Painting garden walls - colour?

whodafunk

Hi,

Looking at painting the garden walls which are currently just standard grey brick.

What colours other than white would people recommend? If I paint it how often would I have to re-paint them?

Thank you

daheff

get some masonry paint first off. out a good 2 coats on and you wont need to paint for about 5 years. you mught need a primer too

colourwise, really depends what you want.
i've seen walls painted
white
sandy yellow
chalk
terracotta
duck egg
brown

most looked nice, but my preference would be for a lighter, inconspicuous colour.

buy some tester pots and paint up a couple of areas to see which you prefer.

whodafunk

daheff wrote: »

get some masonry paint first off. out a good 2 coats on and you wont need to paint for about 5 years. you mught need a primer too

colourwise, really depends what you want.
i've seen walls painted
white
sandy yellow
chalk
terracotta
duck egg
brown

most looked nice, but my preference would be for a lighter, inconspicuous colour.

buy some tester pots and paint up a couple of areas to see which you prefer.

Thank you for all your helpfel information on this.

GrumpyMe

Are you going to leave it as a blank painted wall? You should consider how you are going to repaint it after the five years.

smacl

I went with white on mine. Adds a lot of light, has a vaguely Mediterranean feel and most importantly is a huge improvement on breeze-block grey. Couple of shots below taken just now, paint job seriously needs a touch up and excuse the chaos that is my garden, but gives a general idea.





Best time to paint is any time after you've done some serious pruning, which depends to some extent on what you're growing against the walls. Looking at the above pics, that's a job for me this Autumn.

homer911

Camo?

GrumpyMe

smacl wrote: »

Are they figs? Some crop!

New Home

Pears.

GrumpyMe

Should have known from the leaf.
Heavy crop = low hanging fruit...

smacl

New Home wrote: »

Pears.

Yep, figs cropping well this year too but nothing like that.

New Home

I looked out at "my" breeze blocks the other day, and I thought how much nicer the place would look if I painted them sage green, they'd be lovely in winter, too. Sadly, not my house, so...

Slasher

smacl wrote: »

I went with white on mine. Adds a lot of light, has a vaguely Mediterranean feel and most importantly is a huge improvement on breeze-block grey. Couple of shots below taken just now, paint job seriously needs a touch up and excuse the chaos that is my garden, but gives a general idea.

Your fuchsia is very nice. I have tried to grow fuchsia in the past without success - just dies off completely in winter.

Maybe not in your budget or an option, but this looks amazing, timber cladding, i am going to try this myself when i get the time to do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X8xuipr4_A

Hocus Focus

Slasher wrote: »

Your fuchsia is very nice. I have tried to grow fuchsia in the past without success - just dies off completely in winter.

Wrap it in horticultural fleece before the first frosts arrive, unwrap in April.The same applies to Bay Trees and other tender shrubs.

Get the fleece in a garden centre ( or Lidl/Aldi when on offer).
Strangely, my late mother and mother-in-law could both grow a profusion of Fuchsia in Finglas,unprotected, while ten miles further north it can't survive unprotected, except in the mildest of winters.

smacl

Slasher wrote: »

Your fuchsia is very nice. I have tried to grow fuchsia in the past without success - just dies off completely in winter.

Thanks, though more happenstance than any gardening acumen. In my experience, the common Fuschias are very robust and will put up with all sorts of abuse, while the decorative ones sacrifice this for the preferred aesthetic. Was actually thinking of getting rid of it at one point but it is great for pollinating insects and gives a nice blast of late colour.

whodafunk

So to bring this thread back on focus...!!!!

I picked up some testers

Cornish (too dark in colour in my opinion)
Magnolia (looks nice but whst about across 3 entire walls in the garden?). Is Magnolia still popular for garden walls as paint. I thought Magnolia was paint from many moons ago and very dated?!!

White - not picked up a tester but is this too much across the 3 garden walls?

Would appreciate people's opinions. Thank you.

Doop

I would say the lighter the paint the more it ages badly if you get me. ie white and magnolia more likely to need redoing in a shorter space of time.

Personally I'd say dont be afraid of bold colours...I reckon theres enough magnolia in the world..it has its place but give consideration to all the options before making your choice, at least if you end of back at magnolia you've given it some thought!

few pics below of work we did last summer..

