painting/staining an ugly front fence - GOING MAD choosing colour /stain

[gingeroots]

Please help me ,the decision is taking over my life .

Wish I could attach a photo but details are
Victorian yellow stock brick semi detached 3 storey house ,fence divides two forecourts - also ugly .Old grey hardstanding ,3 million wheelie bins in dark green ,blue ,brown .Houses have white woodwork .

Fence is 6 metres ,made of lengths of sturdy planks fixed horizontally to 4" by 4" uprights .
Each plank is about 4" in depth and there are 2" gaps between the 5 lengths .

It's like this www.houzz.co.uk/discussions/1354888/ugly-cheap-looking-banister but is old and grey ,gets stained black at end near road which is under a pavement lime tree .

I've scrubbed and cleaned it ,looks lots better but I'm at a loss to know what finish to go for .

I plan to fix hanging troughs with evergreen ferns/trailing ivy/hedera when it's done .Would add petunias etc in summer.

I quite fancied Cuprinol clotted cream www.cuprinol.co.uk/fences/index.jsp
but then thought it would get dirty quickly .
Then I thought black as it's supposed to make things receed/dissapear .But ...it's not a solid structure and I think might look odd .

I had considered sage green but the patch I painted with a tester just looks wrong .( And how the hell will I get the painted patch off ???)

So now I'm thinking natural stains - but the colours all look so harsh and false ,orangey ,yuckey . Or transparent .

I AM SO CONFUSED .Please help me .

[carmenta]

I think a neutral greyish brown is nicest for a fence. You don't really want to see it as a feature, I think.

[gingeroots]

Thanks carmenta - yes! Neutral greyish brown would work .
But it seems so hard to find that colour .
Maybe here www.ronseal.co.uk/garden/sheds-and-fences/shed-and-fence-preserver/

[carmenta]

Sadolin dark palisander, maybe?

[PassThePeanutButter]

We were after a dark brown but all browns were too chocolatey for our liking so we mixed Cuprinol brown with black and it worked a treat.

[PeaceOfWildThings]

Oak is a grey brown. Anything you use will take a while to dry and settle.

[crayfish]

A cool brown is best I think. We ended up with an orangey brown stain that looks like nothing in nature and I hate it.

Don't go for black, my neighbours have just done theirs and it looks awful. White/cream looks nice but gets grubby really quickly and requires more upkeep.

[crayfish]

Careful of the brand/shade - we used 'oak' and its definitely orangey. Can't remember the brand but it would have been a cheap one.

[gingeroots]

Thank you all ,it's very hard .Glad to see I'm not alone .

The Sadolin range looks hopeful .