Garden Wall Art Design Ideas

Are your garden fences and walls treated like an art gallery or as a way to define legal property boundaries?

Fences and walls are frequently neglected by the home owner yet they offer an opportunity to create a major design feature in the garden. There is a tendency to try and screen fences with plantings but there is a more creative way to treat your vertical spaces: as an outdoor art gallery.

Here are 5 suggestions to using art on your garden walls:

1. Get your favourite image reproduced onto outdoor canvas and hang on the back of the house, the garden shed or the boundary fence;

2. Install mirrors or reflective metal art to brighten dark areas of the garden and give an illusion of space;

3. Buy some metal garden trellis and fix it onto the walls creating a strong geometric pattern. Train your plants to climb your trellis structure. It is also possible to buy trellis that has been designed with a contemporary style and often look very effective even without plants;

4. Create some outdoor shelves and display items such as glass bottles, tea light candles, found wood or pot plants; and

5 Build a living picture with a vertical garden. Ensure the edges of your vertical garden are distinct from planting beds to create a sharp living wall art piece. A living wall can be made using wall planters such as Woolly Pockets or securing air plants onto the fence (air plants do not require soil and are very sculptural).

Boundary walls can dominate a garden, particularly if your outdoors is a small area. Decorating the garden wall with stylish accessories can certainly have a dramatic, and instant, effect on the overall feel of a garden.

While there are various design strategies to improving your garden walls there is one approach that is gaining more popularity for those who enjoy home and garden improvements with garden accessories: mounting metal art to garden walls. If you have decided that metal wall art is the right solution for your garden it is advised that the following issues be considered.

1. There are plenty of websites claiming to offer metal art suitable for the garden but be aware the cheaper varieties are not designed to last.

2. If you want your metal art to last, with minimal maintenance, it will need to be made from a metal that can withstand weathering such as stainless steel.

3. Untreated mild steel that is exposed to the outdoors will rust. It is possible to purchase metal barrier paints for mild steel but it must be applied regularly. Be aware that a simple scratch to the paint will leave the mild steel exposed and the oxidisation process can commence. It is then quite easy for rust to spread throughout the art. It is the same rusting process that happens to cars.

4. If you live close to the sea the oxidisation process can happen quickly, particularly if the prevailing winds, and the sea salts, are directed at your property.

5. It is possible to purchase a quality garden art piece that is made from mild steel providing it has been properly galvanised and powder coated. You may then get more than 25 years life from you garden wall art. Galvanising and powder coating process requires skill and is often reflected in the price.

6. Some artists choose to allow the oxidisation process to occur as it adds character to the form and colour of the art. That is fine as long as you are aware that your garden wall art may look very different the following summer.

7. It is possible to purchase garden wall art made from weathering steel (also referred to as cor-ten). This steel rusts and then acts as barrier to the steel below. The rust is part of the design intent and can add charm to the form of a sculpture. The surface rust will not affect the structural integrity of the wall art.

8. It is also possible to get garden art made from zinc however do not leave zinc outside without a protective finish - it will go milky.

9. It is harder to get a quality powder coat finish on galvanised steel than it is on zinc.