Spring One Room Challenge Week 2: Outdoor Oasis DIY Privacy Screen

To kick off the ORC, the first thing we wanted to do was build a new privacy screen! Our old one was SO rotten, and we wanted to build it and attach it before we stained the entire deck because we will need to replace some boards underneath. I’m planning to leave the new privacy fence it’s natural wood colour. Here’s a step-by-step guide of what we did to make the privacy screen. This was so easy to build, and made the deck look 100x better already!

The Before:

Rough looking, right?! LOL

Supplies you’ll need:

• 2 – 4×4 Pressure-Treated Wood Posts
• 15 – 1x6x8 Pressure-Treated Fence Boards (You can get Cedar but it was more $$)
• Table Saw (Not required unless you’re doing the same pattern as us!)
• 8×3″ Wood Screw Pack
• Drill (To put screws in wood)
• Long Bolts (To secure posts, 2 per post)
• Saw for cutting to correct lengths (We used Circular)
• Level
  
  

Instructions:

1. Remove the old Screen – We removed the old privacy screen without destroying the deck! The posts were very difficult to remove as they were attached under the deck so hubby had to crawl under the deck with out Multi-Tool and chop away at it. But once we got it out, it was smooth sailing!
   
2. Install the Posts – The posts we purchased were 8 feet tall, and since we wanted the horizontal boards to cover the posts, we decided to install the posts and cut off the top at the end. This will ensure our pattern of boards lined up nicely, then we can cut the excess off. Once we mocked up where we wanted the posts to go, I held them in place, while Shawn put long bolts into the bottom to hold them in place.
   
3. Choose your Pattern – We wanted to do a wide, thin, thin, wide pattern that repeated. There were so many pattern options that I found on Pinterest for inspo!
   
4. Cut the Boards in Half – The pattern we went with had skinnier boards in between the regular width fence boards. We used a table saw to cut the boards directly in half down the middle.
   
5. Do your Measurements – Be sure to figure out how wide your screen will be and cut your wide and thin boards to that length. We left about 3 inches of overhang on each side of the post.
   
6. Use a Spacer – We used a 3/8 inch spacer from scrap wood we had between each board. I wouldn’t go more than half an inch as the spaces would look too wide.
   
7. Screw the Boards on! – Be sure to use a level and start at the bottom and work your way up to the top. Screw the bottom board in using your drill or hammer and continue on from there using the spacer between boards. This part actually went very quick compared to all the prep work. We used 2 wood screws on each side of the thicker boards and 1 wood screw on each side of the thinner boards.
   
8. Admire your work 🙂 We absolutely love how this turned out! It’s definitely a project you can tackle on a weekend!

AFTER:

Here’s the finished product of the outdoor privacy screen! We love how it turned out, hope you like it 🙂

Check out our entire Moodboard for the backyard from last week’s post! Be sure to follow along with us on Instagram for live updates of this beautiful outdoor oasis reno!! Be sure to check out all of the other guest participants & the amazing room transformations to come on the One Room Challenge Blog!

Thanks for following along!