DIY Outdoor Shade Poles

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After our little backyard upgrade all we needed was some shade in the backyard. We had some shade cloths from a different backyard and so we decided to use those for our DIY outdoor shade poles.

This project was actually a little more expensive than we initially thought, but it looks amazing. We went to Home Depot and picked out a pot for the base to hold up the poles.

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We chose the 20 in. Kentucky Walnut Resin Wine Barrel Planter. Partly because I liked the look of it and because the I figured the resin would last.

I like the look of the square poles best, we went with the 4″x4″ poles that were 8′ high. We used a whole bag of 50lb concrete in each barrel and then set the poles.

Before putting the concrete in, John drilled a hole in the bottom of the barrels to let water drain. I wanted to put plants sticking out the top. We had some extra PVC laying around, so we put that over the hole, then placed the pole, then poured in the concrete.

Once the concrete had dried, John cut the PVC down and we layered dirt on top for the plants. We put the planters into position and then laid our shade cloths out.

We put the planters on the concrete, and if we had to do this again, I would be the planters on the grass. The pole is stained and when you water the plants the stain runs off onto the concrete. If the planters were on grass we wouldn’t have this problem.

DIY Outdoor Shade Clothes

Back to the build. John used eye hooks with bolts on the end and attached them to the wood poles and to the house. We laid the shade cloths on the concrete so that we could see how to string them up.

Then we attached the shade cloths to the poles and to the house. We noticed when putting up the shade cloths that the poles were leaning. But we pushed through and got the shade cloths up.

It was really windy, and the wind made the shade cloths bounce up and down. That pulled on the poles and moved the planters.

Even with 50lbs of concrete, and a bunch of dirt, the planters were still too light. So we put a support wire down.

Lowe’s had steel stakes and rope. John added another eye hook on the opposite side of the shade cloths. He attached the rope to the pole and then to the steel stakes in the ground. The tension helps to keep the poles in place.

This support wire fixed our problem, and now we have shade on our patio! All that was left was to put some plants into the barrels and enjoy!

We chose lavender, thyme, and lemongrass all for their mosquito fighting abilities.