My Trashy Rainbow Fence

When I said my fence was "trashy" what I meant was...

I am a firm believer that one person’s junk can literally be another person’s treasure. I make driving through my neighborhood on garbage night a regular activity - and I'm not too proud to share that on the Internet! My husband and I live in a really cute suburban neighborhood and sometimes I just can't believe the stuff people throw out! Some of the furniture in my house that receives the most compliments by guests are items I have rescued from the side of the road. We garbage-pickers know that all you need is hot soapy water, some good spray paint or wood stain and you've got yourself a great looking and unique décor item that will be noticed by everyone (and it was free!)

Photo from kitchenette.jezebel.com

The Free Rainbow Fence

Though the little red brick suburban home my husband, and I live in is a bit on the small side (just shy of 1,100 square feet – but thank God for the full basement!) one of the major reasons we purchased it was the surprisingly spacious backyard. I had grand visions for this backyard the summer we moved in, but instead of playing around outside, the first summer and fall months were spent indoors – unpacking the overwhelming number of boxes, situating furniture, purchasing appliances and fixtures and, most importantly, decorating. 

 The Phoebe as a baby!

Just after getting situated into our new home, winter came and with it a new addition to our family, Phoebe, our rambunctious, naughty, perfect chocolate lab. Since she was so small, and it was so cold out when we first brought her home, Phoebe spent most of her time inside the house during her first few months with us. Once spring came, however, The Phoebe wanted out – and good thing too, because she was getting BIG!

Spring: I love you, but you're a hot mess!

The Pheebs is all grown up!

From the first time we let her outside to do more than just her potty business, it was pretty clear that Pheebs was going to claim the backyard as her domain. And I didn't mind really; I absolutely love watching her run from one end to the next, chewing up every stick our maple trees drop for her and trampling down anything foolish enough to get under her feet. But eventually I decided I did want a little space in the backyard to call my own – just a little garden to put the transplanted day lilies, bee balm and other hand-me-down flowers my parents so lovingly dug up from their gardens to share with me. I knew that I had to keep these flowers safe from my very curious and unintentionally destructive puppy, who was now two years old and 75 pounds of flower-crushing-power.

You call it trash, I call it my new garden fence.

My mom suggested a putting up a fence around my new-used flowers since she was a bit put-out that her grand puppy felt the need to stomp on them. My husband, who is thrilled I love finding thrifty items (because it means I’m not spending money) found an absolute gem while jogging through our neighborhood. Someone just a few streets over had removed their old privacy fence, cut into short sections and junked it on the curb. 

So hubby ran home, grabbed the SUV, loaded up the fence pieces, and brought them back to me. When he proudly opened the lift gate to show me the goods, I absolutely swooned. You brought me trash? That IS so romantic! (I have issues.)

All a project like this needed was a small can of paint and some cheap wooden stakes. We used 2 stakes per section of fence, I had 5 sections, so we bought a pack of stakes from Home Depot for less than $10 bucks. As I was thinking over what color paint I should get for the fence, it occurred to me that I had a hodge-podge of colors left over from projects in the past. And while there wasn’t enough of each color to paint the whole fence, there was enough of each color to paint one section – and thus, the rainbow fence was born!

After I painted the sections of fence, my husband and I laid them out to gauge where they would go. He hammered the stakes into the ground first, then I held the sections of fence while he drilled the stakes into the back, using two screws. Nailing would work as well, if you don't have access to a drill.

You see, I didn't plan on making a multi-colored wooden fence for my flowers, but that's just how it worked out. My mom gave me the "idea" to put up a garden fence. Then someone junked the exact materials I would need, like, the very next day. (#CurbBlessings) Then instead of buying more paint, I just used up what I had. And I'm cool with all of this because I'm resourceful. Or thrifty. Or is it cheap? Not sure which adjective to run with. Either way, I've got a super cute fence in the back that cost pretty much nothing and deters my dog from killing my flowers. So I'm chalking this up as a success story.

If you've made a garden fence that you're pretty proud of, I would LOVE to see it! 

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Blair Clark is a wife, teacher, dog-mother, mentor, wanna-be-chef, recipe collector, crafter, painter, novice photographer, thrifter, writer, marriage ministry leader, Sunday school teacher and blogger. In short, she's a busy girl! Blair lives and blogs from the suburbs of Detroit with her handsome hubby and perfect Chocolate lab.

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