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From Habitat magazine - issue 34, bright ideas

Now is the ideal time for projects that transform garden and outdoor spaces.

As the temperature drops, and the last tomato plant starts to curl up its toes, it’s time to give the garden and outdoor areas a little TLC. Autumn and winter are the perfect seasons to get to work, cleaning up exterior spaces and completing those tasks that never seem to get finished during the hotter months.

Without flowers and vegetables, the winter garden can also seem a little drab. Thankfully, pops of bright Resene paint, such as the shades used in these outdoor features, can add a welcome vibrancy.

Get fired up

 

A colourful firewood stacker

This firewood stacker brings colour to this garden with the base painted in Resene Red Oxide and planks in Resene Amulet and Resene Bush. It looks striking against the dark fence stained in Resene Waterborne Woodsman Crowshead.

› For instructions on how to make this stacker, visit www.habitatbyresene.com/diy-fire-stacker.
 

The classic DIY materials, concrete blocks and planks of wood, are all right up there with No. 8 wire for usefulness – able to be transformed into practical items such as bookshelves, fences, outdoor seats and firewood stackers. A neatly stacked pile of firewood is not only immensely satisfying but will go a long way in transforming an outdoor space. All that is needed to make this stacker is a concrete cinder block, four fence palings (1500mm length x 150mm width x 19mm depth) and your favourite Resene paints – no hammer, nails, screws or drill required. To make this project, we first applied two coats of Resene Lustacryl to the cinder block and to the planks. Our cinder block is painted in Resene Red Oxide with two planks in Resene Amulet and the other two planks in Resene Bush. The stacker becomes sturdy and holds its shape when you start placing the logs. Consider creating several different stackers to store wood at varying stages of drying, colour-coding them to assist you in remembering when the wood was cut.

How to know if firewood is dry

Tips for storing and drying firewood

Three ways with screens

Outdoor screens are incredibly versatile. They create privacy, hide unsightly everyday items such as rubbish bins and create zones for entertaining.

These three screen ideas use a variety of new and upcycled materials. Paint them the same colour as your home with a colourful accent, or make a statement with bright contrasting colours.

Rusty-look screen
Rusty-look outdoor screen

An easy pallet screen
An easy pallet screen to hide rubbish bins

Rusty-look screen: This trellis screen creates privacy at the front of this villa. The screen is painted in Resene FX Faux Rust Effect to give the look of weathered steel.   An easy pallet screen: This pallet screen is painted in Resene Zircon with Resene Aviator on the sides and Resene Morning Glory on the street number detailing. Corrugated fence painted in Resene Gravel, gate in Resene Half Tapa.  Top tip: Use a stencil to paint your house number on the side of your screen. You could even paint a matching number on your bin if your council allows it.

Rusty-look screen

A standard piece of timber trellis becomes a vintage-style feature using Resene FX Faux Rust Effect coating. Use this product to create the look of aged steel on surfaces such as wood and concrete. The colour of the coating changes and ‘weathers’ over time, similar to real steel but at a more budget-friendly price. To create this look, apply two coats of Resene FX Faux Rust Effect basecoat, then Resene FX Faux Rust Effect activator which creates the weathered steel rust effect.

Top tip:

An easy pallet screen

Rubbish bins can be an eyesore but need to be close to the house and driveway for practical reasons. A pallet is just the right height for hiding a standard rubbish bin. For this project, three pallets were screwed together and painted with Resene Zircon, Resene Aviator on the edges and Resene Morning Glory for the street-number detailing. Pallets come in different sizes, make sure your pallet is tall enough to hide your bin.

To create the screen:

› For instructions on how to make this pallet screen, visit www.habitatbyresene.com/diy-pallet-screen.

Top tip:

Pallet power

There is a myriad of ways to upcycle wooden pallets in an outdoor area. Transform them into vertical garden walls, outdoor benches, potting tables or even outdoor furniture. When creating garden beds or vertical walls using pallets, make sure you use untreated pallets to ensure chemicals don’t leach into your soil. While untreated timber pallets will deteriorate over time, coats of Resene paint on the outside will help them last longer.

Hinged privacy screen

This sturdy screen, built from six timber planks (2400mm length x 90mm width x 45mm depth) and 8 fence palings (1800mm length x 150mm width x 19mm depth), is a striking garden feature painted in Resene Bali Hai and Resene Coast. Hinges allow the screen to bend around objects, making it ideal for creating garden rooms or entertaining zones. It can also wrap around objects you’d like to hide.

Blue hinged privacy screen

Resene Bali Hai and Resene Coast are a bold colour duo on this screen, which hides a broken water feature.

Cut plan:

  1. Vertical sides: cut six planks of 2400mm long x 90mm wide x 45mm deep timber into six lengths of 1800mm. These will make the vertical sides of the screen. Make sure you keep the offcuts.

  2. Horizontal sides: from each of the offcuts above, cut a 480mm length. You will be left with six 120mm offcuts (not used in this project).

  3. Privacy slats: using the fence palings, cut each 1800mm length fence paling into three lengths of 600mm (final measurement will be 600mm x 150mm x 19mm)

To create:

To assemble:

› For full instructions, visit www.habitatbyresene.com/diy-hinged-screen.

Rainy days


Water shortages are becoming an issue in many regions with councils placing restrictions on watering gardens during the summer months. A rainwater barrel or tank connected to a downpipe diverter is a simple way of collecting rain from the roof for future use on the garden or outdoors.

Painted rainwater barrel

This concrete rain-barrel stand is painted in an ombre effect. From top to bottom: Resene Onahau, Resene Morning Glory, Resene Fountain Blue and Resene Hippie Blue. The rain-barrel is connected to a Marley Twist water diverter and hose. Weatherboards painted in Resene Half Mondo and gate in Resene Half Tapa.
 

Autumn and winter are the ideal time to set up a rainwater harvesting system and prepare for the times of the year when your garden needs the water the most.

This simple system uses a 200-litre food-grade plastic barrel, a downpipe diverter (we used Marley Twist) and a concrete-block stand decorated with Resene paints. The stand, strong enough to take the barrel’s weight when it is full of water, is made of eight concrete blocks, a paver and timber to make a wooden platform where the barrel sits. We’ve worked with the plastic barrel’s blue colour creating an ombre blue effect using Resene Onahau, Resene Morning Glory, Resene Fountain Blue and Resene Hippie Blue.

Don’t put this project in the too-hard basket – it’s straightforward and only takes a few hours to set up. The combined cost of the barrel, stand and diverter was under $500 – it could be even cheaper with upcycled materials.

For instructions on how to make this rain-barrel stand, visit www.habitatbyresene.com/diy-rain-barrel-stand.

Outdoor project checklist

projects and styling: Sacha Wackrow
images: Bryce Carleton

 

Search habitat magazine stories

Want to get your own free copy of future issues of habitat magazine?

Printed copies of habitat highlights are available from late March 2024 at Resene ColorShops and resellers, while stocks last. You can view back issues of habitat magazine online.

If you have an idea, project or story that you think would suit habitat, we’d love to hear from you. Please drop us an email with your details and include photos if submitting a project.

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