I love our neighborhood and I love our house, but the fact remains that we often have people living in our backyard. Our next door neighbor’s garage was converted into an apartment a long time ago. See:
Through the years, I have done my best to create natural privacy screens, but plants take time to grow. Most of the people that have lived in the apartment never open the blinds on our side of the apartment. Unfortunately, our newest neighbor isn’t so shy. I know this will also be a drawback when we try to market and sell the house.
I spent a good deal of time trying to find privacy screens to buy. I’ve done this multiple time in the past. I couldn’t find any I liked for a price I liked.
Then I remembered that I have like a hundred slats that I saved when I shortened up our Ikea wood blinds to make them custom length.
Talk about killing two birds with one stone! Repurposing and decluttering! I knew I saved them for a reason…
I found some garden stakes at Lowe’s that should form the base. I already have wood glue, a nail gun, and stain/sealant. I’ll need a new paint brush, too, but I think that should be it. This project should cost less than $20.
The stakes are 5 feet long (length of the tape measure). The short slats are 2 feet long. So, I’d like to put a support at the very top, at the 1 foot down mark, and at the 4 feet down mark, leaving the bottom foot clear. It will be just over three feet wide and six feet tall.
I’m going to stain this bench/firewood rack while I’m at it. Mr. PFL made it a couple years ago from scratch with scrap wood.
After securing the stakes at Lowe’s, it turns out the nail gun is off; the nails are too long. I found a heavy duty stapler to use instead. Lesson learned: don’t overfill the stapler or it won’t latch properly. I staged my staining area (Norman is such a good helper):
I finished staining all of my pieces. I’m going to let them dry for a bit and then work on my cuts.
I conquered the measuring, sawing and assembling. My first privacy screen looks like this:
I completed two more screens, one large and one smaller. This is my initial installation:
Instant privacy! I’m going to need to shore them up a bit, but they are currently free standing.