Wood Barn

We embarked on our biggest project to date on the house. Completely re-modelling the garden. We’d employed a designer to draw up the overall plan and we loved it. It contained a lot of elements that needed woodwork in it but the project was so large and daunting, we acquired the services of an expert to build and guide us through the whole build.

I learned a huge amount from the builder who was brilliant and multi talented. He was also happy to advise, contribute ideas and give me jobs to complete as we went along. I, in return, made thousands of cups of tea!

One of the jobs I could do was build the new screens to separate the front of the garden from the side/back. The plan was to make 6 panels, of different heights with gaps between them to walk through. The panels we constructed by making a frame and then screwing larch slats either side.

I learned how to make a frame that was square and was then left to my own devices to clad them either side. We’d purchased a whole pallet of larch boards, way more than we needed for this job but that would be used for other jobs around our new garden. The good thing was, we’d gone to the lumbar yard for something else and inquired about the pallet that was separate from others. We were told it’d been water damaged and they were going to sell it for a reduced price. We snapped it up immediately at the discounted price as all of the boards would be exposed to the elements for many years to come anyway so the discolouration was no issue to us.

I started the laborious task of ripping each board in half to create two battens. For this I’d purchased a cheap table saw from the local tool shop for a total of £110.

This job took a long time due to the sheer number of battens needed to clad both sides of the screens. I created a lot of sawdust that I’d vainly tried to catch on a large plastic sheet. The wind is strong in this part of the world!

Once they were cut to width they needed to be cut to length and then mounted on the frame. We wanted them to act as a screen but not catch the wind so we spaced the battens evenly apart to allow light and air to flow through them. Each batten needed 6 holes drilled, to be countersunk and then screwed into place with stainless steel screws. It was a simple job but I took care to align the screws equally along each screen. It was tedious going but they looked fantastic. Our builder had the genius idea of mounting them onto steel U-channel posts that would rust like corten steel and therefore blend with the rest of the garden.

Now they’re in place and the larch has weathered down, they look really good. I dread to think how much they’d cost to buy in a shop but we’d made them for a few hundred pounds and they work perfectly in our new garden.