Hey there!  I hope your holiday week was fantastic and you got a little time off to enjoy it.  I took a couple days off from work to get caught up on some projects around the house.  The weather was clear and hot the entire week, so it finally really felt like summer.  One of the projects we knocked out was adding a shade cloth to the deck.  The Hubs actually put this up while I was out on a photo shoot so I don’t have many detail shots but it’s a pretty simple setup so you should catch on without them.

We had purchased two sun shades while on vacation down south last summer and had planned to put one over each deck.  Unfortunately when we pulled them out to set them up this summer we realized neither size we’d gotten would work for what we wanted.  So we sold those and purchased a 10 x 10 cover on Amazon.

We added these cement pole foundations in the rock beds against the deck and secured pressure treated 4×4’s into the prongs.  I plan to eventually cover the cement block with more rock so you don’t notice it but that is a project for another day.

The tops of the posts were finished with copper caps like we used on the fence around the yard and a bracket was attached to tie off the corner of shade.

We did similar brackets on the house which connect to the corners on that side  (excuse the cobwebs – I swear I clean them but those industrious little buggers seem to have them back up in no time!).  Next year we’ll swap out the rope for turnbuckle hardware for a cleaner look, but this gives us an idea of size needed for that change.

It ties right in with the other grey and black elements we’ve got going on in the yard.  And the sleek design looks good from every angle of the yard.  The amount of shade it provides changes throughout the day as the sun moves across the sky and we’ve noticed it does give some protection during a light rain.

It really makes the space feel intimate and inviting.  And because we made sure it didn’t hang over the grill it’s safe to stay up for the whole season.  We do plan to take it down for winter, so it doesn’t get too heavy with snow and lasts a little longer.

Not only are we enjoying it, the fur babies appreciate the extra shade too – especially on hot days like we had last week!