When you desire ‘a little more’ backyard privacy, fence toppers are the way to go.

Suppose that you do not want to leave them up all the time, or want to grow vines on them and access them easily. Solution – attach the toppers to the fence with hinges. That way, they can be folded down whenever necessary.

Using hinges was not difficult, but ‘how to’ support the toppers needed an idea. I decided to use fence U-brackets, and slide a piece of flat wood into the bracket, and secure that to the topper. I will use a heavy duty tie wrap, which can easily be removed as required.

When I wanted to fold the topper down, I’d cut the tie wraps, pull out the pins, and slide the wood out. The topper could now be folded down.

First step was to add some 2 x 4’s to the top of the fence.

I then screwed the U-brackets to the existing fence posts.

I used square lattice and redwood channel to build the toppers. I made 3 toppers, each 7′ long and 2′ high.

Make sure that you carefully layout the redwood channel pieces prior to cutting the 45 degree angles. I suggest cutting one 45 degree at a time and then lining it up with the lattice as shown below.

You do not want the result shown on the left – oops! Don’t become a member of “The Temple of Accumulated Error.” You want nice tight fitting 45’s, as on the right.

I positioned the hinges, and glued a small wood spacer directly behind the open space in the lattice. This provided more wood for the hinge screws to bite into.

Here are the 3 toppers in place.

They need a bit more ‘tweaking,’ but really provide so much more privacy.

I’ve always liked the way narrow teak decking looks on a sailboat. I do not own a sailboat, but on a recent project I decided to try to emulate that look.

My curious friend, often has her nose in a book or a magazine. As a result, she is always coming up with new project ideas.

One such new project was an outdoor shoe mat for cleaning and placing shoes on, prior to coming indoors. She showed me the piece from the magazine and the next thing I knew it was on my list of projects to make.

So, in my usual fashion, I had to figure out a way to make it with as many ‘on hand’ materials as possible. This always means a bit of redesign on my part. Of course, that is the ‘fun’ part.

I decided to utilize some ABS irrigation pipe and some 1″ redwood slats that I had as leftovers from previous projects.

I cut the ABS pipe into two 24.5″ pieces.

Next, I cut several of the redwood slats at 14.0″ and laid them out on the ABS runners to see how it was going to look.

I was content with the outcome, and secured a slat at each end with screws. I made sure that everything was square.

Now began the slow job of drilling and screwing down each slat. I used a paint stir stick between each slat (as a width guide) to ensure the spacing was identical.

Once all the slats were in place, it was time to add the brushes (for shoe cleaning).

I simply screwed them to the decking from the underside.

I brushed on a coat of Tung oil for weather protection, and to give it that ‘wet sailboat deck’ look.

Ahoy mate, your shoes look great!