If you're anything like us, you can't help but look for new DIY inspiration every few weeks. A simple construction project can be the perfect thing to give your home an affordable renovation and, thanks to these ideas, declutter your garden or garage a bit. So if you're looking for something to get your hands dirty with, take a look at these DIYs that'll put those cinder blocks you have no idea what to do with to good use.
A Cinder Block Cubby For Shoes
For many of us, especially if we live with family, shoes can be a big clutter issue. The entryway of your house becomes a minefield of little shoes to step over, and there never seems to be enough storage to deal with everything. But, if you've got some extra cinder blocks sitting around, you can easily stack them up to create this organizing cubby and immediately straighten up that mudroom for good!
The key here is to make the cinder blocks into functional furniture so that they don't feel like they're taking up too much space. A plank of plywood and a big couch cushion across the top should fix this.
Entertainment Center With Storage
Finding a place to keep all your electronics can be such a hassle. There's the TV, and then there are the speakers for the TV and all the cables for both of those. And then there are the video game consoles, and then there's the Sonos controller– it all adds up! That's why we love this inventive entertainment stand design out of cinder blocks and wood planks. It provides storage for all the cables and a clean look to complement any room.
If you want, you can stain the wood as this person did. It'll give it a more rustic, antique look and protect the wood from wear as well!
A Beautiful and Affordable Fence
Bing Crosby crooned it best all those years ago when he said, "Don't fence me in." But, if he had a yard that looked this good, he probably would've changed his mind. By stacking two cinder blocks vertically on top of one another and then using them as grounding posts, you can run fence boards around your deck and make a DIY protection fence fit for a King! Just make sure to secure the cinder blocks to the ground.
With this design, if one post comes tumbling, so will all the rest. So, it's incredibly important to ensure that everything is secured.
Host A MasterChef Competition Right In Your Backyard
If you and your friends are always cooking and trying to one-up each other, then this is the cinder block project for you. By creating a U-shaped island in your backyard and centering your barbecue grill behind it, you and your friends can host showcase cooking events, almost like a Food network competition! A word for the wise, though, be careful what you wish for. Cooking is so much harder when you're being watched and judged the whole time!
This project, like many of the others, should make use of some mortar to cement the cinder blocks together. Also, you should consider drilling through the wood and securing it to the top of the cinder blocks as well.
Create a Romantic Candle Display
One of the great things about cinder blocks is that they're heat resistant, so you don't have to worry about them catching on fire. That's why we absolutely love this candle stand that's giving us all the vibes: romantic, cozy, welcoming - you name it. Put a bunch of cinder blocks together, and you have a gorgeous home decor accessory like this one. Then all you need is a few of your favorite candles.
Just watch what else you're putting around all those candles, and make sure to blow them out before bed.
Enough Sitting Room for Everyone
Cinder blocks are a great medium to build with since they're cheap, sturdy, and don't need to be primed and overhandled when painting. As you can see from the image down below, you can polish off a few projects in one fell swoop, just using paint, the blocks, and a few planks of wood. Plus, after this project is complete, your backyard will become the place where all of your friends will be begging to hang out.
If you plan on building a cinder block fire pit like this one, we'd suggest that you only paint the outside of the cinder blocks. The heat generated on the inside of the fire pit may warp or melt the paint if you paint the whole block.
We Hope You're All Hungry, We've Been Grilling All Day
When it comes to barbecue grills, the truth is that the bigger, the better (as long as you have the space to fit it, of course). So if you plan on doing cookouts and serving a lot of people at once, maybe you'll want to think about making your own mega-grill, like this one. These folks used cinder blocks and an old gasoline drum, and now they're ready to feed the whole neighborhood!
If you're going to be working with gasoline drums, make sure to give them a good scrub on the inside with dish soap, and hit them with a power washer before thinking about bringing flames anywhere near.
Host An Easy, No Clean-Up Shish-Kebab Night
If you're looking for a barbecue solution that comes with less commitment and effort than the previous one, then this might be the DIY for you. By igniting charcoal and then placing it in the compartments of the cinder block, you can create a no-frills grill and have a fun, easy shish-kebab night without any clean-up afterward. Just make sure you don't overpack the kebab, and have the stick break in the middle.
