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Some people move into a new home and spend the last of their home sale money on new carpets or appliances. Then there are people like my husband and me, who loved the layout of our late 1990s home but had a literal uphill battle with its sloping backyard. We paid contractors to remove dirt and gravel to create terraced surfaces up to the top, bordered by a concrete block fence.
Because new surfaces and access to views cost us a lot, we saved money by completing many of the finishing works ourselves, including adding color to the upper fence and the original retaining wall on the lower. Our beautiful blue painted fence is now my favorite focal point in the backyard.
Why did we paint our block fence?
With a steep backyard, contractors needed to find the easiest way to access the backyard so they could remove soil and pour concrete for steps and steps. They removed a section of the block fence along the back wall where they could gain access to the road. Since it would have been difficult to match the 30-year-old color of the original block fence, we asked for standard gray concrete block, since we knew we could paint the entire wall.
Likewise, they had to close off an existing opening in the retaining wall below which led to a hideous DIYed set of steps. The bottom wall had two different colors of blocks: a light terra cotta color that matched the retaining walls of our backyard fence and new roof, and existing blocks that I can only describe as muddy gray. By painting both block walls, we provided smooth continuity and a fresh look to the top and bottom of our new patio. In fact, the walls provided much of the color in the backyard until the new plant had time to mature and bloom.
Why add blue to the landscape?
I knew I wanted a blue wall ever since I saw how well the color worked in gardens I’ve visited around the country. Adding blue to the garden works for several reasons:
- Blue complements the most common flower colors: yellow, orange, and even coral or pink. It makes a wonderful contrasting background.
- Plants and flowers contain little true blue, so this color does not appear in natural landscapes.
- Blue is a calming color. From a feng shui perspective, blue mirrors the color of water for a peaceful sense of continuity.
We’ve previously incorporated blue into spirits with garden art or containers in shades of blue. Despite the contractor’s reaction when I told him my plan, I knew we’d enjoy a little burst of cool color in the hot desert environment, but I didn’t realize how beautiful our blue walls would look during the winter snow.
We have chosen the paint color.
I knew I wanted an earthy feel to the color, even though blues can be very bright. Our new retaining walls and side fences have coral or terra cotta tones. We looked mostly at navy, medium blues, and gray blues, and settled on Sherwin Williams’ Turkish tile (SW 7610). It is between medium and dark blue in color and has a slight teal undertone similar to the dark colors in traditional Turkish ceramics.
I love how Turkish tile changes slightly in bright sunlight without reflecting, but also looks great in the evening. We tried it on the top wall and found it felt right as the backdrop for our new landscape.
Tips for painting an exterior fence
It was an easy DIY project, requiring no ladders or special tools and materials beyond the right primer, good exterior paint, rollers, brushes and drop cloths. As with any outdoor painting project, it helps to balance weather conditions with paint needs by working when it’s not too hot, cold or windy. We completed most of the painting in the late summer and early fall and offer these tips to anyone looking to add a painted concrete fence to their landscape:
- Start by clearing the fence. Although you can use a concrete cleaner, we just cleaned the dirt (especially from the bottom, since the contractor removed dirt from the top of the yard to create a proper surface). Then we cleaned it with a wet cloth.
- Cover the fence first with a coat of Masonry Primer/Sealer (Sharon Williams Locson). Because concrete blocks are porous, they require this special type of sealer.
- Paint can dry out quickly, so work in small batches. We painted one section at a time.
- Lay a drop cloth to protect the patio or other surfaces near the wall.
- When painting a wall covered with mud, grass, or gravel, gently rake an inch or two of mud from the wall before priming and rake it back into place after the final coat has dried.
Although sources often say to paint two coats, we found that one coat did the job because of the excellent primer base. This saved us money on the cost of painting our fence, since 1 gallon of exterior paint is usually between 350 and 400 square feet, but less for exterior surfaces like a stucco home or concrete blocks. We only used a 4 gallon Turk tile.
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