Why would you paint the fence black? Why?

[StuntNun]

I recently moved house and at some point the garden fence has been painted/stained black including the concrete fence posts. The garden is very small and the black fence looks out of place and dingy. I'm going to cover the black on the fence posts with grey masonry paint but is there anything I can do to lighten the fence panels themselves? I assume using a light coloured stain on the wood isn't going to make much difference as the black will show through.

DH painted our shed black. I was extremely sceptical when he was doing it. But it looks amazing. It really sets off the silver birch tree and other plants in front of it.

Maybe you could plant some climbers and other plants so the fence visually fades into the background?

Looks fine to me! Doesn't all fencing go all dingy and weathered after a while?

Looks OK to me. I'd leave it and it will weather and fade more anyway.

Disclaimer - I am hardly gardener of the year.

Black can look really effective and as luna has said it is often recommended to set off plants. I think grey will just make the concrete posts look like concrete posts. You can also get some nice dark greens that would probably cover it, and the ronseal or cuprinol type paints should cover it if you do a few coats of whatever colour you want.

It's very fashionable at the moment. I'm not keen as I prefer a cottage garden style, but will acknowledge it can look amazing as a backdrop to lush green planting.

I'm not sure how you can make it lighter, so I'd suggest planting as much as possible in front/along to disguise it instead.

I like it. Looks very modern and makes the green leaves pop. Mine is painted black and I repaint it every year.

Maybe the best option is to repaint it black so it looks nice rather than dingy.

I like it. But then my entire house is black 😂

We painted our shed a dark charcoal-y grey and I love it. As long as it's kept in good condition I don't see the problem.

Search black garden fence on Pinterest and you will see some lovely gardens.

I used white fence paint in our garden. It's not a stain, it is a proper paint however it goes on thin and needs a couple of coats of cover orange stain. No idea what it would take to cover black...

Hi, I dont normally post here but this thread just popped up in my google feed so thought Id join to see if I could help with this.

Use a jet wash - see all those circular patterns near the bottom of the panels? Thats been done by a jet wash.

Also, I quite like the black panels, but thats just my opinion.

Cheers

Once you have bushes and plants in front of it it’ll disappear into the background and the plants will be the main feature.
Green is the worst colour you can use in the garden, believe it or not. It will never blend well with nature and will only clash.

It sets off the green plants. I'd freshen it up with more black.

Black is the best colour for wood in the garden.

Just repaint it, and everything will look fantastic against it.

Black is the best colour for the fence, then the green of the plants really stand out.

Yes, repaint it black.

Grey would look awful!

I painted our old fence black, it was quite old, had seen better days but at the time we couldn't afford to replace it. It looked really really good when i finished it.

If you keep it clean and fresh black can look amazing. OTOH scruffy black looks worse than any other colour. If you don’t like black have you considered duck egg blues or pastel greens which can set a garden off surprisingly well and look modern / traditional at the same time. I can’t think of a fantastic garden with a brown panel fence or that typical orange brown stain colour people use. Surely they’re just cop-out colours !

Plant some climbing plants. White jasmine will keep green all year round and produce lovely ting white scented flowers and will spread far as well. And a honey suckle too. And a New Dawn rose is very pale pink and scented which would look fab against the black.

Then something pale and silvery too?

I don't think my garden is up to a stylish black fence. It's virtually all patio with only a small patch of lawn so it's impossible to plant lovely plants to set off the fence. I'm experimenting with a mid-brown to cover up the black and repainting the concrete posts with grey masonry paint.

@Dellow Is that a photo of your garden?

@Dellow - seriously is that your garden? Blimey. I am extremely jealous. Also can you come and make mine look like that?

StuntNun my fencing is black and I love it, its a post and rail looking out to the fields and black stands ours less. Plus greenery looks fab against it.

I agree OP. What a drab depressing colour

Yes it is :) but it only looks alright 6 months a year , a lot of things have to be fleeced or protected.

But it shows how black can show the colours up. I don’t have hardly any flowers. I definitely think if people are on the fence about it they should try black out as a background for the plants.