Wooden DIY Privacy Screens

I've really got a large stash of wooden bed slats! You will recall I've mentioned that there's a furniture shop near my place that often throws out stuff like this:

 (Whyyyyyy?)

So I decided I'd make some privacy screens, to be placed on our porch, between my neighbour's house and ours.  Don't ask why because it involves dead plants, aquariums and fish ponds with fishless murky, green water, glass chips, 672 cigarette butts (no, I didn't count), a dead rat, dog poop... 

My husband, bless-his-heart, helped me with making these.

First, we had to pull out all the slats as the gaps between them were too big. That's like 672 nails to be yanked out (no, I didn't count).

Next, we re-arranged them closer together with unevenly-spaced gaps, and nailed them down.

 The base was also made with wooden slats.  Each base had four castors (I'm in love with castors - the first time I used them was on a trolley here:

 http://tree-shades.blogspot.com/2012/05/tongue-twisting-teal-tea-trolley.html)

 I wanted to be able to roll the screens around because I had exciting ideas of the many ways the screens could be used.

See the base turned over, with the four castors, up there? :)

Gee, all you need to do is attach a large basket on that and you could wheel grandkids around and no-I-am-not-hinting-for-any-sigh.

 We then made props at the back to hold up the screens.

We made four of these screens.

Loved them!  At this point I should have left them in their au naturel glory, but no... ol' Itchy Hands here had to go and paint them.

I painted them a very pale grey as I was afraid white would be blinding in the sun.

 

I sanded them to give them a worn, rustic look, a look I'm realising I love more and more.  Kinda like finding the genre of music you want to produce and finally settling on one (does one need to?) but that's another story.

A coat of polyurethane to protect them, and we were done.  I love them!  Now comes the time I play around with them.....I could add plants on the base -

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I could poke plants through the gaps, just for decoration...

I could hang pop bottles filled with this crazy thorny plant growing in the wild (I loved the look of the berries) - which are probably poisonous, seeing how it loudly declares come-near-me-or-else.

I could think of so many ways to decorate the screens!

...and then...
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I get a message from church asking if I could help with some decoration for Father's Day.  So with the help of my friend LSY, we came up with this (thanks JDP, for the photo):
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I knew those screens would come in handy... :)

Birdhouse!

Birds fascinate me.  I've already written a number of posts in my blog here, with gorgeous photos of birds.

But to have them in a cage just seems so sad.  I imagine if I were in one....

 See what it says on the label?

 

 Can't see?  Try again...

   "The world's most dangerous creature - homo sapiens"

But a birdhouse sounds fun.  I've always wanted one! I just couldn't figure out how in the world I was going to make a hole for the birdie to go in (for a classic-design birdhouse).   

I'd thought (don't laugh) I'd have to actually draw a circle, and saw around it.  Until my friend told me that there's such a thing as a bit that is designed to make a large hole. 

 

All I had to do was fit it to my power drill.  HOW AWESOME IS THAT!!  (geez, you learn something new all the time)
And he had one so he lent it to me. Wheeeeeee....

 

Oooooo....wait, wait, practise first...

Drill a little more and that circle of wood will pop out.

So out came all my scrap wood (thrown out by a furniture shop near my house, which I often collect).  I have a lot more than this!

 Here are a succession of photos to show you how I made my first-ever birdhouse (all the steps are not there, because the weather was hot and I was doing all the hole-making, sawing, drilling, painting, sanding, and distressing. outside.....I only took photos when I remembered to).  Also, since I am using scrap wood, I do not have large enough pieces which would make my work easier, I had to piece together many pieces...

 

 

 At this point, I'm thinking something is missing....oh, got it!  A perch for the birdie to sit on.. drill a little hole...

 

 

And at this point, I should have left it and considered it done.  But noooooo.....Ms Itchy Fingers here had to go and paint it - with a base of black, and blotches of red over it.  Then major sanding to distress it and give it a rustic look.

  

And now for some modelling.....

 

 

 

What do you think?  

I love it!