A Pot of Paint

A magical painted chicken shed at West Green House gardens

This month’s low and piercing sunlight is willing me to get my paintbrush out to smarten up rooms at home and transform pieces of furniture.   It’s also reminding me what a pot of paint colour can do outside, to brighten my garden particularly now it’s an unadorned, winter silhouette. 

Paint Colour

A pop of colour on a door, a bench, a table and chairs, a shed, summer house or bird table is more than welcome in a garden at any time of year.  And now’s a good time, from the warmth of your fireside, to plan your paint colouring along with your seed and plant orders before spring gets going.

All of the well-known paint suppliers offer exterior paints in the same colours as for interiors. (In case you’re wondering, I choose water based paint which is more flexible than oil based, so all the better for dealing with a weather battering, and better for the environment with lower levels of chemicals too.) But how you use your paint colour, the effects, atmosphere and drama can and should be different.

Estate cottage on the Sandringham Estate, with Sandringham Blue gables

Estate Colour

Firstly, every garden, no matter how large or small should have an ‘estate colour’. Consider using your single colour to create unity.  Painting two or three items the same colour in your garden is like a chorus or ‘common thread’, particularly in winter time. It’s also hugely practical, making future paint decisions easier, saving on upkeep and the environment. Fewer paint pots required!

The great landed estates across the country have had this nailed for years, and use the same paint colour for all their outside paintwork on cottages, farm buildings and even front doors. Invariably they choose colours which blend with their local stone, brickwork and landscape: the distinctive dark turquoise of Chatsworth, the charming blue of Sandringham, the saffron yellow of Cowdray are welcome sights travelling around the countryside, adding to curb-side appeal and ensuring estates look smart. In fact these estates often extend the colour into their branding: website, aprons, tea towels etc, although, the estate paint colour came first.

Mint green window frames, doors and glimpses of garden furniture at Sandhills Farmhouse

On a smaller scale, your own estate colour can be playful and imaginative.  Rosemary Alexander, principal of The English Gardening School, uses a spring-like mint green on her exterior doors, windows and outdoor furniture, creating a contrast of soft light against the colour of her gentle brick farmhouse. More interesting than white, the pale green is characterful and links the house with the many greens of her lovely garden.

Front door and planters in Farrow & Ball French Gray

Front Doors

If you don’t quite know where to start (and let’s face it choosing paint colours can be stressful!) why not begin with your front door? For a recent project, I worked closely with Sophie Eadie at Eadie & Crole Interior Design to choose a colour for the front door which blended perfectly with the rendered exterior of this dolls house pretty Georgian village house and the soft, neutral tones of the interior. I then continued the colour to the painted planters either side of the front door to frame the entrance. We chose Farrow & Ball French Gray which in the words of their website “is really much more green than grey, but characterfully flits between the two depending on the light and time of day”. In the winter light the colour works well and it will look even better come summertime.

Beach huts at Brancaster

Outdoor Buildings

Outdoor buildings and sheds can always use a coat of paint, as much for preservation as colour. If in doubt, look to your landscape for inspiration. These beach huts at Brancaster in North Norfolk blend brilliantly with the sand dunes and big skies and look stunning.

If you have rather less landscape to work with and want your shed to ‘disappear’, I suggest Shop Front Green by Paper & Paints. This deep dark green paint colour was originally recommended to me by expert gardener Nick Bailey of BBC Gardeners’ World fame and is perfect if you don’t want to ‘see’ your shed or outbuilding. Consider it a domestic alternative to the traditional black coal tar creosote used for farm buildings across our countryside.

Painted yellow tripods complementing the planting at West Green House Gardens

Bold and Brilliant

Alternatively you can go bold and brilliant, the catchy phrase epitomised by Sarah Raven to describe the exuberance of her joyful garden colour. Here the sky is your limit and your imagination your friend.

Purple bench at West Green House Gardens

A trip to West Green House Gardens in North Hampshire, a special and magical garden created by Marylyn Abbott, a renowned Australian garden designer, offers a masterpiece in the use of colour. A purple Lutyens bench, pillar box red bistro tables and chairs in the cafe and colourful yellow tripods for sweet peas are just a taster of the ideas she has played with to bring humour and delight into her garden and entertain her visitors. Even her chicken shed includes the humorous use of yellow and white stripped paint to echo an Indian tent and provide a palatial home for her chickens. Chickens could never have a more glamorous or grander abode!

Japanese bridge at Heale Gardens, near Salisbury, Wiltshire

Eastern Promise

Continuing the theme of glamour, if you are lucky enough to have a bridge (and I appreciate not many of us do), that’s another paint colour moment. The magnificent red bridge in the Japanese garden at Heale is a wonderful example of striking and bold colour choice bringing distinction, impact and creating an atmosphere for this part of this pretty garden.

Alternatively the magnificent citron yellow Chinese bridge designed by Isabel and Julian Bannerman to be a centrepiece in the woodland-cum-water garden for Simon Sainsbury and Stewart Grimshaw at Woolbeding speaks for itself and is the cleverest use of colour I know. See how the conscious choice of yellow makes the different greens in the landscape and the lilac purple of the rhododendrons sing.

Chinese bridge at Woolbeding (image: Bannerman Design)

Down the Earth

Coming back down to earth, I have my own estate colour which I use for various metal furniture and wooden benches which I can best describe as sea blue on an English summer’s day.  In fact, it’s a colour called Wheelbarrow, now only made to special order by Farrow & Ball. Approximately 20 years ago they launched a Garden Range collection at RHS Chelsea Flower Show.  Like so many of their early colours, they were based on surviving paintwork in National Trust gardens.  Long discontinued, I still treasure that dog-eared paint chart, and ring up for my paint colour to be specially mixed to their archive recipe.  It takes approximately 4 weeks and requires a bit of early spring organisation on my part. So this is the reason why I’m thinking about paint colour and happy to help you do so too. Meanwhile, I need to place my order!

Wheelbarrow painted metal table and chairs