Before & After: A Decrepit Gazebo Looks Completely Unrecognizable After a $600 Makeover

No matter how much you love the potential of a home, sometimes after you’ve initially moved in, you can’t see anything but the eyesore you inherited. Maybe the kitchen cabinets have a 1990s feel to them. Perhaps the bedrooms lack any color whatsoever. Or it could be that the bathroom vanity’s light is far too bright. 

In Paula Bishir-Jensen’s case, she couldn’t get over the Victorian-style gazebo in the backyard. 

The paint was peeling, the wood was splintering, and the whole thing was very wobbly. And aside from those safety issues, the gazebo just didn’t fit the home’s current aesthetic. “We remodeled the house into a mid-century ranch, so it did not fit our style,” Paula notes. 

But she didn’t want to tear the structure down, nor did she plan to buy a brand new one. Instead, Paula and her husband opted to give the gazebo a much-needed makeover. 

They did so by using old corrugated metal panels, art deco brackets, and custom L-brackets to stabilize the whole thing from the start, and then they sanded down and painted the peeling wood to nix any worries of future splinters. Paula and her husband picked a shade of black as the gazebo’s new coating, figuring that it would better align with the mid-century modern feel of the rest of their ranch.

Though the gazebo may look like a completely different structure from what it once was, the whole project — other than the paint — took a single day to complete. And everything totaled just $600, which is a far cry from what a new gazebo would cost to purchase and install. 

Now as she looks upon her backyard, Paula can’t help but smile. She loves how unique her gazebo is and wouldn’t change a thing about it. This eyesore turned out to be a haven for their family, and she’s so glad they get to enjoy it for years to come.

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