Take these DIY projects out back

With beautiful weather in full bloom, you may be looking for easy do-it-yourself projects to perk up your back yard before the guests arrive. Here are a few easy projects to help turn your backyard into a space you’ll look forward to showing off this summer.

Keep your beverages cool

In the summer heat, coolers become a necessary addition to keep your guests comfortable and beverages cold. Consider giving a cooler an easy and inexpensive makeover to transform it into a permanent entertaining fixture on your patio or deck that complements your existing decor.

Building an enclosure out of wood for the cooler to rest in, and adding legs to create height, brings beverages to the perfect level for your guests. Attach a metal bottle opener and handles or hooks for bar towels to perfect your new cocktail showpiece.

Entertain with a (re)purpose

Headboards have made a big splash in DIY projects recently. They’ve been repurposed in bench projects, coat racks or even shelving.

Before passing over an old headboard at the neighborhood garage sale or purchasing an expensive table for your patio, consider reinventing an old headboard into a custom patio cocktail table. Kentucky DIYer and Interior Designer, Tracie Stoll, offers a simple, step-by-step tutorial on how to build a cocktail table with a built-in beverage cooler on her blog, cleverlyinspired.com.

Create nooks and crannies

A key in successful furniture placement is to ensure balance. A well-placed room helps create the feel of a larger, more inviting environment. That means making sure corners receive equal attention, whether it be with a plant, an accent chair or a fun feature. The same rules apply when you plan a layout for your patio or deck.

Conceal outdoor tools and toys, or create private conversation nooks with unique design elements. An affordable DIY project is to create a privacy screen constructed from materials you may already have laying around your home.

By simply cutting one or two standard, old doors in half vertically, painting or staining the wood, adding hinges, hooks and a few metal shelves, you can create a decorative privacy screen for the items you’d prefer to stay out of view, as well as an organizational element for gardening tools or a barbecue set. It also adds an interesting feature that brings visual appeal.

Don’t limit your creativity to the indoors. Repurposing items can transform your backyard into an area you adore.

This article is courtesy of Brandpoint.