Like several things over the last ten years this room divider I made out of a privacy fence panel did not last forever. I really liked it for the years it was there though! I thought it was super cute and solved my problem entirely. With it gone this eyesore is still an eyesore though my Virginia creeper vine has just about covered it up in the summers. I’m planning on recreating my privacy fence divider using lattice and creating a “wall” to the north here beside the door to provide a north wind break in the winter. It will also give my vine something to climb on and cover up.
Here is the original post from September 5, 2016 (WOW – guys look at that! This post is coming out exactly ten years later on September 5, 2026!)
Hey guys, well you’ve already heard me rant and rave about the terrible place my electrician put my electric panel: Right by my front door! To see what I did about that ugliness on the inside of the house check this out: Covering up an incredible eye sore in my entry way.
After seeing that post many of you asked what I did on the outside of my house because it was all just as ugly on the outside as it was on the inside! I had been at the drawing board about this problem all last winter before I finally had a light bulb moment!
I had one extra fence panel leftover from my privacy fence so I thought I could make something like a room divider out of it… I got to work.
Yup all that stuff wasn’t two feet from my front door where everyone walks every day to come in to the home. It drove me crazy – it was SO ugly! The extra fence panel I had was lying out in the dog kennel so I went and grabbed it.
With my reciprocating saw I cut the privacy fence panel into three separate pieces. There were three supporting boards across the back of the entire panel, so each needed to be cut. Each cut section ended up with four fence “slats” on it. That left me with two “slats” leftover which turned out to be a very good thing.
As room dividers go I knew I needed to put three hinges on one side and three hinges on the other so it would “fold” in opposite directions so it would stand on its own. (I purchased just basic outdoor hinges on sale at Ace hardware for this job and used small outdoor screws.) I was not worried about the one broken off slat as I knew I would be burying this “room divider” well into the ground so it wouldn’t blow over so the broken slat would never show.
I grabbed some leftover flat white paint I had and just did a fast dry brush over the entire things. I kept telling myself to make sure it wasn’t “perfect” in any way. I really wanted it to look like it had been here for fifty years like everything else. Then, after a lot of adjustments and not a few four letter words, I got it in place!
So… yeah, I didn’t really see that gap coming… No problem! Remember I had two extra fence slats leftover? I simply painted one of them up and tacked it on there, problem solved! No more gap in my outdoor room divider cover up thingy!
Because this IS electrical that I’m hiding I figured it would be against code to attach this or make it permanent in any way so I just drove it into the ground so it can be pulled out easily at any time. This has been up since this spring and it still hasn’t moved at all and I’ve had some SERIOUSLY bad and windy weather this summer. Before I show the real “after” photos though, let’s remember what my house looked like in the spring of 2015 exactly one year before I built my “room divider” to cover up that electrical ugliness. My grandparents’ old sign (that they made of course) still hung on the front of the house…
So far I’m totally stoked with how my “room divider” looks. Is it perfect? No. Will I ever be really happy with this ugly situation or ever really “over” it? Probably not.
However, I do think I did about the best I could do to cover up a bad situation. You can still see the ugliness when you’re standing on the other side (in my back yard) but I had to leave the fence out like that because there also happens to be an outlet back there and it needed to be accessible. However, the majority is covered and I am pleased to report no one seemed to notice it at all.
I pointed it out to my mom and she jumped and did a double take because it fit in so well even she didn’t notice and she walked right by it lol and lived here her entire child hood! Well, I guess that’s the best compliment I could get.
Of course the soffits and things on the house (as you can see) all need to be painted etc. forgive me that I have not yet got to that this summer, honestly I kinda like the chippy old paint and don’t really want to paint it yet.
All in – I am happy with how this turned out 🙂
