Cultivate your inner green thumb and create a symphony of tastes and colors in your backyard. This raised garden bed is the perfect place to nurture fruits, vegetables or your favorite flowers. Even better, this raised structure allows you to optimize your plants’ growth by choosing your preferred soil and controlling its moisture levels. Build one or more of these stylish raised garden beds to add to the beauty and productivity of your outdoor space. Continue reading “DIY: How to Build a Raised Garden Bed”
Category: How To Projects and Plans
DIY: How to Build a Picnic Table Using Screws
Looking to enhance your outdoor space? Make the most of meals and get-togethers in your yard by adding a picnic bench — a great, low-cost project that will give you extra seating and table space for barbecues, dinners and parties. Continue reading “DIY: How to Build a Picnic Table Using Screws”
DIY: How to Spray-Paint Metal Connectors
While many people like the look of galvanized metal connectors on their DIY projects — as we have shown with the Simpson Strong-Tie® Rigid Tie® RTC connectors on our DIY standing desk and heavy-duty workbench — others prefer a painted look.
2020: The Year You Did It Yourselves
It’s no surprise that with so many of us stuck at home for most of 2020, there’s been an increased interest in DIY projects. Homeowners have been using the time to build everything from desks to alternative dwelling units. That interest is reflected in where we see visitors going on our website. We’ve seen a significant increase in the number of people downloading free project plans and an especially high interest in free pergola plans.
DIY Weight Storage: Using Simpson Strong-Tie Strength to Organize a Home Gym
One of the nicest outcomes of the COVID pandemic has been the reduction in commuting time for people who have shifted to working 100% from home. With less time in transit, many people have had to figure out how to work effectively from home.
Renegotiating time and space for work hasn’t been the only challenge, though. Not only did many places of employment close, but the businesses where people spend their time, like churches, salons, and gyms were also shuttered. When COVID restrictions began, most gyms were closed, and once restrictions were lifted and doors reopened to customers, only a small percentage of people could congregate inside at one time. For people whose workouts are a central part of their lives —stopping them altogether or waiting until things got back to normal just wasn’t an option. So, when my coworker described how she reimagined her family’s workout time, I was immediately inspired and couldn’t wait to share her story.
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5 Things to Know Before Building a Chicken Coop
So, you’ve decided to build a chicken coop for your yard — congratulations! But now you’re probably thinking, “Where do I even start? What materials do I need? How many chickens can I put inside?” Simpson Strong-Tie has partnered with the backyard chicken experts at Chickens and More to answer these questions and many more.
Building a chicken coop doesn’t have to be an intimidating or impossible project. As long as you have some basic woodworking skills (or a willingness to learn them), space, time, and determination, we’ll guide you through the rest!
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6 Free Pergola Plans (Plus: Pavilions, Patios and Arbors)
Free pergola plans by Simpson Strong-Tie will help beautify your backyard while providing your family and guests with shade to relax in.
These pergola designs were developed by Simpson Strong-Tie engineers, so you can be confident that not only will they look great but they’ll be safe, strong structures. We’ve set out to create a diverse selection of architectural styles to make it easier for you to find the structure that best enhances your outdoor space.
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Garage Storage: Essential Guide to Garage Organization
By one definition, a garage is nothing more than “a shelter or repair shop for automotive vehicles.” However, for many of us our home garage doubles as a workshop or even an escape. Most commonly, though, the garage doubles as a storage space for random stuff. As the years tick by, garage organization can become a daunting task. Thankfully, we at Simpson Strong-Tie have put together this brief but handy guide on garage organization and reclaiming valuable real estate using smart garage storage solutions.
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DIY: How to Build a Faux Barnwood Dining Table
The farmhouse table: it’s a classic that’s been around for ages, built out of necessity using the same rough lumber farmers used for their barns. Planed and constructed using hand tools, these primitive barnwood tables were the center of the home, where all of the meals were prepared and served. Fast forward hundreds of years and that classic farmhouse table is still going strong. Many farmhouse tables are now being built from reclaimed barnwood, which is a wonderful way to repurpose this old lumber. This trend has become so popular that old barnwood is now scarce and can be costly, as homeowners desire to use it in many furniture designs. In this post, DIYer and Simpson Strong-Tie Brand Ambassador Jaime Costiglio shows you how to create a beautiful faux barnwood table.
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DIY: How to Build a Simple Rolling Planter
Looking for a simple way to dress up your patio? Elisha Albretsen from Pneumatic Addict has teamed up with Simpson Strong-Tie to bring you this simple DIY rolling planter using Outdoor Accents® decorative hardware.
Spring and summer arrive quickly in central Arizona. Currently, we’re enjoying –70° temperatures while bragging to our East Coast friends, but in a couple of months the rest of the country will be the ones laughing. Triple digits are right around the corner, so that means I’ve got to take advantage of the nice weather while I can.
The Southwest has famously long growing seasons. So that means I get a head start on all my outdoor projects. I’m still so enthralled with the glass-topped outdoor table I built last year that I decided to build it a friend. I built a handy, rolling planter and was able to incorporate more of the gorgeous black hardware from the Simpson Strong-Tie® Outdoor Accents® line.
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