You also can experiment with different types of wood for this method of cooking, but charcoal is the easiest to find and use. We suggest using something other than lighter fluid to start the fire, however.
Create Beautiful Flower Beds In A Heartbeat
If you're trying to decide what to do with all that extra space in your yard, you might want to consider starting a garden plot. Still, if you don't have the time or the money to build professional garden boxes, the project might go off the rails, and your flowers might be doomed from the start. But, if you have some extra cinder blocks lying around, you can create easy, gorgeous flower beds in the blink of an eye.
These DIY planter boxes can also be used to grow vegetables or herbs. Just make sure you place a protective layer of tarp below your planting soil.
DIY Centerpieces To Spruce Up The Table
If you have access to a power saw, or if your local hardware store sells half-size cinder blocks, then you're already halfway to hosting some of the most beautiful dinner parties your friends and family have ever seen. Just chop a block right in the middle so the container is still viable, pack it with dirt, and plant some wild grass. Your dining room table now looks like it belongs in a Michelin starred restaurant.
If you plan on cutting the cinder block yourself, make sure to use the proper sawblade, and always wear eye protection since there will be dust and bits of concrete flying everywhere once you get to work.
A Firewood Stand To Keep Everyone Warm On Cool Nights
This DIY project only requires two cinder blocks and four two-by-fours to complete, which makes it one of the simplest on this entire list. By positioning the two-by-fours inside the gaps in the cinder blocks and angling them outwards, you're left with a perfect V-shaped firewood holder for the back patio. Just make sure you stack up kindling and smaller pieces of wood in here instead of your big logs; we haven't tested what type of weight this thing can handle yet.
Make sure to keep this firewood holder under an overhang or in the garage when you're not using it. This will stop your good, dry wood from getting rained on.
Need a Stairway in Your Garden?
If you have a pitched yard, you already know that not only does drainage become an issue, but it's harder to maneuver outside. That's why a lot of people will either level off their properties or create a set of outdoor stairs. If you're thinking of doing the latter, you might want to take a look down below and draw some inspiration from this cinder block staircase. It's still in progress in the picture but already looks sturdy as could be.
Obviously, you'll need to do some digging to correctly ground the cinder blocks. Also, be sure to add gravel or some type of drainage agent below the cinder blocks because if the foundation becomes muddy, your staircase could wind up collapsing.
A Custom Pop-Out Garden Wall
If your backyard or patio is lacking in privacy, you might want to consider making a cinder block wall. The materials will be cheap, and with just a little mortar and rebar, your cinder blocks will make a sturdy privacy barrier. But, if you want to take that one step further, you can arrange the cinder blocks to stagger pop-out shelves throughout the wall. If you look at the example below, you'll see just how useful this design can be.
These shelves work great to hold plants, but we'd also suggest putting one at right about armchair height, so you can rest your drink on it while relaxing.
Create Colorful Art to Brighten Up Your Yard
This gorgeously painted masterpiece is made out of the same materials as everything else you've seen in this article: cinder blocks! Vertically stacking just four or five cinder blocks can create some serious height, and then the exterior surface is yours to decorate as you please. Careful, though, cinder blocks are heavy, and the last thing you'd want is for your front-yard sculpture to fall on the postman's head. Create a foundation and maybe drill through the top of each block to stick rebar through the structure.
This project will definitely make your yard the envy of the neighborhood. And it might even inspire your neighbors to make their own!
Homemade Benches And A Cinder Block Centerpiece
If your backyard is low on space, but you still want to make it a cool area to hang out and relax, you might want to try this cinder block project. By utilizing your already existing fence as a backrest, you can create perimeter benches out of cinder blocks and wood planks that will be sturdy, comfortable, and easy to build. Plus, if you have any leftover construction materials, you can turn them into a backyard coffee table to hold everyone's drinks.
The most expensive part of this project will probably be the wood planks, but if you do some research and sand the wood yourself, they shouldn't break the bank.
All You Need Is a Good Mattress to Put on Top
Sleep is sacred to a lot of people. It's almost ritualistic sometimes. There are all these different schools of thought and opinions on what type of sheets are best, what type of pillows provide the best support, and whether memory foam or traditional box spring mattresses are best. But regardless of those preferences, if you're in a pinch in a new apartment and need a bed frame, fast, look no further than two rows of cinder blocks and a large sheet of plywood.
