25 Garden Fence Decoration Ideas to Dress Up Your Yard

Turn a plain garden fence into a feature with these creative ideas. Add wall hangings, art, and repurposed décor to bring personality to your outdoor space.

Want more privacy? See 20 Ideas for Better Backyard Privacy.

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Decorate Your Garden Fence

If you have a plain fence surrounding your garden, you can instantly transform the space with garden art. Not your typical garden décor but unusual and unexpected pieces.

All that vertical space is an art canvas just waiting for your unique style.

Anything that can endure the weather is fair game.

Wall hangings, paintings, signs, flower planters, mirrors, potted herb gardens, birdhouses, faux windows, garden art flowers—anything goes.

It’s also a place to push the boundaries. Things that would look odd in the house can be perfect in the yard.

I encourage you to go with your whims and trust your creative instincts.

My go-to source is local yard sales, estate sales, and thrift shops. I have also listed shopping sources (below) where I could find them.

Let one idea lead to another and when you find items you like, work with them! That’s a sure way to have garden art that is as unique as you are.

If you have a chainlink fence, this has ideas for covering up chainlink to it’s not such an eyesore.

1Rustic Stars

Create your own unique star with reclaimed wood slats, a grape vine wreath, rustic metal star, and a raffia bow.

2Plates and Dishes

Have your plates and dishes seen better days? Let them live on outdoors. Here a collection of blue plates is combined with some metal art pieces and blue orbs.

3Salvaged Metal and Wood

Several of these pieces might be kind of bland on their own, but arranged together on this fence they look quite wonderful.

4Rusty Old Tools

I often see boxes of rusty old tools at auctions. They’re filthy and there’s probably some useless junk in the box too, but if you’re willing to lug them home and clean them up, you can get a display like this for a real deal.

5More Rusty Tools

The side of this shed is used to display old garden tools, a cast iron frying pan, and more. So what works? I think it’s a simple of choosing items you like. If it appeals to you—hang it up. You can always switch things around later.

6Old Gate and Metal Word Sign

Everybirdy Welcome | Amazon

Old gates, headboards, shelves—they all work. Add your own touch with a favorite metal sign. 

Check thrift shops and yard sales to find ones in your area.

7Shelves and Decor

If you have some favorite items you want to display but find them difficult to hang, add shelves. It’s a great way to show off bulkier items that you don’t want to keep on the ground.

8Window Frame with Shutters

This is from my garden. An old window frame matched perfectly with some junk shutters to create a focal point in the garden.

9Framed Succulents

Framed succulents became popular some years ago. For some of us, succulents are not cheap but you can learn to propagate your own to get more if you’re willing to be patient.

The project (above) is from the book Gardening on a Shoestring and you can see the entire tutorial here: How to Make Framed Succulents.

The next photo is from a garden tour. I thought it was interesting that they used a screen window and threaded the succulents through it.

10Galvanized Buckets

Along with some very sweet framed succulents, this garden has a series of galvanized buckets mounted on the fence.

Simply drop potted plants in to change things up through the growing season.

11Candle Holders and Kitchen Trivets

This is also at my house. I added the hanging planters to add interest to the long brick wall but it still looked too plain. The addition of metal candle holders and kitchen trivets added the artistic touch I wanted.

12Garden Tools

I hung these garden tools on the fence after realizing I was never going to use them but didn’t really want to get rid of them.

While some love the look of rust, in this case I opted to spray paint the ends silver.

13Plants With Character

The succulents chosen for this fence-mounted planter are a perfect choice for the ornate style. Plus anything long or cascading tends to kick it up a notch.

14Outdoor Art Gallery

Display collections of similar items that work together likes these hanging metal sculptures.

15Pick A Theme

Here the gardener picked a theme—cats—and displayed the related items together. Meow!

16Fence and Gate Inserts

In the old days we used old floor grates for this but today you can buy metal or plastic inserts that do a good job of adding interest to a plain gate or fence.

17Giant Bug Art

This giant dragonfly is from a shop but you can also make your own from an old ceiling fan.

18The Power of Repetition

This unusual fence is between two houses where they wanted privacy and creativity. The “roof” up top is a smart way to add height to a fence without having a tall, plain wall. The repeated hanging baskets definitely bling it up.

19Old Frames and Mirrors

Along with broken garden tools, I started hanging old wooden picture frames and mirrors as well. This is a great way to add interest to a long fence while you’re waiting for the plants to grow up.

20Color

There’s nothing like a zing of color to grab attention. These brilliant blues are a great distraction from a long, boring wall. When in doubt, choose a bright blue lobelia.

21Indoor Decorating Style Outdoors

This sitting area is set up the same way you’d do it indoors. The table and chairs set the stage, and the various plants and decorations on the wall accent the setting.

22Simple Can Be Very Good

This little mask works perfectly on this expanse of black fence and gate. Simple touches like this are my favorite.

23Living Art and Perennial Favorites

Train a clematis or other vine up a fence. Here some annuals and birdhouses add to the living art.

24Natural Materials and Matching Textures

Stacked firewood and hanging wicker baskets look gorgeous together. Think about grouping items with similar colors and textures for an eye-catching display.

25Add Some Humor

Tree Face Kit | Amazon

I’m a big proponent of having your garden your way. Forget what anyone else has to say and follow your muse. If you like goofy faces like this or anything else that adds some fun, go for it.

I hope you got some ideas you can use.

There are a whole bunch more fence décor ideas here.

~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