The Fastest and Easiest Way to Paint a Fence

Finally the sun visited our town and stayed all day – not even the threat of rain.

It was time to finally try ‘sock painting’ our front fence.  Firstly a big shout out and thankyou to ‘Green Eggs and Cans’ for sharing her house sock painting technique with the world.

What is sock painting?

Put on a rubber glove then an old sock over the glove. I used a sock from our ‘lost sock’ draw – where all the socks without pairs go.

The sock on your hand becomes your ‘paint brush’. Place your sock covered hand into the paint then rub your hand over the fence. It’s not rocket science but I will never paint our fence with a brush again.

You may recall that I started painting the fence with a traditional paint brush but was forced to stop due to rain. So I can compare both fence painting techniques – brush against the sock.

My sock painting test?

Faster – a section of the fence, took me two hours to paint with a brush but an equivalent sized section only took 26 minutes to paint!!

Easier – because my fingers and hand are more flexible than a brush it was easier to get into the sides of the fence palings.

Cheaper – Old socks are cheaper than paint brushes and more abundant (well they are in our house). Using old socks is a great way to recycle too!

Simpler – I didn’t clean my sock with water or turps after I stopped painting.  Just made sure I throughly used up the paint on the sock, then left my sock on top of the paint tin.  Hours later I returned to painting by just putting the glove and sock back on.  The sock worked brilliantly again.

Sock painting will save me numerous hours of house painting work.  Hours I would prefer to spend in the garden and with my family.

Happy sock painting!

The Finished Back Entertaining Deck

Putting on one’s own shoes, our ‘Little One’ escapes through the back ‘doggy door’.  “Put your rain jacket on” I call out.

Kids love playing in the rain!  I watch our Little One, play in water puddles collected ontop of the outside chairs.  The back deck is now a safe area for children to play.

When we moved here (over a year ago) the deck was in desperate need of staining and the railings were dangerous – a falling risk for not only children.

We employed a professional to repair and secure the deck but we were the ones who sanded, stained and painted over numerous days. 

The renovated back deck was completed just before Christmas – in time for our house warming with the neighbourhood.   We invited our neighbours and all we had met in our new town, as a way of saying “Thankyou” for welcoming us.  People joked that half of the town was at the party.

In 2015 we will again be focusing on the outside of our home.  Not only the gardens but also painting and repairs. Most of which we intend doing ourselves.