This DIY sleeping platform will be just as comfortable as the bedding that you put on top of it and just as sturdy as you make it, so it's really up to you how far you want to take this!
A Giant Backyard Fire Pit For Cheap
If you want to make your outdoor space more fun, a fire pit is the first step. You can use it year-round, even in winter, and if you build it well enough, it'll last years for you and your family. This design is one of the simplest but most effective that you can create. It utilizes two base layers of cinder blocks to create some height and then tops the blocks with a layer of concrete brick, so the edge of the fire pit has a uniform surface.
This is definitely the type of project you're going to want to use mortar for.
Who's Up For A Swim?
The cinder block's greatest property is its ability to be used with other materials to create functional objects. For example, the swimming pool down below isn't made solely out of cinder blocks, but they might be the most significant part of the swimming pool's design. This person took cinder blocks and created their outline with mortar before pouring concrete and waterproofing the inside of the pool. It still needs to be filled up, but we want to go swimming already!
This is one of the most complicated projects featured in this thread, so don't expect a one or two-day timeline if you're going to try this.
DIY Outdoor Kitchen
This gorgeous outdoor kitchen should really be featured in a magazine or something because this professional, restaurant-quality-looking setup is somehow made almost completely out of cinder blocks! As you can see in the bottommost image, the foundation and structure for this outdoor kitchen are made out of cinder blocks, and then the steel fixtures and gas lines were installed later. Finally, they put a countertop on top of the whole thing, and voila!
This is the type of backyard that you want to go to parties in. But, if you're going to have a kitchen that nice, you better be a good enough cook to use it.
A Minimalist and Industrial Cinder Block Night Table
One of the major trends in interior design in recent years has been the focus on minimal, industrial designs. We're talking steel fixtures, matte black paint, and a lot of glass and wood. Basically, apartments are being designed to look like old factories. So, if that's the style you're going for, then this DIY cinder block night table is exactly the one for you. All it requires is three cinder blocks, and you're on your way.
By utilizing the compartments in the cinder blocks, you get multiple cubbies, a bookshelf, and a tabletop out of this ingenious design. We definitely have to try this one out.
Outdoor Fireplace Made Easy With Cinder Blocks
A fireplace is such an underrated appliance. Since they're built into houses, no one really thinks about getting one like you would a new fridge or a new stove. But, if you're good enough with your hands, you could use cinder blocks and build your very own outdoor fireplace for cheap! This sturdy, towering centerpiece will make any backyard warmer, more regal, and more inviting for guests. Plus, it'll keep you warm all winter.
This fireplace also offers you the opportunity to roast marshmallows, do some outdoor cooking, or incinerate your old work files and school paperwork. It's as all-purpose as all-purpose comes!
Cinder Block Storage Solutions For Any Apartment Or Home
If you're drowning in clutter and need to find a way to organize your life but don't want to do a full Marie Kondo and throw a bunch of stuff out, you can always create a few shelves for yourself out of cinder blocks and wood planks. By stacking blocks on each side vertically, you create a high shelf to hold books, documents, or whatever else needs storing. These shelves can even hold your ukelele!
We'd suggest drilling through the blocks of wood and securing them to the cinder blocks. If you're not careful and one block falls, then the whole rest of the shelf is coming down too.
This Bench Will Transform Your Front Yard For The Better
In the before picture down below, we see a front yard that's bland, lacking character, and that honestly doesn't look like a very fun place to relax. But in the picture down below, we have a colorful, comfortable, and exciting shared space that anyone would be proud to have under their windowsill! Plus, the whole thing was just made out of cinder blocks and one large couch cushion. How much easier does it get?
One thing to be wary of here is that it'll take a while to grow grass back under those blocks once you remove them. The weight makes it difficult for anything to grow.
If Aliens Built The Pyramids, Who Built This Succulent Pyramid?
It might still be hard to believe for some people, but the pyramids of Giza were built thousands of years ago, before any of the complicated machines we use today even existed. Still, that doesn't mean you can't make your own replica in your backyard. By carefully arranging a handful of cinder blocks in a pyramid shape, you can pay homage to the ancient Egyptians while also making an eye-catching, stylish, and geometric succulent display.
