that tightly! Just be prepared for a little annoyance and fingertip pain when you get to that part.THE BEST ADVICE I CAN GIVE YOU FOR ASSEMBLY: Don't tighten the screws on each step until all of them are in. I had no issues getting them aligned, didn't have to route out any holes to make them fit, I just got them all in place before I cranked down on the wrench. The parts are very well engineered, labeled consistently and come with very clear instructions.TL;DR: If you are looking for a pergola, this one is great quality at a great price.

Purpose:We purchased this relatively lightweight pergola to provide summer shade along a vacation riverfront. We read many reviews of many products and chose Purple Leaf based on size, color and performance. This is not a heavy-weight super-industrial item - which was our choice - thus the moderate price.For now it is just sitting on grass, so we put in stakes, and then created bases out of log rounds. The rounds will protect the base from the lawn mower as well as stabilize it windy conditions. Wind can be steady along the river, so we retract the canopy when we are not using it. So far the pergola has held steady and provides much needed shade. We intend to remove the canopy for the winter, which will require removing some screws and poles, and will probably take 20-30 minutes; well worth the time from our perspective.Customer Service:FedEx left the box at our home, and it was clear that the box had been torn and re-taped during shipping, and some of the products had slipped out and were bent and/or scraped. We contacted Purple Leaf and they responded within a couple of hours. We told them what was broken and missing, sent a few photos, and they shipped the items IMMEDIATELY. We continued to have some shipping challenges with broken boxes (FedEx, come on, you are better than this), and Purple Leaf stuck with us, staying in contact, & tracking packages.The Pergola Assembly:For the price, this is kind of an amazingly engineered item as the only tools are allen wrenches (two different sizes). It took two of us to put the pergola together. We each read the instructions all the way through, checked every single part, and then organized all the items before doing any assembly. The instructions are all pictures, no text, so you do have to look carefully and pay attention. Only once did we miss a step but we only had to take out a few screws and re-do it. We needed two ladders to actually get the pieces upright and attached, so having more people could help at that step, but really you only need two people to do the assembly. We discovered one defect: one of the screw holes in one piece was too large for the screw. We worked around it and all is fine. We spread out the assembly over two days, first just putting all the posts and beams together, and then connecting everything the second day. We added solar bistro lights (with zip ties), and the pergola looks fabulous at night in our rustic little place.

The 11x13 pergola is exactly what we needed for our deck. It was easy to assemble (definitely a 2 person build after basic assembly is complete), and took a few hours to complete. The quality of the assembled pergola is very good and looks great.After it was assembled, my only real concern occurred. The pull back canopy only pops into a friction holder. If you have zero wind this is fine, but we have a breezy (not gusty or steady wind, just a light breeze that is steady) area and the wind caused the canopy to pull out of the friction holder quite easily. And because of this, the canopy tried to close all the way, but the wind caused the canopy to be cockeyed and this caused a roller to break and the first poll came apart. This leads to my second positive point.I contacted customer service about ordering a new roller and they instantly offered to send a free replacement. I received the new roller in a couple days and have since replaced it in the pergola.The pergola looks great and is holding together great.One concern is when the canopy is closed. There is nothing that holds it in place, so the wind causes it to slide back and forth unless secured (we have a bungee around it currently to keep it in place).