Our sunroom used to have that typical lattice work and it VERY MUCH WORE ON ME. Some places it can look nice, but here and with our house it felt all kinds of bad fussy victorian. The first chance I got last fall I ripped it off. Since we weren’t out there over the winter it was okay the bottom of the screens weren’t protected. Now it is warm again and we are initiating sunroom sprucing. What I wanted instead of the lattice is some nice linear panels.
They are a clean look and add the functionality of little ones not being able to push through screens.
BEFORE AND AFTER PHOTOS! I love them so much. (Though this is a before and “progress” photo).
First I did some experimentation to decide how wide of planks I want, and how wide of gaps between each plank. I compared pretty much all sizes between three and six inches and was very into the skinny three inch ones. The caution with wider planks was that they could kind of seem a little boarded-up-window feeling in an outdoor area. The thin planks felt not that, and really polished. Also they can let in the maximum light and visibility.
For gaps I was going back and forth between one inch and 3/4 inch, but it was a very subtle difference so I chose one inch IN FAVOR OF ROUND NUMBERS.
The material used is 4 x 8 sheets of 1/4 inch plywood. At home depot I had them cut it down into the three inch pieces for me. Sometimes they don’t charge for cuts; sometimes they do, but either way I find it’s worth having them do it for you.
We painted two coats on both sides of behr “polished marble” using their porch and floor paint. (Which I really like! Glossy and cleanable.)
Then we cut the pieces down to the length of each opening and installed with these nails and our 18-gauge cordless nail gun. When a skinnier piece was needed at the end we ripped it down to fit with our table saw.
Painting took about four hours and then installation took maybe two hours. Touching up chippy paint and bringing the look up to date makes it feel so good out here. Our family loves having our dinners here and obviously hosting summer parties. Thank you, slats over the screens in our sunroom.
A post about our completely diy-ed fence is here.