Exterior shades for deck

I spent so much time researching this. I looked into tents, plexiglass roofing, retractable covers, motorized awnings, pergolas, sunshades, etc. It's a wasteland of bad, ugly products. Eventually I gave up and bought a sturdy little canopy just like they use at the farmer's market. The roof attaches with velcro.

I learned something important, though, which might be applicable to your deck. Those tents often come with simple sidewalls. The sidewalls are cheap/cheerful, basically a tarp with velcro loops. It's a nice contrast from the complicated systems I was looking at. You can put up the sidewall for the season, then take it down when the weather warms up. It folds away to nothing and resists the elements nicely. It's not the prettiest thing to have on your deck, but most of the stuff I saw online was in the same ballpark.

Anyway, let me know what you decide!

Following because I'd like to build an actual wall on one side but until them I also thought about velcro on some sunbrella fabric.

Adam Doppelt Cough it up, what was the canopy you bought?

Adam Doppelt Well described - a wasteland of ugly products. I tried selecting a sun sail from that wasteland and hanging it up like a curtain, with a similar intent to take it down when the weather is nicer. It looks (and was) cheap and thrashes in the wind. I bet velcro would help though.