We love the way that this person segmented their pyramid into colors and put some of their most impressive flowers at the top. This shape draws the eye up, so they obviously knew what they were doing.
Design Flowerbeds To Fit Any Yard With Cinder Blocks And Gravel
If the previous owner of your home had flowerbeds in front of the office, but they didn't take good care of them, chances are there's a big barren patch between your home and your good, healthy lawn. At this point, you're going to want to do something to beautify your land, but what? If you're interested, this solution down below could be a useful one for cheap and only requires a few cinder blocks and some small stones.
If you want to create clean, curved lines like this person did, you'll need to extend the cinder block barrier. Ninety-degree angles are super easy to create this way, though if you want to do that instead.
The Cutest DIY Birdhouse, Maybe Ever
It's no wonder so many people are addicted to bird-watching as a hobby. Most of the time, we can only catch a fleeting glimpse of a beautiful bird before it takes off and flies away. So, if you have the space to hang one, you might consider putting a birdhouse in your yard. It'll ensure that you get to admire those birds for longer. Plus, it's a great opportunity to make something yourself with your own bare hands.
This cinder block birdhouse can easily be made in the span of an afternoon if you have a drill, a power saw, and a few spare pieces of wood lying around.
Artsy Cubby Display Is Functional And Fashionable
If you host a lot of events in your backyard, you're going to need a few pieces of furniture that are multipurpose in order to meet your needs. That's why we love this simple cinder block design. It uses two layers of cinder blocks to create cubby windows off the ground for people to store their shoes, clothes, or books. This same design can also be used to create a stylish coffee table in the backyard as well!
For the coffee table especially, we suggest using some mortar and securing all the blocks to one another. That way, you'll be able to move the table around the yard as you please without reassembling it every time.
Cinder Block Planters Offer Cheap, Easy Alternatives To Traditional Pots
If you're tired of your front entryway looking bland, and just like all the other homes on the block, it's time to switch things up and create your own cinder block planters. You can paint any design you want on the outside and plant any plant you want on the inside, so it's really a win-win. But, we'd suggest getting the half-size blocks at first, just so they don't take up too much room.
We've even thought about giving these out as gifts a time or two, but the one problem we always have is how heavy they are. You can't give someone a gift they're going to drop on the way home!
It's Time For A Party
The end of summer is always a melancholy time. It's tough to have to say goodbye to the warm nights and great vibes of a season spent enjoying the great outdoors, but at least it gives you an excuse to throw a killer summer closeout bash! And, by taking some old cinder blocks and stacking them inventively, you can create a world-class bar cart and buffet that your party guests will be talking about for the whole entire year.
If you're going to try this project, make sure you have some form of instant mortar available. You'll want to anchor the cinder blocks to one another, so they don't fall over.
Everybody Loves A Good Buffet
Do you want to host a party, but you're not sure if you have a table big enough to sit everyone? What if you want to do a potluck, but you have nowhere to put all that great food? This cinder block solution fixes both of those problems. If you can find a few big pieces of plywood and make a few big cinder block supports, in no time, you'll have a buffet table fit for a Las Vegas casino.
Eating buffet style is nice because everyone can grab what they want when they want. It takes some of the pressure off of the traditional service aspect of a dinner party.
Create A Plant Watering Station On Your Back Patio
It's nice to have plants around the house, but it's a little frustrating when we can't remember which plants we did and didn't water. Plus, if you try taking care of the plants while they're still inside the house, you're bound to spill dirt everywhere. But, if you create a little plant watering station on your back patio as this person did, you can take care of your plants outside and keep the inside of your home squeaky clean!
This series of shelves work great because the cubby holes in the cinder blocks can be used to hold extra pots; plus, if you need to move it, it can be disassembled in a matter of minutes!
Reduce Your Carbon Footprint And Start A DIY Compost
Composting is the practice of taking biodegradable household waste, like vegetable and food leftovers, and leaving them sitting in your yard. Over time, these materials naturally decompose and are broken down by mother nature, which then leaves you with homemade, natural, reusable fertilizer to use on your plants and flowers. And, if you're looking to get started, creating this cinder block compost bin could be the perfect first step for you to take!
The beauty of keeping a compost bin like this is that you can go in and use the material whenever you want. But, if you don't have any planting to do, that compost can continue sitting there, getting more fertile over time.
