How to make new metal look old quickly.

We finally finished a much needed chore in the butterfly garden.

This particular side of our house faces our driveway and parking pad and looked weird because it had no windows or architectural details - just lots of plain siding.

To remedy that, we bought a wonderful rusty arbor/gate and placed it in the center of the wall.

We planted Carolina jessamine on it and within 2 years it was covered with the vine and we've enjoyed beautiful yellow flowers for months.

But, something was still missing. So we added a pyracantha bush on each side and started training it to be an espaliered form. Hubs made a temporary form for it to grow up on.

Well, you know how sometimes temporary starts to become permanent? Yeah. The pyracanthas grew and became too big for the temporary form. It was becoming an eyesore. After much prodding, Hubs bought six 10 foot poles and pounded them into the ground, 3 for each bush. Then, because the bushes had grown into the forms we had to cut each individual fence wire with wire snips to get it off. Whew!

*In Hub's defense, his hubby-do list is very, very long

Finally, the new poles were up but looking a bit too new and shiny for Brown Wren Acres. We only do rusty, old looking metal around here. So. . . nothing a bit of spray paint wouldn't fix. I bought a metal primer made for exterior rusty metal because it was a nice rusty color. I also found a can of dark brown exterior paint in the garage that I was able to use. Below is a pic of one of the poles half done. Rusty on top, shiny on the bottom.

I didn't want to actually spray paint the poles because they were so close to the house. I simply sprayed paint onto a rag and dabbed the paint onto the poles. I had to be careful because I was on a ladder for much of the time. The paint dried quickly and then I dabbed the brown paint over the rust colored paint to make it look like old rust (to match the old rusty arbor).

We'll be adding some horizontal wire to support the pyracantha branches. I'm also looking for interesting finials to put on top of each pole. Of course, I'll have to rustify them too.

Boy, I think that Carolina jessamine needs a haircut. I better put it on the hubby-do list.