What colour to paint fence (or not?)

[myladygarden]

We are in a new house and I'm desperate to make our little garden a bit more exciting. Plants are starting to grow including some climbers at the back and I do like the wall that you can see (this continues for the length of the garden) but not keen on the expanse of orange fencing.

I was thinking of painting the fence on the left a pale colour maybe a shade of green. Any thoughts? Any actual paint suggestions?

I’d be tempted to leave it for a bit till it weathers - the orange should fade. Paint colour depends on what sort of style you want to go for really. I’ve got charcoal & green plants look great against it.

The current trend is to paint fences in really dark colours (charcoal, midnight blue, etc).

1. It makes boundaries recede so your garden looks bigger and
2. It gives a good contrast - green plants would get lost against a green fence.

I'm not sure that I would paint the back fence, purely because you can see it carrying on to your neighbour's garden and it might look weird to have a paint / no paint situation. Don't forget that the wood will lose its orangeness over time.

Ours are dark green, they make all the plants and flowers stand out, even the green leaves pop because they're all different shades.

Don't paint it, it'll look odd against the other fence (plus you have to re-paint regularly to stop it looking shabby)

I'm doing our fences like this (mostly to piss off the neighbours as their back view overlooks our fence with the other lovely neighbour).

It's a faff, but makes me smile whenever I see it.

Christ that next level petty. Right up there with the woman who proudly posted on MN that she got a solicitor involved when the neighbour painted the other side of the op’s fence (so the side in her own garden) but the op insisted on going round, painting it grey so the neighbour had to look our at grey fencing!

I’m not a fan of dark colours, then can make a dismal grey day look even more dreary. Personally I’d leave it as nature intended, wood coloured. If not, white. Looks like you have a young child though, so maybe not a pale colour. Sage green?

@Peterpiperpickedwrongagain that's almost what petty neighbours did over the front fence a few years ago. They objected to us painting our side, threatened solicitors, then took the fence off and paint stripper/power washed off as much paint as they could.
Now I don't touch the boundary fence their side even to mend it, but the other side is fair game and I like bright colours. Lovely neighbour likes the bright fence colour even though they won't see it.

Once you paint a fence you can't un-paint it, is the thing. Natural wood is more... natural. We moved into a house with bright yellow fences once. Cost a fortune in Farrow & Ball to cover it!

I wouldn’t paint the fences as they are already a nice colour and match. The planters would look good painted.

Who owns the fence?

Our are a dark brown stain. It looks good. We need to do the border wood and small bit of decking we have this summer.

Don't paint it, it will fade and weather nicely.

Ok well overwhelming 'don't paint it' will please DH so will take the advice. I will be hanging some lights across the top of the fence and adding another climber nearer the house but otherwise accept it needs a winter to bed in and weather.
Thank you all

IMO, the problem with not painting/staining a fence is that you’re leaving it to eventually rot more easily as it has no protection at all against the elements.

Cuprinol Duck’s Back fence paint is good. It repels water very well and the colour lasts well. I had to go to a darker colour (due to colour of fence when I moved in), but if I was in your position then I’d go with Harvest Brown. It’s a deep, but natural, colour. Any plants in front will “pop” against the backdrop, but the fence colour won’t overpower the garden. My garden gets a fair build up of lichen, but after 5 years the fences are only just due a re coat in a few areas.

As to leaving them “as is”. There is no way they will look that good in the next 1-2 years. Best to treat them now before stuff starts growing and it’s harder to access them.

don't very dark colours feel ... forboding & dark? why take light out of the garden

I've got a bright yellow/gold fence stain I'm keen on.

I'm rocking that pink & blue fence. Too much time on your hands, but magnificent effort.

That wood is tanalised. Tanalised wood doesn’t need further treatment, unless you want to but you need to let it dry out before you stain it. If you spray water on it and it beads you should leave staining it until it doesn’t.

It will fade to grey (bit like teak). I prefer the faded grey look behind my plants to a stained fence but you might not OP.

Yes this!

Unless it is your fence, you can't go painting it nor attaching stuff to it, without permission from the owner.

Cuprinol Seagrass works well with plants as do shades of purple 😃

The fence isn't orange, some of the cheap nasty stuff from discount DIY, stores is. This looks like good quality. Firstly, you have to ascertain 100% who owns the fence,who is responsible for the upkeep. I wouldn't stain/paint. Unless you are ridiculously lucky, colour will bleed through to neighbour.It's a huge amount,it cannot be 'undone". It will silver down in a couple of years. I would concentrate on planting to conceal it.

Fences really don’t need painting for protection. It is almost always the posts that rot at ground level and need replacing, rather than the panels. As others have said - once painted it needs maintenance.

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