Making Over the Garden Shed





Last week my sister in law came for a visit.

While she was here we had a snake incident.

You can read about that here.

I'm tired of staring at our garden shed.

It's redish maroon with a golden trim color.

Those are not my colors. Not even kind of.

So I decided make over the shed and on a tight budget.

It's hard to explain our garden shed to people who've never seen it.

I don't always understand it myself.

It is recessed into a hill side back behind our garage unit.

The roof of the shed is a huge concrete slab.

It just sort of floats out into the yard.

It looks like a helicopter landing pad.

We fully expect Jack Bauer to make an emergency landing on it one day.

I'm not 100% sure what to do with the roof area,

but I lean towards my mom's idea of putting a pergola type structure on top.

 Right now there's just rusty metal rails around it.

It scares me to have people out on it and I would never let kids play there.

Hopefully we can figure out how to make it prettier and safer.

That project will have to wait.

A side view

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These before shots were taken in the winter; hence the dead look.

It's made from cinder block.

  

I painted it a gray color with crisp white trim and door.

We put up decorative black hinges, black handle and latch, shutters,

window basket with flowers, and planted mint in the raised bed.

I love that I can have a contained area to grow my mint.

I love mint.

So very much.

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Caleb put on decorative hinges for me.

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I found this door handle at Home Depot for only $5.

Esschert Design Bird Silhouette Door Knocker
I've ordered this door knocker from Amazon and I plan on painting it black to match.
Or maybe a copper color...
It's only $10!

Esschert Design Bird Hook Bracket
They have a cute matching hook, but I haven't decided yet if I want to buy it.

It's only $12.99 on Amazon.

Textured 7" Black Steel Blind Shutter holdback - 2/pack

I got these for $6.87 on Amazon.

I'm hoping they'll arrive this week and Caleb can put them up for me.
They match the ones we have on our house and I think they'll had nice detail for very little money.

I knew I wanted shutters on the front facing window (there's also a window on the left side).
I priced the shutters at the local hardware stores and they all wanted at least $40/pair for the size I needed.
Caleb and I love love love shopping at our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore.

If you've never been to one: GO!
You can get amazing deals on donated items.
Everything under the sun: doors (new & used), hardware, tools, paint, light fixtures, rugs, swings, tile, etc.
They had tons of shutters to choose from. I started to buy a pair of vintage metal ones from an old home, but then I saw this paneled pair still in the original packaing and still in the cardboard box. Judging from the picture on the packaging they're from the 1960's.

We paid $12 for the pair.
They came with all the hardware for attaching them to the shed and a template for hanging.
They were a pretty green color, but I decided to spray paint them black.

I wanted a window basket and I looked around and budgeted paying at least $25-$40 for one.
I got a nice 36" one from Joann's. It was on sale for Memorial Day weekend from $40 down to $20.
Then I had another coupon and ended up getting it for only $15.
That included the liner and it was already black so I didn't have to paint it.

I want to find some inexpensive lantern style lights to hang on either side of the door.

I would also like to put a different roof/covering over the door in place of

the tin that is there now.

All in all I couldn't be happier with how the shed is turning out.
Hopefully, once I get the other items in the mail I can post more pictures :)

$15 for the 3 Verbena flowers (Kmart)

$15 for the window basket with liner from Joann's (regular $40)

$16 for the gray paint (Walmart)

$8 for the white paint (Walmart)

$9 for door hinges (Home Depot)

$5 door handle (Home Depot)

$5 door latch (Home Depot)

Mint was free from my sister in law

$10 window hardware (Amazon)

$10 bird door knocker (Amazon)

$12 for shutters (Habitat ReStore)

$3 black spray paint (Lowe's)

Now I just need to figure out light fixtures.