12 Colorful Garden Ideas to Kick it Up a Notch

If you love a pop of color in the garden, here are 12 creative ideas to take it up a notch. These tips will give your space a fresh and vibrant look.

There are also colorful garden ideas here to brighten up shady gardens.

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Create a Colorful Garden

Ready to give your garden a makeover with some well-placed bursts of color?

Some of these ideas are from my garden. The rest are from local garden tours. To respect the privacy of others on the tours, I often have to take photos really quickly (so no one is in the picture). So forgive me if the quality or composition is sometimes a little odd as I’m almost always shooting in a hurry. But I think the ideas still come through.

I highly recommend self-guided garden tours: it’s a great way to see what is possible in your growing zone, meet other gardeners, and grab fun garden art ideas. It’s a true act of generosity when others open up their gardens for tours—just think of how much work it takes to make any garden look its very best—so I’m always mindful to thank the host gardeners (if they are present) and pay compliments. I think it’s just like showing off art: it can be an incredibly vulnerable feeling. But I’m very thankful so many people share their creative gardens.

Committing to Color

I don’t know about you but I have a terrible time choosing colors. It’s taken a while, but in recent years I’ve clued in that I like muted colors inside the house and bold pops of color in the garden. But the question is always, which colors will I choose? I’ve become color-commitment-phobic!

Last summer we gave our ugly shed a paint makeover and I let my daughter choose the door color. She picked a bright, bold blue called Jazz (Glidden Jazz 30BB 10/337) and it definitely set the tone for the garden. I had actually toyed with the idea of painting the entire shed in eclectic colors but I knew I’d probably grow tired of them so it seemed better to keep the wild areas to smaller surfaces that could easily be repainted.

The Secret to Making Bold Colors Work

This spring I decided to add more pops of color around the garden using painted birdhouses and garden art and that’s when I realized the secret.

Whatever bold color you choose—use lots of it. Repeat it around the garden. Own it.

I used the same Jazz blue to paint my old garden ladder (more about this in an upcoming post) and could see that by repeating the color around the garden it becomes a visual anchor and gives the garden a cohesiveness it didn’t have before.

This inspired me to add a few more colors to the palette and go for a brighter, quirky look. Stay tuned for updates.

12 Colorful Ideas to Kick Your Garden Up a Notch

1Painted Birdhouses

These painted birdhouses are the latest addition to my garden. I bought a bunch of them from a local man who makes them by hand with hardwood and sells them for just a few dollars each! Though he paints them in colors that don’t make Her Majesty happy so I gave them a makeover in some clear, bright colors. I feel like I found the color theme I’ve been looking for and will be repeating these colors around the garden.

2Black & Gray

This garden uses blacks and grays as the backdrop and it really unifies the look. The red and purple flowers add the key blast of color.

3Metal Stands

Lime green is one of my favorite accent colors. If you can find old metal plant stands at a thrift shop or yard sale, nab them! You might want to stay on Team Rust (see rusty garden art ideas) or get some outdoor paint in a bold color and give them a whole new life. I love the contrast here with the pink flowers.

4Blue Glass

This collection of blue glass started kind of accidentally. I was thinking about creating some sort of bottle tree and started stashing my yard sale finds on a shelf by the patio window. I ended up liking the blue glow so much I just left them there.

5Junk Art

Here’s another way to use blue glass, dishes, or any other old household items that may have lost their usefulness but not their eye-catching colors: use them to fill in young flower planters. I had just planted this lobelia and it was looking a little pathetic. I used the dishes to fill in the planter until the flowers mature and spill over later in the season.

There’s lots more creative garden container ideas here.

6Clashing Colors

Can you see past colors and take ideas instead? If you love the playfulness of these red and purple petunias spilling out of the planter—grab the idea for your garden. If not, just take the idea: any two contrasting colours will have the same effect, making any planter the focal point of the garden.

This is the same garden from another viewpoint. It’s right by the road and quite beautiful.

Have neighborhood library book boxes come to your area? I wonder if the homeowner chose the book box colors based on the cushion colors or vice-versa?

7Bright Colors

Sorry for the crazy angle: this is one of those instances where I had to click really quickly to get a people-free images. I included this front garden because the red and yellow flowers play off each other really nicely. The porch has a fun assortment of garden art.

8Lime Green

More lime green mania! This garden is quite modern and minimal. The lime green color is used in the furniture and flower pots.

Another tip is to use accent colors in your decor and garden art that does not appear in the plants. This way they stand out. Here the lime green bird feeders add the pop of color.

9Flower Power

The easiest way to add a beautiful blast of color to the garden is hanging baskets spilling over with gorgeous annuals. Bam!

10Garden Art

How pretty are these glass garden balls hanging from the arbor? There was quite a collection of them. There’s also interesting versions of them including ones with lights inside. I’d look for a local art shop and see if there’s any there.

11Swaths of Color

This is the power of swaths of color! Red. White. Pink. Yellow. It makes a bold statement when there’s whole areas of single colors.

There’s also a bunch of garden art ladder ideas here.

12Colorful Containers

How sweet are these stacked polka dot teacup planters? (Try saying that five times fast!). With no other strong colours nearby, these ones steal the show.

I’ve seen these teacups in shops for around $25 each. There’s other styles on Amazon but I don’t see any with the polka dots. If you see them at a sale, grab them! Assuming you like them, that is. Silly goose.

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~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