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DIY Privacy Screens

Privacy patio before 

Privacy patio after

privacy planter slide

Build a DIY Privacy Screen 

Privacy. It’s a luxury desired by many but often not afforded to city dwellers whose homes or balconies abut one another with little to no green space in between. One effective solution is to add a living screen.

In the “before” photo above, there was nothing standing between the porch and the neighbor. That just wasn’t cutting it. We exchanged it for a living screen that provides privacy and brings fresh life to the porch.

Low maintenance foliage is the focus with a few white bacopa flowers sprinkled in for good measure. Note the carefully selected mix of colors and textures as well as the forethought not to use plants with blossoms that would necessitate daily sweeping of the porch. Lush vining plants provide an extra layer of screening.

Read on to find helpful tips and products you can use to build your own privacy walls.

 

 

DIY Privacy Wall Planters
Three options for creating your own vertical privacy planters 

Step 1 image
1

Modify An Existing Product

We started with a pair of Akiko Vertical Garden Planters purchased online, then modified them by building an extra planter box for the base. We also added caster wheels (available at hardware stores) to make these planters easily movable.

 

What We Built
We built a fourth planter box to use as the bottom box of the privacy planter. We made the bottom box taller (11.5″ tall) so it could hold more soil, and used a heavier 2″ thick piece of wood for the base. When assembled, that extra weight helped to stabilize the entire unit. We disassembled the sides of the Akiko planter and re-assembled it with our planter box at the bottom. Adding the fourth box made the vertical planter taller and more effective as a privacy screen. The added casters also made it easy to move around.

 

 

Step 2 image
2

Stack Four Windowboxes

If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to build a tall privacy planter without a lot of sawing and assembly, you may prefer to buy four window boxes and attach them together with long braces along the sides.

 

This 28″ Acacia Wood Window Box looks like a good candidate.

THUNBERGIA PRIVACY WALL
3

Build It From Scratch

If you like the look of these living privacy walls and enjoy getting your hands dirty, have a go at building one yourself. Here's a fun idea for a living screen of beautiful flowering thunbergia vines that can be built in a weekend.

  

VIEW THE DIY PROJECT

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