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1B0wms5ZhW9sgUNcExC8qNpF1T8mQZ7lY

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1amk9gSFNC0mp0FAZZXfa8dEzPKHM4n_P/view?usp=sharing

BookBook

Doop wrote: »

I would say the lighter the paint the more it ages badly if you get me. ie white and magnolia more likely to need redoing in a shorter space of time.

Personally I'd say dont be afraid of bold colours...I reckon theres enough magnolia in the world..it has its place but give consideration to all the options before making your choice, at least if you end of back at magnolia you've given it some thought!

few pics below of work we did last summer..

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1B0wms5ZhW9sgUNcExC8qNpF1T8mQZ7lY

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1amk9gSFNC0mp0FAZZXfa8dEzPKHM4n_P/view?usp=sharing

Stunning colour. The whole garden is so lovely.

andypants

Hi all,

I have a similar situation whereby our garden walls were never before painted.

Would you think its a bad idea to paint the walls a darker colour? (dark grey for example).

We have nothing planted yet, but the idea would be to create a dark background to then draw your attention to the colourful plants. Also the darker colour may age better as well as helping to hide little defects in the block work.

Any experience with that idea anyone?

roper1664

andypants wrote: »

Hi all,

I have a similar situation whereby our garden walls were never before painted.

Would you think its a bad idea to paint the walls a darker colour? (dark grey for example).

We have nothing planted yet, but the idea would be to create a dark background to then draw your attention to the colourful plants. Also the darker colour may age better as well as helping to hide little defects in the block work.

Any experience with that idea anyone?

Consider green, as it can make the garden appear bigger. Other colours and shades can be nice too but make the garden feel more like an enclosed outdoor room. Green can add to the effect of foliage and be a great back drop for flowers. It really depends on personal preference.

GreeBo

GrumpyMe wrote: »

Are you going to leave it as a blank painted wall? You should consider how you are going to repaint it after the five years.

This is the important consideration for me, it looks great on day one but then trees, shrubs, climbers etc are in the way and how do you repaint and keep it looking well in 5 years?

looksee

I painted (very badly) some block walls in the garden in a light magnolia-ish colour. It soaks up paint like a sponge. Without being specifically artistic it did improve the look of the place, and even though I didn't do it again and the paintwork got very sad, the sad magnolia looked better than the original block colour.

awec

Deleted User wrote: »

Maybe not in your budget or an option, but this looks amazing, timber cladding, i am going to try this myself when i get the time to do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X8xuipr4_A

This is what I would do.

I have nothing growing against my wall (well, i do, but in pots, not actually in contact with the wall) and I went with white. I think white is the new magnolia. A clean basic tidy colour.

I did it two years ago and it still looks as new. Every year I need to wash it with a hose-brush to get rid of some algae that appears on the wall a bit, but it only takes about 20 minutes start to finish, so not a big job.

I'd recommend it, but then I love white/grey in general so maybe im biased.

corks finest

Painter here,did a job for a lady last spring white masonry paint looked really good as she had 3 large mirrors on opposite walls,lots of colourful climbers and pots set around, mirrors made a huge difference

awec

corks finest wrote: »

Painter here,did a job for a lady last spring white masonry paint looked really good as she had 3 large mirrors on opposite walls,lots of colourful climbers and pots set around, mirrors made a huge difference

Do the mirrors not get really dirty looking pretty quickly?

looksee

Don't put mirrors in your gardens, birds fly into them and don't do their little feathery heads any good at all.

SEPT 23 1989

Seal the wall and then go pure brilliant white using a good brand name

Brings out everything in the garden

No manky magnolia

GreeBo

Wonder would it be over powering in a large garden?
I've seen it in small ones and it looks well but large might be overkill.

stratowide

I have two 1.8m x 30m garden walls to paint come the summer.

Put a few testers up just to see what it looked like.

Settled on a darkish grey weathershield colour.

Am having second thoughts now with the plain white mentioned here a few times as an option.

Would it not be a little too 'white' as it were..?

GreeBo

Dark grey could be quite foreboding and minimizing...but that might not be an issue with 30m garden.
Do you have or plan to plant anything against the wall?
Not sure things will stand out against dark grey as well as they will for some sort of white?

L1011

Dark grey is going to look like the bare blocks when wet I'd have thought?

We went for Fleetwood Portland which is a very light grey/bordering on green-grey really. Had to do something as there was faded white paint on a lot of them

stratowide

I'll have raised beds,sheds and a chicken run on one side.
The other will have a lawn and will be bare for the most part.

