Sun Porch Drop Cloth Canopy

You remember on Friends when Ross said he made up that joke and then chandler said that was his joke? Well I tell you what, this ain’t no joke but darn it, this is my creation and I’m callin dibs, copywriting, patenting (not really) my idea to share with the world… my only request is that you think of me if you do it.. you can call it Shawna’s shade maker, or even that gal with the website that loves her family and her pets, or maybe even just send me some mental hug of appreciation. Alright so what am I going on about, you ask. Well, I’ve finally figured out a way to take our newly made sun porch that was getting too hot and turn it into a little oasis. First I thought of umbrellas but for me that would’ve been too many random colors, then I tried a shower curtain and that just didn’t really feel like what I was looking for..

I looked around and saw our drop cloth curtains I’d put together from a picture I saw online and started thinking 🤔.

The curtains are rings with clips from Amazon, drop clothes and a rod from Home Depot, yet I don’t seem to have any pictures of that either and to make my new project I undid that project because it needed a bit revamping anyway and shade was of the utmost importance during these sunny days.

My brain pondered… I need something round, strong, metal.. should I use a tire rim? Do we have a spare? No.. what do I have? I have a metal yard art globe that I got last year and it’s actually just two half’s. That would work perfect!

I got clear zip ties to attach the rings to the metal, then attached the drop cloths to the clips.

I attached the four drop clothes to the clips and then asked my sweetheart to secure it to the ceiling in the center area of the patio where we sit.

Mitch used hooks to secure it to the wood of the ceiling area and then I took each of the drop cloth panels pulled out as far as it would go and used a staple gun to secure the ends to ceiling.

I counted out how many more I needed and went shopping the next day ( used a total of 9- 6×9 medium duty drop clothes)

With many more zip ties, the help of Elijah and the drive to have some shade we got it put together.

I then decided to order some golden toned solar string lights to drape under the entire canopy to make it really spectacular at night. I’ll probably hang crystals in the center or… who knows, maybe even a bigger solar light.

List of Items-

Clips from Amazon-

Drop clothes from Home Depot-

Zip ties-

Staple gun-

Solar string lights Amazon-

If you decide to use this idea, or parts of the idea, I’d love to hear all about it.