DIY Outdoor Wood Screen for under $40

{sigh} The backyard.

On the one hand it is one of my favorite places now that we finished our Patio Makeover (for now!) But on the other hand it’s been a huge source of stress and a ginormous work in progress (like I described in my last backyard transformation post!)

The pool was put in late last summer, getting finished up in late August.  Here’s a little picture of what our backyard “oasis” looked like in September:

Glorious right?

So we had a pool, then we got ourselves a fence, which was another ordeal due to permitting issues.  And then we just let it sit all winter.

Once the weather started to show signs of Spring we graded and sodded the area around the  pool and next on the list was creating something to cover up the obtrusive pool pump area.  But obviously, after buying a bunch of sod and building a pool, and paying for a fence I was looking for something as easy as possible on the wallet.  We came up with this wooden screen and the best part is that it was less than $40 and took only a couple hours to build (not that I’d know-I was sick as a dog inside that weekend and my hubby did the whole thing!)

We wanted the screen to cover the entire pool pump area but leave access to store pool supplies behind it and we wanted access to the pump switch (that little gray box) without having to walk behind the screen. We went to Lowe’s and bought 18 dog eared fence posts and three landscape timbers-it was just under $40 total. My husband sank the landscape timbers into the ground about 12-18″ to form the perimeter around the pump.

He then cut the fence slats to the correct measurement and used them to create the screen (he used a piece of wood to create equal spacing between the slats.) Once he finished he cut off the excess at the top of the landscape timbers with a handsaw.

And Boom! Done! So much better than before! This was a pretty darn simple project compared to a lot we’ve done in the backyard and you could totally alter it to make a cover for AC units or just to make some disguised storage for bikes, etc. I plan on adding some plants around it to gussy it up a bit soon too…the never-ending list!

Do you have “stuff” that needs to be covered up in your outdoor spaces? What would you put a screen around?