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.

I coveted dark green with a lovely light green-it’s not a stain as such. Will try to find out what it was. My foolish husband also painted the fence posts

@Dellow What's the plant with big green leaves, at the front of the photo. It's beautiful.

I can’t find it but it was fence ‘paint’ a stain but thicker.

Looks alright.

It will fade with time. I'd leave it this year and try a different colour next year.

Leave it and see how you feel about it in Spring & Summer when everything is in full green. Can never understand this need to start turning a garden upside down before you've lived with it, in February you have no idea how it will look throughout the seasons!

@userxx Japanese hardy banana (musa basjoo) small ones

@dellow whereabouts in the country are you? As in down south or up north? It looks so luscious!

Whatwould makes a very valid point - this is possibly the worst time of year to decide that your garden looks rubbish. Give it time and buy some cheap bedding flowers to brighten it up in the interim till you know what you want to keep/get rid.

Can you not afford to just replace all the panels? You can change them yourself easily.

@Dellow Thanks for that. I love big leafy plants, so interesting to look at.

I couldn't make the black fence work with my garden as there's hardly any planting area for greenery to go in front of it. So I am staining the panels with Ronseal Fence Life One Coat in a medium brown and covering the black on the concrete posts with masonry paint. It must have been ages since the fence was last done as it's sucking up the stain. I've done four of the nine panels now and they look so much nicer than the dingy black.

As others say, it makes the fence/shed fad into the background and the greenery comes to life. Great trick

Fade, not fad.

I like it a lot more than the orange ones next to it. I would paint the orange ones darker to match.

Haven't rtft but had to comment following the title. We've just painted fences in Cuprinol black ash and it's amazing! Love it with plants against it

Each to their own anyway!