When It's Time for Spooky Season
Have you ever been to a really scary haunted house? What about a maze through a hayfield? As Halloween approaches, there's always so much fun stuff to do, and it makes us want to decorate and celebrate the holiday too. That's why this year, we're thinking about trying out this person's inventive light display in our front yard. With a series of cinder blocks, small candles, and little pumpkins, this person made a decoration that would make Ichabod Crane proud.
Ichabod Crane is the name of the famous Headless Horseman in a Washington Irving short story, and it's a staple part of Halloween in some American households (especially in the Northeast) to recount those stories every year!
Take A Seat On This DIY Cinder Block Bench
This comfy-looking outdoor couch could be yours if you really want. All you have to do is run down, buy a few cinder blocks, find some wood planks, and then buy a cushion for the top of the bench. You'll still need to assemble your new bench, but that'll only take a few short minutes. Then, you'll have a gorgeous new fixture to sit on outside while you watch the kids play.
If you plan on using this design, we'd suggest you place some mortar between the support blocks and the block holding the planks. This will make the bench much more solid.
Gorgeous Garden Displays For Succulents And Flowers
One of the reasons we love summer is that it the season gives us the opportunity to work on our green thumbs and spend time outside caring for our flower beds and vegetables. But, if you've got the extra space and time this summer, you might want to consider making a larger flower display out of extra cinder blocks. It'll create a gorgeous way to show off your blooming flowers and your construction skills to boot!
Although a display like this would be difficult to transport (very heavy), it reminds us of something we'd see in a rose parade or another big flower event.
Instant Jet Grill Makes Cooking A Breeze
This intuitive design can help you create a stove out of just a few cinder blocks and some kindling. The "four-block rocket stove" is a design that utilizes three standard cinder blocks and one notched cinder block that kind of looks like an I-beam. By lining the I-beam block up with the opening you're feeding kindling, fire will be able to rise up through the top block and heat the pan sitting on top so you can make yourself a meal!
This is a great hack if you're homesteading or doing some off-grid construction. You and your fellow workers can huddle up around the stove and take a nice, cinder block-cooked lunch break.
Cinder Block Succulent Holders Are A Perfect Decoration
Having plants in your living space is a great way to brighten up the space– as long as you can remember to water them, that is. That's why succulents are a great alternative. They live for a long time, don't require much water, and look beautiful to boot. But, if you're tired of the way that traditional plastic pots and planters look, maybe you'll want to try this cinder block alternative to house your household plants.
If we had to pick, we'd say that it looks like a haworthia cymbiformis in the pot. This small succulent is hearty and can be found in plant shops worldwide but is native to South Africa.
A Cinder Block Armchair Fit For An Emperor
These cinder block and granite armchairs look like they would've been the height of fashion during the days of the Roman empire. They're regal, solid, and make a beautiful addition to this person's back patio. If you want to make chairs like this, just use cinder blocks to create the outline of the chair you want, and then top with pieces of wood or tiled granite. All of these materials will be readily accessible at your local home improvement superstore.
If you're going to try this project out, we suggest you think long and hard about the dimensions of your chairs, as well as how you're going to secure the different parts. We don't want anyone's chair collapsing under them, do we?
An Outdoor Oasis To Rival The Botanical Gardens
If you have the extra space and the ability to tend flowers well enough that you can create an unbelievable display to show off your prowess, why wouldn't you do it? Plus, if you look at this example down below, you can tell that there's no wrong way to use cinder blocks in your garden. You just have to pick your layout and get to work. In no time, your garden will be the envy of all of your friends.
This design uses the cinder blocks to hold fence posts, separating all the different plants from one another. You may need to cut the center support out of the blocks if you want an unchinked look like this, though.
Go Back In Time With This Rustic Table Design
Sure, we know that the black and white filter makes this picture look older. But at the same time, doesn't this table design look so classic? The cinder block array in the center makes for a nice, wide base for that large, wooden tabletop. Although, if you're going to try a design like this, make sure the table is mounted to the blocks, and the blocks are nice and firmly mounted in the ground.
We give that advice up above because if someone leans on one side of this thing, the whole thing could come crashing down. We're not exactly sure if that's what they meant when they said: "liven up the party," though.