DIY Door Awning

Sooo I bought this one. It broke in less than a year. Plus Mike didn't like it. Who can blame him really, it's not the most attractive thing in the world.

Sooo I had this grand idea, see, and drew one up on the computer planning to reuse the plastic sheeting material from the old one and building new parts from fancy pants cedar.

It was all going so smoothly too, it was odd. Murphy's Law is my middle name, see. I used 1x4 cedar for a backing piece and the top piece, then 1x2 for the cross support. Using galvanized nails and Gorilla glue, assembly was easy.

Here's a handy tip: use one of your screws to line up where you should pilot drill your holes to avoid the wood splitting.

Sooo I built three of these brackets and stained them with the stain I didn't like on the deck, hoping I'd like it here. Nope. Did not. Too much contrast.

And by the way, when using these toggles, save your sanity and always remember that this is the direction everything goes. Otherwise you'll waste an hour of your life and be far too frustrated and feel like a dope. FYI.

Soooo, heh, not liking the stain, I picked up a solid stain in a gray. Which is where my mood was going, gray, as this project was taking shape. This was not looking as good as it did in my head.

And here's where everything went to poop. I attached the plastic sheeting with small screws and fender washers and holy cow, this turned super ugly super fast. Wow, it looks terrible.

I seriously was contemplating never DIY'ing anything again.

Be sure to swing on by my blog, Flipping the Flip, for more on this story and a whole slew of other (hopefully more successful) ones!

Already anticipating that the plastic was going to be a disaster, I picked up this 4'x8' roll of reed fencing. Hesitantly. Thinking it might look too tacky island theme but, I couldn't leave the plastic as is. Up it went.

Ooooh my gosh, it's so bad when viewed from underneath.

Viewed from the deck, it's possibly maybe not as bad but it definitely reads island tiki hut theme. Not the look I was going for.

Sigh. Ok, I'm going to have to revisit this for sure. Plus the plastic isn't terribly strong so no doubt it'll crash at the first heavy wet snow. Put on rethinking cap now, I've got the summer to rework this.

Why did I share this with you if I'm unhappy with it?

Several reasons:

1. There are DIY fails. Pick yourself up and redo it. This is how we learn and learning is good.

2. To give you inspiration to try this project yourself and come up with a better solution.

3. To let you know that something like a door awning is totally DIY-able.

4. And lastly, to give you a laugh at my pain and suffering.

Be sure to click the link below for more on this and so much more over on my blog!

Edited to add: I have since changed this out -- check out my other projects on Hometalk or swing by the blog!