Hey everyone! Today I wanted to share a one day makeover I finished for my friend Cheryl over the weekend. You remember when I painted her piano last year? We were hanging out in the backyard by the pool and discussing the sitting space – they have a fabulous pool and a nice pergola but her outdoor seating area was not as pretty as she liked and didn’t have any real sun protection.
We conspired how to change all that on a budget, work with what she had, and finish in a day. I shopped for a few things and added some DIY outdoor curtains made of canvas panels and grommets. You can see the “before” below with their wood pergola and sectional, and the “after” once I added the curtains and accessories.
She already had a great outdoor sectional they bought earlier this year with Sunbrella cushions (from Costco) the set just needed some color. I stopped by Lowes and Target and another local shop for a few supplies and pulled it all together for her in an afternoon. She wanted to include the blue tones from the backyard pool so that became the dominant accent color.
The bins and pillows are from Target (the floral pillow is from Lowes) and the rug used to be mine, but ever since I resurfaced our upper patio last year I wasn’t using it anymore so I gave it to my friend (originally from Crate + Barrel, seen here).
Their yard gets really bright sun in the afternoon which is great for the pool but not so much for lounging, and Cheryl was saying how just one corner of protection would help. So we decided to add panels to that one corner to block the sun and more panels all around so it looked balanced and also enveloped the space.
I used inexpensive painters tarps from Lowes in natural canvas to create sailcloth style outdoor window curtains that don’t break the bank! At only $14 each, they’re a great deal for so much fabric. They can be painted too if you want to get creative and add thick stripes or a stenciled pattern.
Making them was so simple with canvas tarps and two grommet kits.
To replicate, you’ll need a grommet kit, hooks to hang the panels (or a rod), canvas tarps, a hammer, scissors, and a big ol’ wood block to pound the grommets into place. I followed the instructions on the kit, but instead of the little tool they give you to make a hole, I used scissors to make a quick snip. Each panel takes about 15 minutes or so.
The 6 x 9’ panels were the perfect width and length to hang from small hooks and the grommets keep them in place. There are 7 grommets that are a foot apart but the hooks are only 7 inches apart so the panels gather to look more like an indoor window treatment. You can see where Cheryl’s husband also added bamboo fencing to the top of the pergola to filter sun – such a great idea!
We hung the panels from the top of the one beam and the bottom of the other so they look even – I adjusted the placement of the grommets on the canvas panels by an inch so they’d be balanced.
I think I earned a few hours by that pool. 🙂
