What color should we stain our backyard fence?
Hi all! I'm struggling to pick a stain color for our cedar fence that will look good with our house and balcony/staircase, which are both sort of a brownish gray color that reads fairly warm in sunlight and cooler in shade. One section of our fence is a solid privacy fence that borders our next-door neighbors, but the rest is all hog wire fencing that backs up to the woods. I’d love to pick a neutral color that will help the fence disappear into the greenery a little more.
We tested out a sample of a semi-transparent Behr stain in the color Tugboat, a fairly neutral lighter brown color that I thought would be great, but our natural cedar is so orange that I'm not sure I like how it looks. Do we need to go with a semi-solid stain instead? Or pick a different semi-transparent color that can somehow neutralize the orange? Would love to hear what you all would pick to complement our existing color scheme!
Here's the unstained privacy fence along with our balcony/stairs/house:
This is part of the hog wire portion of the fence (cedar posts with silver wire):
The portion outlined in red below includes the pickets that we stained with semi-transparent Behr "Tugboat" as seen in full sunlight:
Lastly, here are those same stained pickets seen in some shade:
Thanks for your help!
Comments (12)
tracefloyd
last yearlast modified: last yearSherwin Williams Reseda Green. I couldn't find it in a stain online but they still carry the color in paint. If you have a SW store nearby go in and ask Any paint store can match color. If anything mix some exterior latex paint in with water for this effect. Experiment. Do the wire fence posts to unite them.
Bungalow · More InfoRelated Discussions
Who should we call to get help with a backyard drainage issue?
Comments (16)Any progress on this issue? Do not add any soil to you property until you have a full drainage plan! ÃÂ Getting an engineer involved is advisable, but expensive, I know, I am one. :-) ÃÂ Consider these issues: 1. Drainage should take water away from the house, as quickly as possible, w/o flooding or causing erosion to you or others. Water near the house can cause many problems: ÃÂ movement near the foundation can move soil, which could cause the house to move. More immediately is the dry rot the moisture will cause to the wood of the house. Mold can form ÃÂ Maintaining any vegetation is a problem. Mosquitos will love it.ÃÂ 2. Adding fill material improperly could make matters worse.ÃÂ 3. Water always flows downhill. So, where is the water going. Try to follow it. The best way is to get the elevations of your property surveyed. I love the ability of a contour map to communicate slope of the ground. And water will follow the slope.ÃÂ 4. Decide on the outlets for water from your property. ÃÂ Drain water to the street, if possible. ÃÂ If not, build dry wells, but check percolation rates carefully. ÃÂ Be very careful about draining water on to neighboring property.ÃÂ 5. Find the sources of the water.ÃÂ 6. ÃÂ Create drain paths from (or near) sources to the outlets: There are several options to do this: (a) ditch, which needs a slope of at least 1%, 3 % is recommended; (b) Underground drain, such as a French Drain, which needs no slope, or a mini-storm drain pipe, which only it needs at least 0.1% slope, or combine French Drain and pipe; (c) pressure pipe,collect the water at a central spot and then pump the water. There are a lot of pages about all of these issues on the Web. This can be a big job.ÃÂ Good luck!...See MoreNon-permanent picket fencing to divide backyard
Comments (12)We used these http://www.lowes.com/pd_254097-80032-504018_4294753320__?productId=3457864&Ns=p_product_avg_rating:1&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNs%3Dp_product_avg_rating%7C1&facetInfo= It looks nice and does the job. Our purpose was to keep our yorkiepoo from running off after squirrels and dogs, whatever. We can let her out to do her business and feel safe. It also keeps other dogs OUT. It's not really high, so a dog bent on getting her could probably jump,it but we don't leave her unattended. The fence is installed with spikes that you pound into the ground, then there are poles that lock the panels together by sliding though holes at the top and bottom and into the spike. Easily removable. Its nice that it is see through, so it doesnt break up the sightlines. We didn't want to spend what a true fence costs, didn't want to get permits, and wanted to be able to remove or reconfigure if needed. It could even be taken down and taken with us if we move! Here is a link that might be useful: Easy fence at lowes or maybe HD to...See Morehome faces backyard fence of neighbor
Comments (30)Eh... it is what it is, when you buy in a cul-de-sac subdivision. We had a cul-de-sac and we had great views... in the front.. if you did not mind looking down the road at the cars piled up in front of one house that worked on custom cars all day long... Or if you did not mind having police block the road once or twice a year due to someone having their rental raided. If you like the neighborhood and the house, pick your evils. Cul-de-sacs are hard to find, harder if you weed out the good vs bad neighborhoods, and the school districts that do not qualify. Me, I would wait and find something else, even if it is not a cul-de-sac... it would be too claustrophobic, but if you stay.. just make it your own.. make your view what you want, as others have said, and cover up the things with trees and such.. (I used Crape (or however you spell it) myrtles.. fast growing). I went in the back yard, with my coffee, and stood on the porch I built and everywhere I saw a window, I added a tree to block it. Took 14 trees, but when people walked back there, they were like, "wow!".. You can do that with the front, if you love everything else. Or, just walk ;) GL!...See MoreOur New Fence, Garden Courtyard and Backyard with After/Before Photos
Comments (39)yogi_mi5a The flagstone patio was made from flagstone my husband had thrown behind the shed when he replaced a front walkway years ago with pavers. He gave away a bunch of it and we had some left over (probably not the nicest pieces which had been picked thru when he gave it away- but thankfully there was enough to do a flagstone patio and some flagstone stairs for a small hill. I like to reuse whenever I can!...See Morepnwmirabeth
last year
PROlisedv
last yearHow about going with a black fence? We don't see very much of your house except for a very small part of a black roof... Black give a very nice bacground colour for gardens.
pnwmirabeth thanked lisedv
PROBeverlyFLADeziner
last yearA gray stain is such a handsome backdrop for plants during all the seasons.
pnwmirabeth thanked BeverlyFLADezinerpnwmirabeth
last year@HALLETT & Co. and @lisedv -I'm totally down for a black fence!! Our roof is black and our front door is black, so I think it might be nice to have the fence tie into those elements... I'd just need to convince my husband, who is very much not into the idea. As a compromise, I'm debating the idea of testing out more of a dark brown (ideally with cool tones since our house color is on the cooler side... maybe Cordovan Brown by Behr?) since that might still provide contrast with the house without making my husband sad about the fence color haha. You can't see our fence from the front of the house because the fence is set back, but here's the front for reference!
arakashi
last yearI just stained our very old shaby wood fence black using 1 part dark walnut to 1/2 part ebony. it looks black. and i LOVE it. as others have said, the pants (white roses/cape rush/ lavender lavender) planted since this picture, pop and look amazing
pnwmirabeth thanked arakashi- PRO
lisedv
last yearIt's too bad you husband is resisting the black, I don't think the Cordovan Brown complements the colours of your house nicely compared to Black.
chispa
last year
pnwmirabethOriginal Author