Wooden Privacy Fence

[Cory Rothlisberger]

I'm throwing in the towel. I'm using the Bar Mills fence kit and for the life of me, I can't seem to find a color or make a color that effectively represents and old, weathered, wooden privacy fence. I need a second set of eyes/opinions from the experts here on what to use to get the below look.

[Chris333]

https://www.homedepot.com/b/Rust-Oleum-Stops-Rust/Weathered-Wood/N-5yc1vZblwZ1z13h7j

[davefoxx]

Start with a base coat of light gray and then brush paint individual boards with different grays, tans, and maybe burnt umber or sienna.  The key is lots and lots of variety.  Hit the whole thing with a black wash to tie it together.  Not exactly the same look as your weathered fence, but that’s how I painted these plastic factory doors. 



DFF

[peteski]

While it is not intuitive, weathered wood is gray in color.  The warmer more intense beige/brown/straw colors fade away.  Actually besides gray, maybe doing some variations or dry brushing with concrete gray might look good. Concrete is sort of warm gray (well depending from the specific paint brand).

I used the eyedropper tool in PhotoPaint and selected an area (probably about 50x50 pixels)in the center part of the photo. That gives me an average of the colors within the selected area.

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As you can see by the RGB color values (and by looking at the color swatch), it is a slightly warmish gray (there is a bit more red than other colors in it).

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Yep! Like trees, wood is gray.

[Chris333]

There are 2 AK interactive weathered wood sets, but you can just buy a few of whatever colors are in those sets from any brand you like. I have both sets.

https://ak-interactive.com/product/old-weathered-wood-vol-1-2/

https://ak-interactive.com/product/old-weathered-wood-vol-2-2/

[davefoxx]

While it is not intuitive, weathered wood is gray in color.

Maybe growing up around the water and being reminded of pilings, docks, and driftwood, I intuitively think of weathered wood as light gray.  Or, maybe it’s the colorblindness! 🤣



DFF

[Dave V]

Cory,

If you're using a wood kit, this is an easy kill. Use isopropyl alcohol with a few drops of India ink in it. That stain will give you exactly the color you're after. Just go easy on the ink. A few drops is all you need. Just stain it before you assemble it because otherwise, glue spots won't absorb the stain.

Oh, and once you apply the stain, your parts will warp all to hell. So put them under a sheet of glass and weight it for 48 hours.

Sounds like a pain in the a$$ but I promise it'll be worth it.

[Lemosteam]

Hi @Cory Rothlisberger ,

I used the Bar Mills for this fence.  I have an old bottle of mixed India inks (black white and brown) that resembles thick grey sludge color, almost like a grey clay color.  I used that to wash the entire fence and fenceposts before install.  I left some boards alone to resemble replacement planks.

I think its pretty close to what you are looking for. Just add more white to the ink mix...