A big project for us this year has been our garden. Regular readers will know all about Operation Garden Renovation and the time and effort we have put into turning our garden from this:
(although at this point we had already removed the approx. 15 conifer trees that covered the perimeter of the garden) to this:
The work is still ongoing though and we have started planting the garden… and we have been looking at some other ways of adding some colour to the garden! There is a trend at the moment for using some non-traditional colours to paint fences and woodwork, and, well, both hubby and I love it! So we decided we would go for it and add some colour to the garden.
The colours we chose were from the Cuprinol Shades range and we bought their Power Sprayer to use with it. We chose Sage for one fence, and Seagrass for the other side. It started off well and the Sage paint sprayed on really easily! (Though it is worth noting that you need a sheet under at the bottom of the fence unless you want to spray your stones/patio/lawn/plants, and even then you will probably get a bit of overspray!)
Then came the Seagrass paint, and the start of our problems. The paint just didn’t spray on well at all. We thought at first that maybe the sprayer needed new batteries. But, even with new batteries it was sputtering and just not covering the fence well at all. We contacted Cuprinol to express our disappointment and were informed that unfortunately you cannot use the Cuprinol Power Sprayer with the Cuprinol Garden Shades range. Apparently only their pump action Fence Sprayer is compatible.
We were really disappointed with this and honestly I do not believe that the packaging is clear enough about this, which is why I am mentioning it. The paint tin says that it is for use with a sprayer (and does not mention that it cannot be used with the Power Sprayer), and the Power Sprayer says on the front that it can be used with Cuprinol sprayable paint. We thought this meant they were compatible.
BUT, there is a tiny line of small print on the back of the sprayer box, which informs you that it cannot be used with Cuprinol Shades. The paint tin does not say that the paint is not compatible with the Power Sprayer.
The difference between the packaging of the Power Sprayer and the Fence Sprayer is minute. They have added the word ALL.
To be fair to Cuprinol, as a gesture of goodwill they gave us a voucher for a replacement tin of paint, and for the correct sprayer. Which was very generous of them, but also if they hadn’t offered us something I would have fought harder because I do not believe that the labelling on the packaging is sufficiently clear to avoid this mistake. I can’t believe we can be the only people to have missed one line of small print.
We painted the rest of the fence with the new sprayer and the difference was marked and all went well. The moral of the story – check the small print, and YOU CANNOT USE THE CUPRINOL POWER SPRAYER WITH CUPRINOL GARDEN SHADES PAINT.
The end result is positive as we love our coloured fences 🙂 We also haven’t stopped there. We liked the idea of adding some other colours to the garden, so we have painted some trellises, one in Barleywood blue and one in Sweet Sundae pink.
We love them! And they now each have a lovely Clematis growing up them, to add some more lovely colours to the garden! (I know the right one is slightly wonky but there are huge conifer tree stumps below ground level that we have to work around)
Of course, I couldn’t write a garden post without also showing you some of the gorgeous flowers and shrubs! The plants are obviously where most of the colour comes from in the garden.
I love this gorgeous fuschia, which we got today. I love the way the colour contrasts with the fence behind it!
I am in love with Hydrangeas at the moment too (though at the start of the year I couldn’t even have told you what one looked like) and am really proud of this one which, though not flowering yet, is really thriving!
We have some gorgeous flowers in our front garden too, including our beautiful rose bush, which has been a very late bloomer, and we are thrilled to see this little yellow beauty this week 🙂
And one of my favourites, this gorgeous snapdragon! We’ve lived here for just over 2 years, we didn’t plant this and we haven’t seen one in the garden before, but it’s here and we love it, so yay!
I was very much a non gardener before we started this project and only knew the names of a few basic shrubs (such as hebes and heathers) but I have been really enjoying learning about the different plants (not that I really know very many yet) and I am just enjoying making the garden look pretty!
We have more to do as there is more soil to dig over and more plants to buy and plant.We also hope to carry on adding colour to the garden, with a few more quirky touches. We plan on buying some wooden planters, and painting them some lovely colours too. I also love the idea of having a few little cute creatures around. We have this gorgeous little bumble bee, and hope to give him some friends too!
