Outdoor Decorative Wall Panel

Every morning, I have the same routine if the sun is shining. I get up, make a cup of coffee, grab my reading, and sit on our back deck. I love sitting outside when the birds are singing before the full heat of the day. In fact, even though I love summer rains,I get grumpy if I can’t get my morning outside in, and I have to sit inside. The area directly across from where I sit is the side of our house. It’s just a large wall of aluminum siding. I’ve tried having a cute bench there, and even hanging some art with those sticky hooks, but I always felt like it should be more of a statement wall, and the siding is so old, it doesn’t come clean anymore even with a good washing. I love the look of the privacy dividers people are building between their houses  so I thought building an outdoor decorative wall panel might be a good way to give me some privacy from that ugly aluminum sided wall.

I measured to fill most of the wall, and decided I would attach it to our deck post.  I also wanted it to be a perfectly flat panel. Of course, I had to pick the harder way to construct it, especially since I had never built one before.

I lucked out and that the size of lumber for all of the horizontal slats was  a pre-cut size that already existed at the home improvement store. I just had to buy two long pieces to go on each side that each slat would screw in to that I had cut right at the store.

When building an outdoor decorative wood panel I measured for the screws, and thought it would be so smart to pre-drill and pre-screw in all of the screws. It seemed like a good idea, until I added my first three boards and realized I measured wrong. Yeah, there might be a lot of extra holes in those tall sides. We just won’t look at that too closely.

After a day of sweating, and carefully measuring my spaces between boards, it was time to stain.

I picked a nice warm brown with a sealer in it so it would make it hopefully through more than a few seasons. The sealer color is a little bit warmer  and darker than the gazebo area.

After the stained dried, we attached the outdoor decorative wall panel to the deck and post with screws. I am so happy with how it turned out! It really modernizes our back seating area.  I would say though, it’s fine for against a wall, but I don’t think it would be sturdy enough to be free-standing. It would need heavier wood and supports.

I have a few fun projects in association with styling this area coming up for you. I’m also hoping to get a fresh coat of paint on the deck at sometime this summer.  And, I haven’t forgotten about sharing some pressed flower projects with you. I’ve been gathering different blooms and pressing all season to play with! If you’re still feeling all of the summer feels, make sure to check out the Camp and Cabin collection!

And did you know that this pillow is a best seller in my Society6 shop and it’s now on sale?