I'd go with white to match the trim of the house. Also I suspect if you ever decide to sell the white might appeal to the largest number of prospective buyers.

I used a sage green on mine. It blends in with all the greens in the yard. Easier on the eye. I had started with light grey to match the house, it was way too much.

My first inclination was for white since your home is such a cottage, but that is a maintenance nightmare, and it looks like your have a redwood fence. I'd consider a spray on stain that would weather it to gray.

BEHR Harbor Gray semi-transparent stain

I usually would tend toward a dark green to blend in with the foliage, but I don't see a lot of that in your yard/neighborhood. But I think that a medium toned gray/green might be more subtle and blend with the surroundings.

Do you live in a sunny region that gets hot at any time? I'm wondering whether a dark paint would absorb too much light/heat, and potentially kill your vines. Only other caution, are your neighbors going to be ok with having to constantly beat back your vines from covering over their side of the fence, and from snaking under the fence?

Diana Bier - yes, I noticed there was lots of foliage behind the darker fences in your photos. Thanks so much for your generosity coming over to comment here.

Chocolatesnap, I have friendly neighbors who are thrilled at the prospect of flowering vines spilling over to create beauty in their sides.

Beverly - yes, thank you for the gray suggestion. There’s two of you pointing this direction.

So appreciative of all of you and of Houzz. I’m making an astounding number of fast decisions to finish inside and outside renovations by the end of this week. You all make it so much easier. Would like to invite you all to a bbq to see what you helped accomplish.

Thanks Patricia Colwell. I'd actually love some trees and tall shrubs there as well. I'm starting with a couple of rose climbers, a passion flower (I know they're monsters), and another hummingbird flower whose name I don't remember. I'll have a look after a few months and see what wants to go in next.

In general I'm going for creepers to create a green wall and block the gaps in the wood fence for privacy. If I had more space and a greater tolerance for maintenance I'd actually have gone for a hedge. Objective is to mask the mishmash fences, create the green wall and a sense of privacy and retreat.

My neighbor's garage is exactly on our property line. She can't get to the wall in question or see it unless she's in my yard - it's part of my fence perimeter. Quirk from when these houses were built 90+ years ago. I've already offered to repair the wood siding on it since it's my view. I imagine she'll care only that the work is done well and keeps the wood in good shape. It's peeling paint right now. Neighbors on my block have really nice relationships. We work together, talk, listen, help each other. I'm blessed with immediate neighbors who tell me what they want, listen to what I'd like, and we all have healthy and friendly boundaries. Lovely people and I'm super lucky.

I just found this after your 2017 thread on keeping your old siding and I am SO glad you did! We are ready to repaint our 100 year old (in 2024) redwood siding and have a BRILLIANT painter who repaired and painted our 60 year old siding and it's stunning, so I am glad you found a good one too. PS, watching out for climbing roses--they start slow and then take over. Same for Jasmine it took forever to get height, and now it's eating a corner of the house. My pink jasmine is also pulling down it's wire supports and I am going to switch to landscaping the rest of the fence differently--but grape vines are GREAT in some areas because they die back and you cut back easily every January...plus, you can add grapes to your cherries. ;o)

Hello! I also came here after reading your 2017 thread about your siding. My 130+ year old house has Douglas fir under the ugly vinyl and I’m trying to decide between restoring the original wood, buying new wood and staining it or going with Hardie. Are you happy with your choice of restoring the old wood? I’m afraid of lead and peeling. But I also hate wasting good old growth wood. Thanks and congrats on your Reno!

Eva, it's 3 years later and I'm just seeing this. I'm glad we kept our old wood instead of Hardie. If you see this, what did you do?