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When spring begins and the snow starts to thaw, we all want to get outside and play in the garden. Now is the best time to build your raised planter beds and start your vegetable garden for example.
If it isn’t warm enough yet to plant your veggies and flowers, now is a great time to focus on the hardscaping in your yard. Maybe you’ve been thinking about redoing that path in the backyard? But my favorite place to start hardscaping is the fence.
You don’t want an ordinary fence though right? I can’t be the only person who has almost had a car accident because they were eyeballing somebody’s fence on the drive to work. Right?
If you want a fence that will cause a car accident, I’ve got some great creative fence options for you. Not only that but these fencing options can fit any budget. Whether you want a creative fence idea or a range of inexpensive fence ideas, this is where you need to be.
Table of Contents
Perimtec Fence System
While I was looking for some diy fence ideas, I found Perimtec. I really like how Perimtec does their fence systems! They come complete with a frame kit that you assemble and install complete with posts.
Between the posts, you fill your fence with fun infill panels to complete the look. Their infills range from corrugated metal to tongue and groove cedar. You can even purchase a stain kit from Perimtec to get the fence of your dreams easily.
If you want to branch out a little but and have a fence with fun AND unique infill options, don’t hesitate to try something that isn’t on the Perimtec fence website. You can fill the fence with hardware cloth, bamboo poles, or even sunlite polycarbonate panels for creative options.
Seriously, the options are endless to provide you with an incredibly unique fence that nobody has ever seen. If you want something that provides not only an interesting fence, but an easy to install fence, you should check out Perimtec fence options.
I don’t want to mislead you: I have not personally used the Perimtec fence system. But I would definitely agree to test it out for them if they asked me to. I’m just saying. I’d love a fence with fun designs like Perimtec allows for.
Creative Wood Fence Options
Wood fences are a classic option for most homeowners. But there are a ton of different wood fencing options, from a cedar fence to a picket fence. If you are looking to do a cedar fence, the traditional way of building it is with the fence boards vertical.
If you want a truly original fence, but you appreciate the look of a cedar wood fence, you could try laying the fence boards horizontally on the fence. This makes your fence from a standard cedar fence, one of the most common types of fence, to a modern design that is at home in any urban setting.
If you want to get even more creative with a wood fence design, you can put one fence board on one side, and the next fence board on the backside. Repeat this pattern down the whole fence. While this is a cedar fence you’ve probably seen before, it is far less common than your standard cedar fence.
You may also consider putting up a fence with fun pickets. Cedar picket fences are adorable and they offer a classic design among ranch fence styles. These fences are perfect if you don’t need a very tall fence or a lot of privacy.
To make your creative fence installation easier, you may consider using premade cedar fence panels. These panels come in a typical cedar fence panel, with the fence board in a vertical direction, and in a picket fence option commonly. Admittedly, by using the premade fence panels, you won’t get an incredibly unique fence. But it is much easier to install.
Creative Fence with Fun Metal Infills
I’ve got great news for you! There are several options for incorporating metal panels or metal fence posts into your fence design. If you have an old chain link fence, you can actually reuse the old posts.
You can attach new cedar fence panels or boards to them using conduit clamps. Most chain link posts are 1-⅜”, 1-⅞”, or 2-⅜” depending on how heavy duty the fence is. While they don’t sell conduit clamps in those sizes, you can get something close to attach the cedar.
You can also get metal fence posts, like those in the Perimtec fence system I’ve already talked about. Don’t be tempted to use something like a metal deck railing unless you need a very light duty fence.
The most beautiful and creative fence option is to mix wood posts and metal infill options. If you use just wooden posts, you can fill in with hardware cloth or livestock panels surrounded by metal frames. Or you can route a channel into a 2×2 in order to frame these metal options.
One of the most unique and creative fence options is using corrugated metal panels between wooden fence posts. This produces a fence with fun texture and an interesting color, especially as the corrugated metal begins to rust.
