What colour shall I paint my fence?

[Wheeeeee]

I know the prevailing wisdom is dark grey or black, to make the foliage stand out, but currently the fence is dark brown and the overall effect is extremely gloomy. The fence is north facing and low down (sloped garden) so while the bed in front of it does get sun morning and evening, the fence itself is shaded, damp and woodlandsy.

I was wondering about a kind of mushroom colour - any thoughts on whether this would work? For what it's worth, the house itself is white.

Should add - I've planted a climbing hydrangea against it so it won't be totally bare forever but certainly for the next while. I tried a clematis armandii as well but that turned its toes up over winter ☹️

Painting a fence is a lot of maintenance…

I wouldn't paint it. Just let it weather.

I've painted mine in the cuprinol garden shades paint in wold thyme. It's a lovely blue-y green that works really well with foliage. The says it should be good for 6 years, I'm three years in and still looks like new. I also did no prep (sanding/priming/cleaning) before just slapping on the paint. Recommend doing the two coats: the paint texture changes completely after 2.

I love the mushroom colour you chose, but I avoided it as I didn't want to have to keep cleaning it after heavy rain etc.

Problem with that is it sounds like it's been previously painted/stained. Mine was the same and it looks awful when it's worn.

A new fence though, absolutely agree

It's in a really damp area (bottom of a hill, stream right behind it) and I'm worried it will rot without some kind of protection, whether paint or stain.

Also as @Uncooperativefingers says, the previous owners stained it dark brown and it is starting to look a bit of a state.

Oh and if wild thyme looks too dark, my shed is painted fresh rosemary, which is a pale green.

@Uncooperativefingers I think we used either wild thyme or fresh rosemary in our previous garden and it was lovely. So you don't find they get too mucky looking after rain? I admit that was a concern of mine about the mushroom colour which is why I'm still swithering.

Are you sure the paint won't seep through to the neighbours side and cause problems?

I wasn't sure. But still, painting a fence leads to having to paint it again. Such a faff. And it drips through to the other side, so irate neighbours paint it a different contrasting colour, so that drips through to the original side... Your beautiful duck egg blue fence becomes a duck egg blue fence with orange dribbles along the edge of each plank!

No neighbours on the other side so no need to worry about that. The other side is basically inaccessible to anyone except council maintenance, not that they do any maintenance...!

Surely only the person who owns the fence has the right to paint it. Although if it's to protect from rotting OP would need to re-paint both sides.

I work in garden design adjacent field and have recently seen a fence in mauve which looked fantastic. The green really stood out against it. A terracotta orange was also great and looked lovely and warm and Mediterranean. We tried to sell a design with a raspberry coloured fence but the customer didn't go for that so perhaps a step too far...

It depends on the type of fencing and method of applying a vertical slatted weatherboard might have this problem but a horizontal one not so much if the overhang faced you.

Oh sorry, quoted wrong person, was talking about paint bleeding through.

No, it doesn't get mucky. The paint texture is almost waxy, it's like a resin cures in it as it dries.

Mauve from pp is a great suggestion, I can imagine that would look great. And maybe the grey tones in it would mean less maintenance than mushroom, but you still get your paler colour?

The DC would LOVE a pink or purple fence but I'm not sure I'll be able to sell DH on either! We're in the west of Scotland and I have a feeling that trying to look Mediterranean would just look so out of place as to be naff. Probably a better designer than me could pull it off but I know my limits 😂

I'm going to have a hunt for mauve paint now and see if I can sell it to DH as warm grey 😉

Also - yes, not being able to paint both sides isn't ideal but I have to work with what I've got and I'm hoping protecting one side is better than neither 🤷🏼‍♀️ unless I want to abseil off a bridge to get to the other side, which at 33 weeks pregnant is probably inadvisable 😁

If it's been treated before and it's very wet, either replace with brick or treat it with a heavy duty coat of something

For the heavy duty stuff, if there's a choice of colours, it's dismal and dark

https://www.cuprinol.co.uk/product/cuprinol-ultimate-garden-wood-preserver

https://www.cuprinol.co.uk/product/cuprinol-exterior-wood-preserver

https://www.cuprinol.co.uk/product/cuprinol-five-star-complete-wood-treatment

https://www.cuprinol.co.uk/product/cuprinol-shed-and-fence-protector

https://www.ronseal.com/for-garden/sheds-fences/wood-preserver/?gad_source=1

Fences need maintaining whether you paint them or not.

I painted one section of fence in a pale blue-green with the remnants of the paint I used on my DD's window; that was back in 2018, and I have loved the way it looks as it weathers.

I do think blues and blue-greens can look wonderful against foliage. I have Valspar's 'Down in The Nile' on my outbuilding doors and it's lovely against so many plants.

I don't personally fancy the idea of a mushroom colour. And I think the typical dark brown stains people do on bare wood look awful, sorry!

Hmmm lots of opinions and options! I think my hesitation about the mushroom is warranted though I'm not sure what I'll go for instead. Will head down to B&Q tomorrow for a browse... Thanks everyone!

I've also got a blue colour...the Cuprinol shades in costal mist. It does look lovely against foliage. Makes the garden much brighter than a brown.