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Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Garden Color

I am a Pinterest addict.  I admit it.  I love to surf through Pinterest and pin all these wonderful ideas!  I especially love that I can go back to my pins for inspiration, or sometimes to purchase an item, or to get a great new recipe.

So I have been seeing these amazing painted fences on Pinterest.  While I would love to paint my fence to add some fun and color to my backyard, I have a shared fence and painting it is not an option.  I have thought about it for a while and decided to paint a garden gate that I can put in my garden.  Problem solved!  I was able to purchase the 4 ft fence boards at Lowe's for $1.38 each!!  I used some scrap wood to anchor them together on the backside.

It's not perfect but it looks so adorable in the garden!  I can hardly wait for some of the plants to creep up the sides....

I decided that I should paint the fence boards a light whitewash to help it stand out in the garden.  I have used all outdoor paints so it should stand up to the weather.  I will say it was not nearly as easy as I thought it would be!  One - the boards are really rough.  I even sanded them some.  Two - the boards do soak up the paint quickly.  And three - it is a BIG surface!  My son helped my paint the leaves and pick out colors.  I learned that it was much easier to use a thicker brush heavily loaded with paint.  It is so humid here that I painted inside the house (brought the fence in the night before to acclimate the wood to the inside temps).  Once it was dry I set it outside.  I have placed it in the garden but first added a light coat of polycrylic in hopes the colors will stay nice and bright.

I just love it!  We have gone a bit silly painting old fence boards here!  Oh, see the little white boards sticking out at the sides?  Those are the backing boards I used to hold it all together.  I could not find the saw when I was putting it together and told myself I would cut them off after I painted.  Not.  I have hung birdhouses, small lanterns, and even a small container of climbing vines on them!  Really integrated it into the garden.

Enjoy your day!

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