My husband and I have a dirty little design secret. While the inside of our home is polished and put together, our yard has been a disaster since we moved in. Supported by exhibit A, the view from our family room as it looked last Spring. Beautiful huh?
But last year we finally got our act together and started on a plan to revive the back and front yard. We started by installing a paver patio. Our enthusiasm to create an outdoor retreat quickly dwindled when one of the hottest summers we have experienced set in.
But with Spring this year came another push to get things looking nice. We lost the big tree between our house and our neighbors in a blizzard and then we cleared out the other scraggly weeds and trees. Which left us looking at this.
Because our family room looks right out into a fence we wanted to add some greenery and with the help of my dad, built some cedar flower boxes. We purchased eight foot cedar planks from Home Depot that we simply cut and put together with wood glue and nails. We left the front of the box off so we could screw the boxes into the fence and then put the front on with finishing nails.
We then lined the boxes with coffee filters, a tip from the garden center at Home Depot and planted an array of annuals that can stand up to the intense sun and heat that hits the area.
It added a great punch of color to the very brown and boring fence.
And improved the view from the side of the fence, which neighbors see when they walk by the front.
We are putting some finishing touches on our patio this week and then will have pictures of our entire outdoor space!
The Suburban Urbanist 
Those planters look fabulous! I would love to do something like that in our new patio space! We have a plastic-y type fence though, so I don’t know yet what to do there… Such great inspiration, thanks for sharing!
Thanks for reading Audra, good luck with your project!