Mixed Media Creative Fence Options
If you feel really adventurous, you can always consider a mixed media fence system. Basically, these combine a wooden fence with fun combinations of infill materials. For example, you can use recycled bottles, composite fence materials, or even rocks. There is no limit on these fun fence designs.
My favorite unique fence option that I’ve ever seen is when somebody used metal livestock fence panels but they set them roughly 1 foot apart going down the entire fence line. Then they filled the center of that gap with large rock. It looked beautiful!
Here’s another fun idea for you that works well if you already have a standard cedar fence in place. You can drill holes in the cedar fence boards and use an adhesive like E6000 to attach marbles to them. This gives a stunning kind of kaleidoscope effect when the sun hits the fence.
In reality, don’t be afraid to use something out of the ordinary to build a totally unique fence in your backyard. If you let convention hold you back, you’ll be the same as everybody else.
How To Use Unusual Materials For A Creative Fence
Let’s look at something even more creative, shall we? What if you don’t want any remnants of a “normal” fence?
Okay, well what about making a fence with metal posts and recycled metal ceiling tiles? You can easily attach these metal tiles to posts in the place of a normal fence infill material. This is a simple creative fence option.
You can also build a fence that is closer in appearance to a wall by stacking old, empty wine bottles and adhering them with mortar. Old bicycle tires can be stacked or placed so that they provide an interesting and creative fence between neighbors.
Ultimately, the important thing is that you can get the most interesting fence materials at any goodwill or building re-use center. Not only are these fences a popular option in general but they are incredibly planet-friendly.
If you have a green thumb, you can even use plants to make your own custom fence design. Vines can be woven together as they grow so that they weave into a natural fence. Or you can attach smaller plants to a wooden skeleton to give an overall healthy appearance to the property line. At the very least, adding plants will help to disguise a less creative fence design.
My Favorite Creative Fence
The best fence I have ever seen is one that my dad built a few years ago. Before you think that he’s a contractor and that’s why it looks so good: he isn’t. But I firmly believe that he should have been. He based the design of the fence on spare pieces of fence boards that they already had laying around in the backyard.
To figure out the spacing of the smaller pieces of fence board, my dad used a piece of leftover wood as a spacer. He would tack in one board, place the spacer piece next to it, and then tack in the next board so that the edge touched the spacer piece.
By refusing to follow convention and just build his fence like every other fence, my dad allowed his fence design and shape to occur organically. They fence had to be taller because they have large dogs. Rather than just continue the design up the whole fence, my dad let this really allow for design. He made the top portion of the fence just a little different to give a better flavor.
The top of the fence is incredibly unique and I haven’t seen anything else quite like it. The fence gives the feeling of a plaid shirt. One day, I hope that I can build something as beautiful and simple as my parents’ cedar fence.
Final Thoughts
My parent’s cedar fence is a great example of how construction and design can be done loosely and freely. It’s proof that there is no perfect way to do some things and a unique fence is a great opportunity to explore that.
If you need a fence at your home, build a creative fence as unique as yourself. Don’t be afraid to use a fence with fun infills or an interesting spacing for the fence boards. The freer you feel to make a creative fence, the more you’ll love it. I promise.
Look for opportunities to use something ordinary in a unique way. Once you get your fence figured out, check out the Gardening guide for all sorts of other garden projects! Before you know it, you’ll be living in a downright Eden.
Jen
September 6, 2019 at 4:59 pmNice roundup of unique and eye-catching fence ideas! I especially love the fence with the bottles. We installed a “no dig” fence earlier this year – it’s more traditional looking than these gorgeous fences, but incredibly easy for us to install.
Jen at Everyday Old House
September 6, 2019 at 5:00 pmNice roundup of unique and eye-catching fences! I especially love the one with the bottles. We installed a fence this year – a “no dig” fence. More traditional looking than these gorgeous fences, but easy to install and within our small budget.
smbrisco337
September 6, 2019 at 6:16 pmThank you Jen!! I love the no dog fences too. They’re fabulous for smaller budgets and for temporary fencing. Now I have more ideas ?