It looks brilliant! I want to do mine like that now (though I’ll read the small print, thanks!). My snapdragons are that colour and I’m enjoying them, too 🙂
Thank you, we are so pleased with it so you should definitely do it! 🙂 xx
WOW Caroline… You’ve just saved me OVER £50 !!! We’ve just moved house and have a very tiny budget to do up inside and out. I was just about to buy both shades and power sprayer…UNTIL i read your post. I too thought it possible to use the above together. So THANK YOU so much for your info. By the way your garden looks like a very happy place. Kindest regards Gail
Looks like you painted the Fence post too and they look like the concrete type ?
How annoying that it wasn’t clearly labelled as I know if I want to get on with a job I want to do it now and not wait around. Good to hear that they sorted the problem though and the garden looks lovely 🙂 #triedtested
Yeah it was a pain as we really thought we had checked and they were fine. ALl’s well that ends well though I guess 🙂 xx
Hey that looks fab, we need to spray ours just worried if it will spray onto next door’s fencing and they won’t like what we choose! #allaboutyou
Thanks lovely, yeah that is tricky, we were ok on the side fence as we have the back of it, meaning the slats are positioned so it doesn’t go through, but the back fence sadly did go through, but i think a lot of that was to do with the paint not coming out of the sprayer properly so it kind of went everywhere! Thankfully though we get on really well with our neighbour and she was very understanding! 🙂 xx
Hey Caroline! I’ve got lost of catching up to do on your blog, & what a wonderful place to start! Such lovely colours & a great idea to add some brightness to the garden. I’ve used these paints in the past for wooden projects, but no on the mass scale like you & i think the colours really pop. Fab job 🙂 xx
Hey Katrina, thank you, we are so pleased with it – always a bit nerve wracking doing a bright colour on a big area but we are really pleased with how it turned out! 🙂 xx
How very annoying….They should of made it clearer!
You’re garden looks fantastic!
I thought so too, but all is well that ends well! Thank you 🙂 xx
Oh your garden looks gorgeous, you have inspired me to add some colour to mine! It’s a shame that the labelling wasn’t clearer though – could have saved you a lot of hassle! Thanks for linking up with #TriedTested
Thank you, very happy to have inspired you! It was such a shame as I don’t see why they couldn’t have made it clearer. We thought we had read enough to make sure it was compatible, but apparently not! xx
Good of them to send you a replacement – it looks lovely x
Hat an amazing difference, your garden looks fab! Shame the labelling wasn’t clear, hate it when they don’t do that. #tried/tested.
thank you 🙂 Me too, like a teeny bit of small print makes it ok for them to be completely ambiguous in other places! At least they kind of made up for it though 🙂 xx
I absolutely love that colour – it looks absolutely gorgeous. Very annoying about the sprayer and the paint though.
#Tried/Tested
Thank you, we are really pleased with it 🙂 Very annoying about the sprayer and I wish they would make it clearer to avoid these kind of mistakes xx
LOVE this idea! It reminds me of when years ago, everybody’s front door was white or glass and now suddenly beautiful, vibrant, coloured front doors are popping up everywhere!
I don’t really have much fencing in our garden (I have hedges and a lovely red brick wall instead) but I am most definitely going to have a go at painting some trellises so thank you for the inspiration.
Your garden is looking fabulous. Well done you 🙂 X
P.S Popping over for the first time! From #AllAboutYou
Thanks! I know exactly what you mean nd I am very glad to have inspired you with the trellises! It’s nice to add a bit of colour in an unexpected spot! xx
That sprayer looks great, so much easier than using a brush. Love the colours too #TriedTested
Looks great Caroline, well done! Glad you got a goodwill voucher from Cuprinol too, rightly so #allaboutyou
Thanks lovely, I know I am very pleased they did otherwise this may have been a slightly rantier post about them! xx
Your garden is looking fab – you must be so pleased!
My back fence is also painted with Seagrass (though I’ve only ever hand painted it!)
