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Designing a fence can feel like hunting for the Holy Grail of landscaping. Clients expect privacy that doesn’t cut them off from nature, custom designs but at affordable costs, and low-maintenance solutions that still withstand the elements.
So to help you create elegant and enduring fencing, we’ve highlighted 8 privacy fence ideas – from classic wood styles to modern metal panels, precast concrete, and artisan finishes. Whether you’re planning a luxury property or a cost-conscious project, these trade-ready materials and design tips will help you satisfy the lifestyle needs and design standards of modern homeowners.
Classic Designs
Classic fence designs, such as lattice, spindle topper, picket, and Princeton fences offer a sense of regional style and a balance between positive and negative space. These fences are ideal for clients who seek to incorporate plants alongside the enclosure as a natural privacy solution.
Design Tip
Pergolas and arbors section off a space, creating additional options for privacy. Pairing low or semi-screen fencing – for a feeling of openness – with additional structures and partitions, will allow your clients to remain connected, while still enjoying a retreat.
Design Tip
Privacy fencing doesn’t need to fully block off an area. Incorporating a post fence into existing greenery can create a seamless design that emphasizes the natural world, while still preserving security. See how this fence almost blends into the forest line!
Featured Brand
Walpole Outdoors
Foxborough, MassachusettsWalpole Outdoors pairs elegant structural products with modern living, manufacturing fencing, privacy screens, gates, and more with limitless customization possibilities. Each line is handcrafted by expert craftsman and arrives ready for expert installation.
- Material options: solid cellular vinyl, wood, metal
- Designs include picket, screen, semi-screen, post and rail, and custom for a range of privacy and style demands
- Match your client’s fence choice with other standout landscaping features like pergolas, arbors, driveway gates, trellises, and more
Featured Brand
Antebellum Manufacturing
Ocala, FloridaAntebellum Manufacturing creates elegant aluminum fencing in traditional designs, available in bronze, black, white, and green. Their Louver Privacy fencing line features extra height and slats that ensure both privacy and airflow, and can be seamlessly combined with standard fencing.
- Customizable with beautiful finishes such as scrolls, rings and finials.
- Powder coatings pass stringent salt spray tests making them suitable for coastal regions and pool enclosures
- Multi-step pre-treatment process ensures the durability of protective coatings
Decorative Metal Privacy Panels
For the modern homeowner, metal decorative panels serve as an artistic solution to privacy needs. Metal panels can act as sunscreens, infills, or architectural features, and stand up well against corrosion, sun damage, and other wear.
Design Tip
Sometimes less is more. Artistic designs can make a statement, but panels that feature simply shaped perforations offer both privacy and lightflow, while enduring in style.
Design Tip
Extra tall fences act like a wall, encompassing functional outdoor spaces and facilitating indoor-outdoor entertaining.
Featured Brand
Roy Manufacturing
Portland, OregonRoy Manufacturing has been manufacturing high-quality perforated metals and materials, at reasonable prices, for 67 years. They offer both custom and stock-perforated products, including sunscreens, infill and privacy panels, and gates and fences.
- Material options: steel, stainless steel, aluminum, brass, copper, and more
- Perforations can be made in a variety of shapes, sizes, such as round, square, slotted or other ornamental shapes. Patterns include straight or staggered rows or random patterns.
- Metal structures require low maintenance and resist corrosion and weathering.
Featured Brand
Barfield Fence and Fabrication, Inc.
Apopk, FloridaBarfield Fence and Fabrication, Inc. fabricates aluminum fencing and privacy panels to your exact dimensions. Each panel is unique to the area it inhabits and can be incorporated into other objects like gates and trellises in a wide variety of ways.
- Powder-coatings available in the full color spectrum
- Laser, waterjet, or plasma cutting for high precision patterns and customization
- Aluminum outperforms wood due to its high strength, light weight, and corrosion-resistance
High Quality Wood
Wood remains one of the best materials for fencing and other construction solutions, because it is a renewable resource and can be crafted and finished to suit every design style. But with many modern, low-maintenance materials on the market, discerning clients will expect premium materials that retain their aesthetic quality as they age.
Design Tip
Treated wood maybe the most cost efficient solution for balancing large perimeter coverage and durability.
Featured Brand
Madison Wood Preservers
Madison, VirginiaMadison Wood Preservers is known for treating and supplying high quality southern yellow pine, ideal for fencing and decking. They emphasize careful packaging, using composite and plastic materials, rather than chains, to avoid damaging materials en route to a job site.
- Wood is sourced solely from mills producing consistently above average wood
- Dimensions such as 2×4-2×12, 8-20 foot and a large selection of 4×4, 6×6, and 8×8’s
- Wood is treated with a mold inhibitor and preservative, with optional kiln drying, ensuring longevity
Alternate Materials
Stone Veneer
Stone, brick, and plaster walls were traditional methods of utilizing local resources to cost-effectively and securely enclose homes. While many homeowners may seek out modern solutions such as aluminum and composite fencing, some companies have innovated ways to combine traditional materials with current builds.
Featured Brand
Explore Materials
San Antonio, TexasExplore materials cuts bespoke stone architectural detailing, hand-crafted to your specifications by talented artisans. Their stone veneer is durable and lightweight, serving as a cost-effective alternative to traditional stone walls.
- Material options: travertine, marble, limestone, adoquin
- Over thirty unique natural stone colors available
- Pair with other architectural features such as custom sills, columns, surrounds, and fountains for a cohesive exterior style
Alternate Materials
Precast Concrete Solutions
Stone, brick, and plaster walls were traditional methods of utilizing local resources to cost-effectively and securely enclose homes. While many homeowners may seek out modern solutions such as aluminum and composite fencing, some companies have innovated ways to combine traditional materials with current builds.
Design Tip
Combining two types of fencing will ensure both privacy and inter-connectedness, highlighting both timeless aesthetics and modern style.
Featured Brand
Permacast Walls
Bradenton, FloridaPermacast Walls has innovating an affordable, highly customizable approach to modern fencing with their line of precast concrete products including boundary walls, fencing panels, perimeter fence wall systems, and decorative garden walls.
- Available in a variety of textures and colors, including imitation stone, brick, and wood
- Resist damage from the elements, pests, and fire, minimizing maintenance costs
- Additional benefits: reduce noise pollution, effectively manage slopes, prevent erosion
Finishing Touches
Custom, artful finishes will turn any fence into a statement piece that unifies the architectural and landscaping features of each property. A yard transforms from secluded to serene with integrated lighting, personally carved fence toppers, and unique materials.
Design Tip
Need to match existing post caps? Island Post Caps can match the original – keeping the original look while saving on not replacing all the caps.
Featured Brand
Island Post Cap
Homewood, AlabamaIsland Post Cap has been crafting intricately designed post caps, finials, and custom fencing finishes for over three decades. They specialize in historic reproductions, handcarved appliques, and the incorporation of unique materials.
- Material options: wood (high appearance grade Cedar, Redwood or Treated Pine), copper, composites, glass
- Solar post caps offer a sustainable and convenient – they utilize the support of an existing structure – way to light a landscape
- Special order custom sizes and exotic woods available – from historic reproductions to unique sizes.
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