Chain Link Fence Art

This post could have also been titled "My Desperate Attempts to Hide my Ugly Fence."  Chain link fences are just plain ugly.  Unfortunately, a wood privacy fence just wasn't in out backyard renovation budget.   The very first major home improvement project we did to our house was building a storage barn and putting in a fence.  Actually, my first few post on this blog was about that barn.  We were (and are) pretty proud of that sucker.   We had wanted to put up a wooden privacy fence, but opted for chain link because of money.  And, since we were are in the ghetto we wanted security so we made that bad boy 6 foot tall.  Which, keeps kids in and people out.  Side note:  installing a chain link fence yourself is A LOT OF WORK.  Jason and his dad spent hours working on it.  Functionally, the fence is awesome but visually it kind of makes out backyard have a prison yard feel.  Since it's installation I've been trying to cover it up.  I have some jasmine and some ivy but you know that stuff takes time.  While I am waiting around I thought it might be fun to hang some stuff on the fence. Since I am going for the weird colorfull garden full of gnomes and mushrooms, I thought some fence art was in order.   The first place I wanted to add a little visually internest was at the base of my stairs.  It is the uglestly view of my fence and everyone looks at it because it is the main access to my yard.  While I was thinking up what to paint, I decided I would make this my creative color challenge for March (yes, I know it is April first).  Tranquil blue just seemed right for the yard.



I love working in a limited color pallet.  At first I thought I would make something vivid and colorful but I thought the idea of hanging wood on our fence was weird enough without making it really loud.   The blues are peaceful.



My boards aren't lined up perfect, but I kind of like that way (and I am too lazy to fix it). Right now I have it hung with zip ties.  I told Jason I wanted something cheap and not permanate.  They fit the bill, but they aren't really that pretty.  Speaking of pretty, this looks really ugly from our neighbor's side.  Jason asked if I was concerned, nope I am not.   You see 6 feet down they store their trash cans and lean them against our fence. TRASH CANS.  So, since I have to look at their smelly trash they can suffer through some old boards.   I do have morning glories that grow on this fence in the summer, but I am going to attempt to keep them cut back and let them grow around the painting.  We will see how that goes, morning glories grow so stinking fast.  In my mind it looks so lovely framed with bright blue and purple morning glories.



I did have a lot of fun distressing the painting.  I used some dark stain over the finished painting.   It was fun and really messy.  The board themselves already had a lot of character to them.  I stole them from Jason's stash. He uses these to sit things on while he spray paints.  We've been painting a lot these days.



He got this cute little mini-saw and I got all excited because I was going to cut them myself.  But this board was a little big for this little fella and after struggling for a while I gave up and asked Jason to cut them.  He is still protective of his miter saw.  I made him cut them at random lengths and I think it almost killed him.  He kept saying "you don't want me to measure?  Are you sure?"  Yep, all different lengths.   In the end, I am really happy with it.  Weird?  Yes.  But, it provides some visual interest and privacy.   Oh and don't worry, I am planning on hanging even more weird stuff on my fence.

PS.  I also did this painting, I did sneak a little orange in it which is why I don't really think is can count for the challenge.  But, I was thinking of the color blue when I did it.