Thanks for linking up with #TriedTested x
Aha great minds, it is a fab colour, hand painting it is probably the safer option, but we were trying to be quick and efficient, though that did fail slightly! We love it though so all is well that ends well! xx
Wow, your garden is looking fantastic. We have a similar old patio area that really needs pulling up and sorting out as it is so old and uneven it looks awful. I love the colours of the Cuprinol fence paints. If we get a new fence we may look into that to add a lovely splash of colour.x #MMWBH
Thank you, ah yes I feel your pain, it is seriously hard work to do! So worth it in the end though 🙂 xx
look great, clean and colourful, hope it stays like this for long
haha well what you can’t see in these photos is the hosepipe, watering can, compost bags, sand pit (with sand and toys strewn all over the patio), push along car, garden tools, etc etc! but hey all in the fun of enjoying the garden 🙂 xx
Oh I love your coloured fences, they really brighten up the space and bring life to the garden. I would really like to paint our raised beds some bright colours I think… maybe when I have a little bit more cash 🙂
The sprayer looks really handy, I have been painting the walls in our house this week and…just urgh painting with a brush is not much fun!
Have a lovely week x
Thank you! Ooh that sounds lovely! I can understand that though, these paints are not very budget friendly!! The sprayer definitely saves time on the fences, and with a toddler running around we often like anything that makes tasks simpler and quicker! xx
Ooh, that’s annoying about the Cuprinol isn’t it-I do get cross when companies do things like that. We’ve just used a colour from the Shades range for our container garden project and really like it. So I’d give a thumbs up for the paint, but obviously not the sprayer debacle you had! Your garden is really coming along and I love the brightness of everything too 🙂
I’m with you, I love the paint and the range of colours, I just wish they could be clearer about which sprayer you can use with it! Thank you, we are so pleased with it, I just love being out there now! xx
Smashing colours you chose and apart from the paint nightmare hiccup it sounds like you are happy with the result. Your garden is going look sunny even on the gloomiest winter days now!
Thanks for sharing again xxx
Thank you, it will definitely be a bright and colourful garden, even while we are waiting for all our plants to mature 🙂 thanks for hosting 🙂 xx
it is looking great! and i always think that when a garden is concerned, the more color, the better
Thanks, I agree 🙂 xx
wow, everything looks amazing! I saw someone else use that sweet sundae paint this week and I am so in love. I think I may have to go out and get some. That’s so disappointting about the sprayer, I agree it’s very poorly worded.
Thank you, ooh yes you should get some if you are feeling inspired! I know, such a pain, just hope we can maybe stop someone else making the same mistake! 🙂 xx
We painted the fence panels on one side, one year. Not a traditional shade. I remember being really pleased that I did it when I looked out in mid winter. Your garden looks amazing! #HDYGG
Thanks and very glad you were so happy with yours too 🙂 xx
I love the contrast of the pink trellis to the green wall! It just pops out! Nice project =) #hdygg
thanks lovely! xx
I think your garden looks lovely and I really like the painted fence. I’d love for mine to be all cream, perhaps I will do that when they get replaced next (been patched up so many times after storms) Love the pink Cuprinol 🙂
Thank you, ooh yes that sounds lovely 🙂 xx
I love those coloured trellises! What a change to your garden, looking fab! Thanks for linking to #AllAboutYou
Thanks lovely! 🙂 xx
Love your coloured fence panels. Brown is so yesterday…
Thanks! I couldn’t agree more 🙂 xx
how fun! and good for you with all the hard work in the garden. it is definitely paying off. I’ve got a long way to go in mine, but maybe by next summer it will be under control.
Thank you, we are definitely pleased we really went for it as it is lovely to be out there now! Best of luck with yours! xx
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Sorry for the out of date comment but I do enjoy seeing your garden coming together – you really are doing things that I like – I think the fences look great (despite all that business with the sprayer!). I would like to choose some plants and get into horticulture a bit more some day (probably when my kids are grown up and I’m retired!).X
Oh don’t apologise, it is no problem 🙂 Thank you we are loving our fences and he colours! I am loving learning more about the plants etc and I think I would enjoy it more if I had the time to! x
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What an amazing transformation! I love the colors of the fence and trellises. But most of all the patio…. Oh my! You have worked so very hard and it looks fabulous!! 🙂
xo, Crystelle
Crystelle Boutique
Thank you, it has been hard work but we are so pleased with it 🙂 xx
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