Patio Cover Thing-ys

The unseasonably warm weather here in the foothills has had me itching to start spring planting. Unfortunately, the chores that go with winter gardening still needed to be done. Beyond the normal rose pruning, dead heading and raking, we had to clean up the overgrowth (total understatement) of jasmine that had consumed the back fence. This was backbreaking and exhausting, but it's done and it's as if we have a new yard entirely. So now my design juices are all revved up and I'm planning the spring makeover for our back yard and patio.

Summers here regularly have about a month's worth of day's over 100 degrees. Right now it's beautiful, but by July, the concrete patio is unbearable. So I'm trying to come up with a budget friendly yet stylish cover for the patio. We already have a number of small pergolas throughout the yard and I really don't want another one. We tried the shade sails a couple of years ago, but lacking the mathematical skills required to figure out the proper triangulation needed to mount those things, we gave up. So I think I've come up with the perfect solution--a patio cover thingy!

Okay, I know there must be a better name for them, and if I don't find out what it is, I'm going to make up my own. But after a couple of hours google-imaging every term I could think up, I gave up. I did find a few examples, though.

I really like the simplicity of the one pictured above. And I want to do some sort of retractable fabric panel cover. This one is a good start. We probably will mount ours to the detached garage that borders the patio area--similar to the picture below.

This photo is from a great book I found at Goodwill by Judith and Martin Miller called International Country {find it here }. It is also simple, understated and could easily be fitted with fabric panels.

Here is a knockdown build it yourself version from Home Depot.

And another with what looks to be automatic shades....

So, if anyone knows what these retractable shade panels are called, please let me know. Like most things, I don't anticipate getting it finished anytime real soon, but hopefully before the thermometer hits 100!