Spring has sprung! 5 easy DIY projects to upgrade your home
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Trees are budding, flowers are blooming, everything's turning green ... and it's time to upgrade both the interior and the exterior of your home for the new season! Brad Staggs, HGTVPro.com and DIY show producer and host, and a licensed contractor, offers five easy DIY projects perfect for any home.
Safe Arbor: Garden structures add depth and character to any yard. Add a charming wood arbor to a quiet corner and create a special space perfect for enjoying nature. Run a pretty rose vine up the back for a fragrant, peaceful hideout.
Sweet Dog Suite: That special four-pawed family member deserves a staycation, too! Build this exquisite dog house -- complete with columns and a window -- and you'll have a furry friend for life. Watch the other dogs drool with envy, especially when they find out this cool canine campout was in the August 2008 issue of Southern Living magazine.
Southern Chalet Birdhouse: One part gracious Southern architecture, two parts sass -- and the perfect abode for the robins of spring. Let the children help out with the custom paint job!
"Cut Above" Raised Garden Bed: Nothing smells as sweet or tastes as good as home-grown flowers and veggies. Plant soon for an early summer harvest, then again to enjoy the bounty of fall.
Funky Storage Locker: Tired of tripping on baseball bats, slipping on skateboards and stumbling on soccer balls? Corral all the trappings of your life into a retro wooden locker designed to take anything the kids can dish out. A coat of whimsical paint and some creative stencil work might even get the kids to clean up on their own!
"There is an increased focus on real outdoor living, helped, of course, by the economy," says Brad. "We seem to be turning the corner of commercialism and recentering on the home, on the things that matter, on authenticity."
As with any backyard DIY project, building product selection is important. For all of the above projects, Brad chooses pressure-treated Southern Pine. "It's a no-brainer to me: pressure-treated Southern Pine is real, it's genuine and it's a beautiful product. Add to that the natural, long-lasting, sturdy and safe elements, and you just can't go wrong. If you're conscious of your carbon footprint, then wood is your product; it's one of the only naturally renewable products out there, and it takes remarkably less energy to manufacture than alternative building products. It's the real thing for real families."
To download free plans for these easy DIY projects, please visit www.spanpine.com.