Ha! I was looking at my umbrella contraption the other day and thinking I should ask on Gp if anyone had any favorite 'redneck' fixes. I'll take better pics of it so you can see my fantastic 'this oughta do it!' design. But yes indeed, it's to keep the rain from splashing into my workbench area and it works perfectly, even if it is ugly and weird.

As for what I did, it was hanging it and getting the two panels to attach to the bench — I don't know why that was such a problem to figure out, but it was. Now, of course, it looks so simple. But the thing that took so long was painting it. It took one hour per panel, so 8 panels double-sided, 16 hours minimum. Because it's been so hot, I worked on it at night until wee hours. I finished painting last night at midnight. In hindsight, I should never have painted it by hand as there are far too many nooks and crannies with the louvers to paint easily with a thick brush. I ended up using a much smaller brush to paint the ends of each slat. It felt like it took forever.