Painting an already painted garden fence

[MaMaD1990]

Posting here for traffic and some advice please. We bought a house last year and the previous had an obsession with very dark brown. The garden fence is this same horrible dark brown colour and I want to repaint it something light, sage green perhaps. It's in good condition and no paint is peeling. My question is can I paint straight over the existing paint and has anyone tried this before? I'm dreading the thought of sanding it all off!

An update! My partner would not be talked into black fencing unfortunately (no matter many beautiful Pinterest pages I showed him) so I trotted off to B&Q and got a tester of Willow by Cuprinol Shades. Well, it's gorgeous - I put two coats on the tester areas and it's covered the offending dark brown brilliantly! I just need to wait for a few days of nice weather but I'm running to B&Q tomorrow to pick up the paint before it all goes. Thank you all again for you input, this is why I love mumsnet (most of the time!)

ooh, I've never considered black fencing before. About to buy my own post divorce house and so happy I can do what I please - I feel a black shed and one black fence coming on. The other two sides of the garden are a lovely brick wall. Maybe some black planter tubs, and some evergreen shrubs etc. I've never felt excited about a garden or gardening and this has me inspired.

Oh yes! Definitely a perk, being able to decorate things exactly how you want them. I'm so jealous of your black shed already!