10/8

Try This: A modern solution for hiding your trash can!

Budget: $$, D.I.Y. Project, Outdoor Spaces, Try This, Wood working
By Elsie Larson

Try this- a modern solution for hiding your trash canHey, friends. Check it out! It’s the back of my house. You don’t notice anything ugly and distracting, like maybe four trash cans?

Do you?

No?

Woooohooo! You have no idea how proud I am of my hidden trash can situation. 🙂 Here’s a quick post sharing exactly how we made this custom fence (would you call it a fence??) that hides my trash cans and gives the rest of my home the clean/modern feel we are going for.

BeforeFirst, here’s the before. This photo was taken just a couple months ago before the house was painted. You can see here (behind the ladders) that there was already a “fence” type situation around the trash cans. It looked fine before, and I was glad it was there.

Once the house was painted white, it suddenly looked really old. There was moss growing on it and a lot of the wood had rot, so my plan to paint that white quickly flew out the window. We decided to get rid of it and add a new, more modern cover for the trash cans.

I got a quote to build one with breeze blocks (we’re planning to do something else with breeze blocks as well, I promise I didn’t get a whole quote just for my trash can fence), but the quote was very expensive. Since we had just spent a pretty penny getting the house painted, we decided to hold off on any more contracted projects until next year.

Buuuutt, with the new white house, the black trash cans really stood out. See?

Try this- a modern solution for hiding your trash can BEFORESo I decided to try a DIY option! I thought about it a lot, and then the perfect, simple idea came.

Here’s what we did!

Try this- a modern solution for hiding your trash can Woohoo!! So simple. So clean.

The supplies for this project ended up being around $150 for the size we needed. Not bad, not bad.

Try this- a modern solution for hiding your trash can Here’s how it looks pulled away from the house. It is still moveable. We chose not to secure it down because it’s heavy enough that it won’t tip over in the wind or storms. And keeping it movable is the easiest way to be able to hose it down back there if we ever have a trash accident (it happens).

Oh! If you’re curious, we have a trash service that drives up to this spot so we don’t have to roll anything to the curb (it’s AWESOME).

Try this- a modern solution for hiding your trash can Here’s how it looks from behind, in case you want to make one that’s similar. It’s so easy (but also extremely custom for our house) that we didn’t think it was necessary to show you a whole DIY. But I can help you with any questions you might have if you want to make your own.

The boards are the pre-primed white boards (6″ tall by 3/4″ wide). Then there are four posts that are 2.5 inches wide on each corner. If you have that and screws, you have everything you need!

Try this- a modern solution for hiding your trash can You can see here that the cans are hidden, but still fully accessible. Since they are the small trash cans, they are easy to lift out.

I guess that’s everything! Let me know if you have any questions in the comments.

Oh… ONE more before/after before I go!

Before:After Back of the house!I’m really excited about all the little tweaks we’ve made so far!

Next up on our outdoor list are some flower beds. Then, next year, we are hoping to add a deck to the back (more to the left where the photo cuts off) and really fix up the landscaping.

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend!!! xx -Elsie

Credits//Author and Photography: Elsie Larson. Project Assistant: Collin DuPree. Photos edited with the NEW A Beautiful Mess actions.

35 Comments

  • Fairly simple yet stunning. A beautiful architectural element with a much-needed function. A+++.

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  • Your house is so beautiful! I’m always looking for ways to hide some of the uglier parts of our backyard, and that looks like something I could build myself. Thanks for the always great content!

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  • Love how it all looks! The windows are beautiful!!! May take a stab at something like that for ours, but it may take 3 signatures from the HOA to get it done!

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  • We currently use a bed of peonies to hide our’s but….its fall and they’re kind of done. This is fabulous!!

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  • looks amazing but i have a question: do the trash service people move the fence out of the way every time they pick up the trash? or do they lift the cans or the bags out? curious since i want to now how practical it would be for curbside trash pickup

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    • I see it’s raised on a cement slab, and it seems to work for him. perhaps if someone else builds it, they could put wheels on all four corners where the studs are.

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  • I loved the house exterior before and after! great sol’n for garbage cans. I need a lid for the racoons though. 🙂

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  • YAY!!!!! FOR WHITE. I adore white and the staggering simplicity it brings to a space. Almost everything in my home (and blog) is white. haha! LOVE. Your house transformation looks ahhhhmazzing! Brilliant idea for the trash cans!

    Big love,
    Lynne from Design The Life You Want To Live

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  • I built something very similar to hide my trash cans, I just added casters and it is very easy to move out of the way to get the trash cans to the curb

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  • Wow, I don’t think I had ever seen a full photo of the outside of the house. It’s stunning, I love the white and yellow contrast.

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  • Hey Em!
    They lift them (just like they did with the set up in the “before” photo). Since they are smaller it’s not as heavy.

    I don’t think this set up would be as practical for curbside, unless you built a gate of some kind and had the cans with wheels maybe?

    xx- Elsie

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  • So clever! My trashcans are on the side of the house so they’re hidden by the brick wall and gate, but man oh man would a delivery service that grabbed the cans for me be great. Haha.

    This looks like a good idea for a little potting station too. Perhaps to hide a wheelbarrow, small potting bench, and extra pots and fertilizer and some gardening tools.

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  • I’m on board with all of your improvements. Your house looks so fresh and updated. BUT THEN THE STONE WALL WAS PAINTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  • The house looks amazing! Although it fascinates me how you don’t need your garage for your car (winters here make it so that garages are a hot commodity around here in Eastern Canada) I must say it looks very cool! And this is a very nice way to hide your trash cans (very clean). I’m curious though, don’t you guys have city issued cans? We have 3 bins (much bigger than the ones you have) that are issued by the city. A black one for trash, a blue one for recycling and a small green one for compost and they are not picked up on the same day of the week. Also, we have to haul them to the corner of the street (down our laneway) so that the trucks can pick it up. Anyway, it always fascinates me how things are so different in other places.

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  • It’s been so convenient for me that you guys are doing a remodel/revamp of your house around the same time I am.

    After we paint our stone fireplace (which I finally talked my husband in to!), next on our list is to deal with our trash can situation. It’s driving me crazy.

    Love this, thanks!!

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  • Painting brick of a house can both change it for the good or not. To me it depends on the color of the original brick, the form (whether perfectly smooth, or irregular and it’s size. In your case, the paint transformed the house for the very much better. Also, your windows already seemed to have a contemporary take and the clean white makes it more modern and cohesive looking. But that gorgeous stone wall, I almost died. That type of stone laying is an art, and the stone and color provides texture and an organic feel to balance the modern. Oh, it broke my heart to see it white!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  • beautiful home and good solution to camouflaging the cans which seems to be an issue for you. I have to say that my very first reaction was why does anyone need that many cans? Are recycling and composting not a thing where you live? Around here there would be no point owning that many cans – we only have garbage pickup every two weeks and still cannot put out that much garbage each time. I’m not sure how it works there – maybe you have a private service so that you can put out a large amount, or maybe its only picked up once a month? Just curious. I don’t know anyone who has 4 cans. I have one plus two bins for recycling glass/plastic and paper/cardboard. We also have a separate can for compost to be picked up every week since that’s what’s most highly encouraged. Having a garbage corral wouldn’t be something I’d ever see needing to happen here. Also in the winter they’d be covered with snow and none of us want’s to go outside to put a bag in the can. And then there’s the wildlife an outdoor can would attract. The racoons would have that fence pulled out of the way and the cans dumped all over.

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  • I have the same question as Jenny! Why so many trash cans? Inquiring minds want to know!

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