This is difficult. What a beauty you have there. I think that I might do the shed the color of house and all the fencing white. I hope you will not be removing the trumpet vines.
If not stark white, mabe a white paint wash.

nooooo never remove the trumpet vines. ;-) They were the only pretty thing there! I don't have a pic of the shed but it's situated so it can't be a different color, it's connected to the fence. Imagine that fence behind the trumpet vines making a 90 degree turn to the house, which is where the back gate is. The shed is built into that corner, essentially. Made out of the same boards as the fencing.

You don't think white would be too bright back there? I'd want it to match the trim color, which is sort of a gray-white. Since the fence dies into the house where the gate is.

I've seen it both ways - this house is in Newport, RI where alot of people paint their fences the house color - even when it's historical deep blues or reds.

I would paint it a neutral taupe so it blends in with the trees. Is it wood? Then why not stain it, so easy and no peeling later on.

Well, it's already painted a deep forest green (PO) so I can't stain it. We plan on replacing this fence in 3-5 years though, might do a cedar and let it weather gray. Or paint it - if I like how it looks after this time. I'm not sure how taupe would look next to the house, though - the color is bad in the pics I posted but it's sort of a blue/green/gray with grayish white trim.

I suppose I could do the gate first and see how different colors look. We're having a landscape designer by on saturday to go over ideas for the beds, she might have a vision based on what plants we do.

Don't paint it. You'll make yourself nuts.

Instead of painting, put up some decorative wrought iron medallions. I did this on an old fence near my house, and now the fence is "rustic" and "interesting" and I didn't have to paint it!

I got these medallion thingys at TJMaxx or Marshall's for $10-20 apiece. I painted them so that they would be uniform.

I LOATHE to paint it, really. but right now it's a dark green, leftover from the PO's paint scheme, and the house is completely different! When we get the new fence I'll seriously consider not painting it (especially b/c of the trumpet vines and the complications painting because of them) even though I don't like cedar until it achieves that old weathered look, until then it won't go with the house, either.

so for now, until it's replaced, we have to paint it. It doesn't go with the house at all. :-(

I guess it depends on what you want the fence to DO..

do you want it to hide or to be bold and the focal point of the yard? myself, I think I would want to hide the fence and allow the trumpet vine to be the star..i would leave the fence the color of the trunk of the trumpet vine.

plain brown.

if your desire is to pop the fence then by all means paint it some bright color..but looking at your photos..i would allow the plants to be the stars..

now if you want to accent that trumpet vine..which is orange..try putting a lot of beautiful orange and other hot colors around it ..maybe orange daylillies, dahlias, tiger lilies, ....red door, green house..red and green and orange..beautiful...lots of red color, lots of orange color..green is a given in a garden..pop those reds and oranges everywhere..hanging baskets..pots, even terra cotta....and you can add other colors if you so desire..blue goes beautiful with orange, purple does too..purple makes orange pop..

leave the fence natural

Well, we're meeting a landscape designer on Saturday...but I was thinking of a red/purple/white/orange color scheme, sort of like this (color wise.) We are going for the whole english/cottage garden vibe.

This is a pretty accurate depiction of the house color (at least on my monitor, ha)

I does it matter that the entrance to the yard, where those new steps are, will have an arbor with a moon gate? (painted white.)

Well since I wouldn't want the fence that is facing out to the street (what I see from outside the yard) and what is next to the house, or the shed, to be painted brown or some natural color, could I just paint the portion behind the trumpet vine something to blend in? I wish I had better pictures to show but really I think my only options for the outside fence and shed/gate are either the house or trim color. It would look odd otherwise. Maybe if it wasn't too weird they could be black. Or the shed could be black.

I spent weeks slaving over the house color. I thought this was going to be easier. ;-)