Retractable awning??

Has anyone got any good experience with these? can anyone recommend? Ideally looking for sunproof as young baby to protect but want to balance functionality with beauty some of the sites I have looked at are not the prettiest awnings I don't want my garden looking like the local butchers!

 

I've just brought a load of old boat sails from ebay to make my own one of these, but not sure how much work you want to do....? mine are just going to roll out from the back of the house over my decking and attache to the fence to hold them. They will be staggered in height.....

 

Hello outdoorlivin and welcome to GC.

Well, outdoorlivin is what we do most of the year here and we do have a retractable shade across the front of the house, I think cost about €149. Only problem here is they fade in the sun the first year if you get a 'colour'. We also have two Aussie shade sails, a 5m triangular one over the car and a 3m square one over the kitchen patio in a sand colour.

As mz says, look on e-Bay .. not just for old sails that you have to make up yourself but for the shade sails ... our triangular one was bought and shipped from the UK from e-Bay at a fraction of the price then the square one was bought and shipped at normal cost ... but needs dictate and they are very, very expensive here. Both of our shade sails are by Coolaroo ... they have a 10-year guarantee in Aussie which is good enough for us here in Algarve so will do well by you.

 

If you went for a canvas look one in a natural canvas colour you could give the area a nautical feel with ship/boat related stuff dotted around your patio.

 

Thank you so much for all the ideas I have found a company Lakeland Awnings that a friend recommended that manufacture the ideal UV protection for the baby no fuss retractable awning that I'm after in natural colours http://www.lakelandawnings.co.uk/homes.php. I have also used your wonderful ideas and used an old windsurfing sail to create a fun area for the little ones sandpit! Thanks again

 

I made one about thirty years ago. It was quite easy. I bought a roll of tape and white "button pins" from a local blind maker.
I made four elongated "U shaped frames from 2" X 1" inch timber and connected the four frames at each end with three hinges.

The canopy I "recycled" from part of a green fruit fixture canopy from work, that was being thrown out. It was sort of woven plastic fabric with a waterproof coating. It was designed for outside use, but it "never saw the light of day" in it's working lifetime. It had a nicely scalloped edge. I cut it down to fit.
I secured the frame in the "open position" while I attached the cover using the plastic tape and dome headed pins to each of the "U" sections.
I fixed one "U" to the wall over the french windows. I secured two cords a third of the way in from each end to the front "U" and passed them through eyes in each of the other frames and then both through eyes on the "U" which was fixed to the wall then both down one end which enabled me to retract the blind, by just pulling on the cords. It folded up just like a baby's pram hood.

Although I say it myself, it looked OK. The only problem was that if you let it down after a rain shower any time in the past week, you had to stand well clear as a lot of water came down which had accumulated in the folds. Those more professionally made have "little canopies for the retracted canopy." But I couldn't be bothered making one of those, as I thought they looked ugly.

A few years later "we" decided to have a pergola instead, so the blind got binned.