I have a 12 foot high wall next to my patio. How can I quaint-ify it?
In my backyard, adjacent to my patio is a 12 foot high wall that is brick painted white. It’s a wall of my attached garage and adjacent to the wall is a 4 foot wide planting bed. On the other wide of the bed, adjacent to the bed and opposing the wall, is one side of my patio. My question is: How can I dress up the wall to make it something appealing to look at—something that goes with the rest of the garden, which has a rustic English garden vibe. The stark white wall is a currently empty—no vines or ornaments or lattices—so it’s a bold focal point. I’d like to soften its appearance, maybe green it up with some vines and possibly lattices, but maybe also some simple ornamentations, artifacts, etc. Anyone have suggestions? I thought of sandblasting the wall to reveal the brick but that sounds like a big job. Maybe paint it a muted green/grey/brown color to sort of blend in to the garden color? Or should I go a bolder, more interesting color to make it pop? What can I do to make the wall look like it belongs in a quaint English garden? Make it more interesting?
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I was going to suggest lattices with vines, but see you’ve already mentioned that…but it would still look nice if you ask me!
Maybe between the lattices you can attach potplants to the wall as well, at differing heights, i think that’s cute, and put some flowering plants in there to colour things up a bit. Flowers are always pretty, yes?
OR! Attach iron arches to the wall, i’m sure you get ornamental stuff like that somewhere? And then inside the arch do that potplant thing i mentioned above. Yes, i think that would look pretty. Or get real arches with some depth in them and hang potted plants from the top of each one so that they hang in the middle of the arch. And then fix some metal artworks of some sort(maybe butterflies or sunflowers or sun designs or whatever!) against the wall to spice it up.
What about painting it a medium shaed beige, or something? That should blend in with everything?
You can get hanging planters and artwork that can handle the outdoors:)
I was looking for some photo examples and I found these: this, this and this (which you could hang a number of decorations from) this is nice too. I hope these helped.
All great suggestions above…..
If you really want to “quaintify” it….as in “make it quaint”....I would chip the paint away in different places before doing anything over it. This would give it a worn, rustic look. Then I would place wall friezes or statuary (hanging from the wall) surrounded by greenery.
Or…scratch all that and just make the wall a “water wall” with water coming from it…via a “spouter” or just as a sheet of water. I like the idea of water in a garden and this might be a great way to introduce it.
Look on this site for ideas:
http://www.decorfortheoutdoors.com/wallfountains.html
Sounds like a great space…good luck!
Take a
You didn’t indicate your gardening zone or which way this wall faces (north, south, etc) which would change some of my recommendations.
Espaliered plants can be made to look very formal and could fit in with the English Country Garden theme.
You could also faux paint a gate with an arch in the middle of the wall and espalier plants around it. There are also faux stone panels of various stones etc that you could use to reface the wall (at a somewhat greater cost than lattice).
Paint the wall a terracotta color.
I don’t know that it fits into the theme of the rest of your garden, but I love these living walls. I noticed that Home Depot now carries the lanters for them.
You could go with clinging vines like ivy, or trellises and climbers. Somewhere on the wall I would hang a large mirror in a weather resistant frame (Good paint can make it so) I would also add some garden artifacts, perhaps a gargoyle or two.
Definitely vines and trellises.
English Ivy, Morning Glories, Cardinal creeper vines, Jasmine and such.
A mounted wall fountain would be a nice touch as well, and maybe a small gazebo if you have space.
You could also find interesting metal scupture to hang or paint a mural if you so desire.
A birdbath by the wall or some sort of other water feature ( aside from a fountain ) is always nice too.
You might also put up faux shutters to simulate a rustic window on the wall.
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Hobby Lobby has those weathered hangings made of steel that might dress it up .Some of them are pretty large. Maybe change the color to tone it down. Lowes has a library of home projects for patios and such. Maybe some low voltage lighting effects or mini waterfall.Seems like a fun project.
After 17 years of looking at the blank yellow side of my neighbors detached garage, I hired an exterior mural artist to depict Diamond Head, Hawaii on it with a lush foreground of birds of paradise. I have appreciated it and enjoyed it immensely over the last ten years.
See ya…....Gary/wtf
@DarlingRhadamanthus Water Wall, yay !
A mural or trompe l’oeil could be fun especially if there is a lot to look at (you won’t get tired of it after a couple years). An abstract flowing pattern of stenciled shapes could be effective.
I like @hrcmatt vertical farm idea too, very cool.
Hey, and if you’re going to paint it, make it a work in progress why not ?
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