Stolen!- 5 of our Early Photos that Made us Famous–
The 5 Most Stolen Photos That Made Us Famous
For three decades, we’ve been designing and building garden structures that last. Sometimes they last so well, and photograph so beautifully, that our images end up scattered across the internet, often without credit. Here are the five projects that launched thousands of unauthorized uses, each one a testament to craftsmanship that stood the test of time.
Borrowed Images are actually a Compliment!
1. P012 Pro Pergola: The One That Started It All
Built 25 years ago, this pergola is still standing strong. It was only ever stained once, as far as we know—and that single staining became the stuff of legend among our crew.
The stain was by Pratt and Lambert, and while customers loved asking about “that color,” we never used it again. Why? It took two months to dry. Two months. We ruined so many clothes building this pergola that the labor costs in destroyed work gear probably exceeded the material cost of the stain itself.
But the result? A warm, timeless finish that has aged gracefully for a quarter century. This image became our calling card. Every webmaster building deck and garden structure sites in the early 2000s seemed to “borrow” it. We’d find it on competitor sites, Pinterest boards, and design blogs from coast to coast. The pergola’s clean lines and substantial timber construction embodied what we were trying to do: build structures that looked like architecture, not backyard carpentry projects.
2. P121 Pro Pergola: “The Lath House”
This early design remains one of our most challenging builds to this day. The engineering is deceptively complex–that laminated 4×4 beam has to be built up from numerous blocks to create a solid piece that functions as a proper brace. Add in the curved benches we integrated inside, and you’ve got a project that separates the skilled craftsmen from the weekend warriors.
The Lath House is specifically designed for training vines upward, creating a living canopy over time. This was the first plan we ever shipped by mail, back around 1998. A lady in British Columbia saw our work and threw down the gauntlet: could we send her plans she could follow? We said yes. That one challenge transformed our business model forever.
This photo spread like wildfire once builders and designers discovered it. The sculptural quality of those curved benches, the interplay of light and shadow through the lath, it was architectural candy for anyone putting together a portfolio or mood board. We’d spot it everywhere, usually uncredited, occasionally with someone else’s logo slapped on top.
3. T171 Pro Trelliswork: The Reality Check
Designed for a client in Barrie about 25 years ago, this trelliswork was one of the last structures we built using our old methods–before we learned the hard lessons about proper wood preparation and ground contact protection.
This structure was fairly top-heavy. Without pressure-treated cuts and without epoxy ingredients coating the posts where they went into the ground, it only lasted 15 years in a garden with an active sprinkler system. For us, that was the wake-up call. Fifteen years sounds decent until you realize that with proper detailing, these structures should last 30, 40, even 50 years.
Despite its relatively short lifespan, the photograph became one of our most stolen images. Why? Because it looked spectacular when new.
The proportions were right, the details were crisp, and it photographed beautifully. Other builders wanted their portfolio to look like that–so they just used our photo. We’d find it on business cards, websites, even printed brochures for companies we’d never heard of.
This project taught us that looking good isn’t enough. You have to engineer for longevity. Now every post gets protected, every joint gets properly detailed, and every structure is built to outlive the original homeowner.
4. The Gariepy Deck:
When Deck Design Was Still Evolving
Built about 25 years ago, this was a commission to create a deck for a 4,000 square foot home in Aurora, Ontario–complete with large steps and a pergola integrated into the design.
Back then, decks were fairly simple affairs, mostly designed by carpenters with a nail gun and a rough sketch. Architects didn’t bother with them.
Designers certainly didn’t. But we approached decks the way you’d approach a piece of architecture. The result was something special enough that the customer commissioned us to design the pergola as well, and then came back for more projects over the years.
Integrating urn pedestals and pergolas into decks was genuinely innovative in that era. We were among the first to treat the deck not as a flat platform with railings, but as a multi-level outdoor room with architectural elements.
The images from this project spread everywhere.
I’ll never forget chatting with another builder in North York who handed me his business card–featuring two decks I had designed and built. He had no idea who I was.
The awkward silence when I pointed out they were my projects was… memorable.
5. D005 Deck: The Magazine Darling
These clients had steamrolled into building their own deck about 20 years ago with high ambitions. Then they got stuck. They’d completed the frame but couldn’t figure out how to finish it in a way that matched their vision.
We met with them, developed a comprehensive detailing package, and they asked if we could just build it for them. We did. In two to three weeks, we transformed their half-finished project into something special.
The curved double-density screen with alternating skirting and custom glass guard rails caught the attention of every major Canadian home publication. Canadian Living Magazine featured it. Canadian Home Workshop photographed it. Canadian House and Home ran spreads on it.
By 2005, we were getting 3.5 million visitors to our website annually. Much of that traffic came searching for images like this one—only to find the image everywhere else online, often with no attribution back to us.
The irony wasn’t lost on us. Our most successful projects became our most stolen photos, but in a strange way, that theft validated what we were doing. People wanted images that looked like our work because our work set the standard.
The Legacy of “Borrowed” Images
When you create something distinctive, people will appropriate it. That’s both frustrating and flattering.
These five projects—and their ubiquitous, unauthorized photos—helped establish GardenStructure.com as a leader in outdoor structure design.
Today, we’ve adapted. Our designs are more sophisticated, our engineering is more robust, and our documentation is more thorough. But these early projects? They proved that quality work speaks for itself—loudly enough that everyone wants to claim it as their own.
The structures remain standing, decades later. The photos continue circulating, mostly without credit. And we keep building, knowing that great work will always outlast the attribution issues.
After all, the pergola from 1999 is still there in Aurora. The Lath House is still training vines in British Columbia. The Barrie trelliswork lasted 15 years before we learned how to make them last 40.
That’s the real legacy—not the stolen photos, but the lasting structures they documented.
