Do you have unsightly house vents within view of your outdoor living space? Ours are right on our deck and no matter how pretty I decorate the space, those vents are still an eyesore. Shy of sticking a tall plant in front of them, I needed to come up with an idea that would both hide the vents while giving that area of our small deck a useful purpose.

And my inspiration came from two salvaged wooden doors taking up valuable space in our basement. I hope my creative idea for how to hide unsightly outdoor vents with repurposed louvered bifold doors provides you with an answer for hiding your unsightly house vents too.

Repurposed Louvered Door Outdoor House Vent Cover

I'm sharing two repurposed wooden louvered door ideas for an outdoor living space today. The first is an outdoor vent cover bar table and the other a BBQ grilling station utensil holder that also acts as a heat barrier for vinyl house siding.

Both the outdoor vent cover table and the grilling station utensil holder are not difficult to make and I'll be sharing the detailed steps further down in the post. Both of these repurposed door ideas are great for a small deck or patio space.

These are the salvaged wooden louvered bifold doors for these two projects. They were formerly divider walls in my booth at a local antique mall. I'm so glad to have finally found a new purpose for them.

By using louvered doors, the house vents still have adequate airflow while serving a useful purpose as an outdoor bar table. No more unsightly house vents, a handy table for entertaining outdoors while not taking up a lot of room on our small deck. A win-win in my books!

We turned the second set of bifold doors into a handy BBQ Grilling Station Utensil Holder. You could easily add a shelf or two with metal brackets as well, which I may just do.

But there is another purpose for this BBQ utensil holder. If you're like us and the only spot on your deck for the BBQ is against the house, then the louvered door screen acts as a barrier to protect the vinyl siding from melting!

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of how to build both projects, I should mention that we are self-taught DIYers and not trained professionals. This step-by-step tutorial is based on our building knowledge only. However, if you are a do-it-yourselfer like us, you'll find these steps helpful if you plan on making an outdoor vent cover and/or BBQ grilling station like ours.

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We'll start with the outdoor house vent cover bar table. You could adapt our instructions to hinge the doors at the front so they open, with open shelves behind them. We chose to have our doors stationary and just use the top of the bar table.  

Repurposed Louvered Door Outdoor Vent Cover Table

The goal was to cover the ugly furnace air intake vents and central vacuum exhausts on our deck. As I mentioned earlier, the louvered slats and board and batten-style sides allow unobstructed airflow. However, we do store the vent cover in the shed during the winter when the furnace is operational.

With the vent cover being only 12-inches deep, it's enough to hide the vents but not obstruct the traffic flow on our small deck. Anywhoo, enough chatter, you'll find the instructions for how to build it below.

Step 1 - Cutting Louvered Doors

The longer bottom half of the bi-fold door was the perfect height to cover the vents. We sliced the door on the table saw but don't attempt to cut it in one fell swoop. Either unhinge the doors and cut them each separately OR connect the doors first with metal straight brackets on the back to prevent them from folding.

Step 2 - Building The Vent Cover Sides

We used old cedar 2 x 2 lumber from a previous project for the uprights on the board and batten-style sides. First, we attached one on each side of the cut bi-fold door like pictured below.

Pro-Tip

To prevent the narrow uprights from splitting, drill small pilot holes first before attaching them to the door panels with galvanized wood screws.

Alternative Assembly For Doors To Open

If you would like the doors to open, then remove the hinges joining the two bi-fold doors. Add hinges to the top and bottom of the uprights on both sides and attach the doors.

We used pine fence boards from a previous project for the side slats. So I didn't have to measure each cut, I made a cutting jig by clamping a piece of lumber on the miter saw table for the board to butt up against each cut (pictured below).

Starting with the top and bottom slats and followed by the center slat, they were screwed to the backside of the uprights. The remaining slats were spaced evenly in between. Again, drill pilot holes first so the uprights don't split.

Open Shelving Alternative

If you chose to have the doors open in the front, at this point would be a good time to attach shelves inside. Just like the top of the bar table, use 1 x 6" fence boards for the shelves attached to the back of the uprights with metal L-brackets.

Step 3 - Painting Louvered Door Vent Cover

We used a paint sprayer to stain the vent cover and BBQ utensil holder with a white solid stain. Diluted with water in a 1:4 ratio much the same way as our Quick Way To Stain Adirondack Chairs tutorial.

Step 4 - Vent Cover Bar Table Wood Slat Top

The top of the bar table is made with three salvaged cedar deck board slats. The back slat needed to be ripped narrower on the table saw. Before installation, they are brushed with a transparent stain in the color Cedar Naturaltone.

Once the stain dried the fence boards are spaced evenly on the top of the vent cover with a 1 1/2-inch overhang on three sides. Attach the boards from underneath with metal L-brackets and galvanized wood screws.

That's it, we're done! Up next is the second repurposed louvered door idea with a simple BBQ grilling station.

Repurposed Louvered Door BBQ Grilling Station Utensil Holder

As mentioned earlier, the purpose of the grilling station is both to use as a handy Grill Utensil Holder AND to act as a heat barrier between the vinyl house siding and the BBQ. It is very simple to make this.

All you do is attach a stained cedar fence board on the top of the bifold doors to prevent them from folding. Easy peasy!

Instead of attaching the bi-fold door BBQ utensil holder to the house, we made it portable by adding wooden brackets to the bottom on each side. You can see the wood brackets in the photo above.

The utensils are hanging by S-hooks resting on the louvered slats. Alternatively, you could add a wooden shelf or two with metal brackets above the grill.

Other Ideas For The Louvered Door Utensil Holder

1. Flower Wall - add decorative hooks and metal flower pot hangers at varying heights to display pretty potted plants and flowers.
2. Small Potting Bench - Add a wooden shelf with metal brackets in the middle to use as a planting table. Add narrower shelves above to store an assortment of small flower pots and potted flowers. Add decorative hooks on the sides to hang your garden tools and it's the perfect small potting bench for a deck or patio.
3. Decorative Outdoor Garden Screen - a backdrop for hanging metal garden art or fun outdoor signs.
4. Shutters - Separate the bifold doors and have them flanking a window or door like shutters with solar fence light sconces hanging on each.

The possibilities for repurposing old louvered doors are endless. Here are a couple more ideas that we made with salvaged louvered bi-fold doors for our backyard. We built this Deck Privacy Screen flanking our DIY Outdoor Water Wall on our deck. We also used old bifold doors to make a Privacy Garden Fence.

Thanks for stopping by the Interior Frugalista today! I hope you were inspired by these repurposed louvered door ideas. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comment section below or the Contact Me tab at the top to drop me an email. I love hearing from you!

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