On a wet day like today the grey sample colour is barely noticable from the bare wet blocks.

I put up 8 sample colours and the grey was picked out by several people as the one to go with.

I'll keep an eye out for some painted walls on my travels.

GreeBo

Id worry that in the middle of winter a dark grey wall of that length is going to be....well a long dark, grey wall!

I dont even notice my wall in summer but in winter when everything has died back its a bit depressing.

What are your plans for the top of the wall? I have cap stones and i dont really want to paint half of them but dont want to leave them bare either...

One thing I'd say, to consider, is if you go with a dark colour, everytime a bird decides to grace your wall with his lovely poop, it'll stand out a bit.

On a white (or bright) wall it's not quite so notiecable.

New Home

No love for sage green, then?

scamalert

had done mine few years back sand yellow- well a bit deeper but not anything popping out bright, white isnt really suited specially if its garden after any good rain mud, dirt splashes can be noticed easily, that said theres no rule on color whatever taste suits you, if you have time to at least power wash every couple months any color scheme can work, as its really maintaining it is the hardest part, as for most part of the year youll be staring at whatever you picked, so whatever isnt eye strain and can blend in or match surrounding area as in muted colors prob is best.

anewme

Green all the way.

Grey green or olive green, blends in with the environment.

corks finest

awec wrote: »

Do the mirrors not get really dirty looking pretty quickly?

TBH it was good weather but from what I saw no they were fine

looksee

I depends a bit on the look and use of your garden. In an outdoor 'room' - an enclosed, semiformal place where you entertain (or at least it is designed to look as though you do) then strong colours of the blue/terracotta variety would look great. In a large informal garden maybe the green that is being suggested. In a cheerful, plants in pots, small town back yard maybe the white would be the way to go, it would certainly help reflect light into it.

GreeBo

I'm contemplating trying a very light blue...I think light, pastel colours are they way to go, unless you are trying to make a statement with the wall.

whodafunk

So I finally got around to starting to paint the back garden walks white. It’s very hard to get into every little area of the wall - does that really matter or is it worth spending the extra time to get a good finish? Or maybe it’s just the masonry brush I’m using.

whodafunk

So I finally got to start to paint the back garden walls. It’s hard to get in every little hole of the brickwork. Will this matter or should I spend a little longer at it to get a better finish? Or maybe it’s the masonry brush I am using.

randomguy

whodafunk wrote: »

So I finally got to start to paint the back garden walls. It’s hard to get in every little hole of the brickwork. Will this matter or should I spend a little longer at it to get a better finish? Or maybe it’s the masonry brush I am using.

Since it is not rendered, it will never be properly smooth. Just do what you are doing, but add a second (and maybe third) coat.

Harry Palmr

I quickly realised I was on a road to perdition if I tried to do every bit esp the mortar so I switched to a small roller and went for this look.



Sure there are loads of "bits" but short of spending a huge amount of time or making up a spray mix (and probably wrecking the spray appliance!) this was as good as it was going to be

corks finest

Harry Palmr wrote: »

I quickly realised I was on a road to perdition if I tried to do every bit esp the mortar so I switched to a small roller and went for this look.



Sure there are loads of "bits" but short of spending a huge amount of time or making up a spray mix (and probably wrecking the spray appliance!) this was as good as it was going to be

1-Do yourself a favour
2-buy a heavy duty 9 inch sleeve
3-Decent 6/8 inch emulsion brush
4-paint all joint's ( all)
5- roll up / down/ across
6- repeat ( 3 coats on an unpainted wall)
7- most important points, patience and tea

collywobble7

Knock na RI. It's a weathershield paint. Really nice

New Home

corks finest wrote: »

1-Do yourself a favour
2-buy a heavy duty 9 inch sleeve
3-Decent 6/8 inch emulsion brush
4-paint all joint's ( all)
5- roll up / down/ across
6- repeat ( 3 coats on an unpainted wall)
7- most important points, patience and tea

No!! Most important point, DON'T CONFUSE THE MUG WITH YOUR TEA WITH THE MUG FOR RINSING THE BRUSH!!!

corks finest

New Home wrote: »

No!! Most important point, DON'T CONFUSE THE MUG WITH YOUR TEA WITH THE MUG FOR RINSING THE BRUSH!!!

Need to be a pretty big mug,haha