How to paint your own garden poles

Habitat bright ideas with Fleur Thorpe – DIY projects

Add a little vertical colour to your garden with these colourful painted garden poles. You can paint them to remember family and friends or just bring together your favourite Resene hues and designs.

Fleur decided to make a post for each of my three kids and has painted her posts to represent a bit of them.

You will need

3x H4 treated pine fence posts, 2.4m x 100mm x 100mm
Saw
Sandpaper
Resene Quick Dry
Resene testpot paints in your colour of colours, Fleur used Resene Calypso, Resene Aviator, Resene Hippie Blue, Resene Bondi Blue, Resene Merlot, Resene Blackberry, Resene Dingley, Resene Buttercup, Resene Black, Resene Half Dutch White, Resene Grass Hopper, Resene Smitten, Resene Bi Hoki, Resene Clover, Resene Green House, Resene Apache, Resene Hot Toddy, Resene Poppy, Resene Amulet, Resene Pelorous, Resene Funk, Resene Rebel, Resene Rusty Nail, Resene Kamikaze, Resene Rose Of Sharon, Resene Waikawa Grey, Resene Blue Diamond, Resene Seeker, Resene Noosa, Resene Bowie, Resene Happy Hour, Resene Tree Frog, Resene Cleopatra and Resene Waiouru
Paintbrushes in a variety of sizes
Resene Woodsman Wood Oil Stain in your choice of colour, Fleur used Resene Pitch Black

Note: Posts of this length need to be buried to a depth of 60cm.

Instructions

Paint your own garden poles - Step 1 Step 1
Cut the tops of the posts at a 45 degree angle. This helps rainwater run off more easily and gives the posts a more interesting silhouette. The posts were rough sawn so Fleur sanded them to get rid of the worst of the splinters. Make sure you wipe off any sanding dusts. Prime the top 1.5m with Resene Quick Dry.

Paint your own garden poles - Step 2 Step 2
Start painting your design with Resene testpots. Fleur painted the top of each post with her kids’ favourite fruit – pineapple, pear and strawberry.

Paint your own garden poles - Step 3 Step 3
Continue painting on more design features. Fleur painted three generic faces to symbolise familial similarities, but changed the colour of the eyes as each of her three kids have different eye colours.

Paint your own garden poles - Step 4 Step 4
Choose motifs to paint. Fleur chose a motif that represented each of her kids’ favourite things – playing guitar, aeroplanes and reading.

Paint your own garden poles - Step 5 Step 5
To finish, let loose on the paint colours – have fun experimenting with different colour combinations, patterns and scale. Use a variety of spots, stripes and simple and complex patterns to create a myriad of colour.