Well, in my back yard we have two water totes that we use to store water. We recently poured a new patio slab and had chosen the spot for them... right in plain sight!
I had to do something, so I searched on Pinterest and found a lot of solutions, most of them being wood covers. While I know those are very sturdy and can look nice, it would cost a lot for the materials and a lot of time to actually make it look nice.
What I decided to do was to build a wood frame, and choose a fabric to cover it with, kind of like you would upholster a piece of furniture or make a canvas frame. We were able to recycle the wood framing used to pour the patio (it didn't have to look nice, it was going to be covered anyway!) to help us save a lot of money, so the only expense in this project was the fabric.
Now, fabric can get very expensive, considering the beautiful prints are regularly priced at $21 PER YARD and I needed 4 1/3 yards for this project. That would have made the project $91!!! I was initially really let down by that high price, and started looking at wood prices, because duck cloth fabric, while it was cheaper, didn't look as nice.
Then I got a Joann store flyer in the mail, and saw that outdoor fabric was on sale for 50% off. I was even more excited to see that over memorial day weekend, they had a coupon for an additional 20% off, even sale priced items.
PERFECT!!
I went back to Joann's and saw that, indeed, all the beautiful designer fabrics were 50% off, and with my 20% off coupon, it brought my $91 cut of fabric to $27.30. Now, THAT was more do-able!!!
I came home and it only took me 15 minutes to get the fabric lined up and stapled to the wood, and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE LOVE LOVE the result!
I hope you've found some inspiration to save money, and be crafty to make your yard more beautiful!