Number Wall

When we first moved into our house I didn’t give the garden fence panels a second glance.  However, since Adam was born I have spent more time in the garden and the fence was starting to bug me. The panels  were so dull, despite Chris painting them all. I did a little research on google but couldn’t find a way of decorating the fence panels without having to re-mortgage the house for several pots of colourful fence paint (we have a lot of fence panels).

So I’ve decided to turn each fence panel into a theme. You can take the teacher out of the classroom but not the classroom out of the teacher! So far we have our ever expanding water wall, the garden fence counting string and Adam’s Mud Kitchen. Adam takes after his Dad and loves numbers. Everything Adam passes has to be counted and he tells you every number he notices. So it made sense to have a number wall.

There was only one problem – how was I going to get numbers on to slatted fence panels? I opted to paint them on but cheated and used Adam’s large foam numbers as a template. I used the same Cuprinol Garden Shades sample paint pots that I used on the sign above Adam’s Mud Kitchen.

The slats proved a little tricky and I can’t paint with a steady hand but Adam managed to recognise the numbers as I painted them.

The hardest part of the project was to stop Adam from touching each number whilst the paint was still wet. Needless to say he ended up covered in paint. He also kept getting paint brushes and paint pots from our garden room and attempting to paint the fence himself!

Here is our finished number wall.  The numbers need another coat of paint but  rain stopped play.

The best thing about painting with a toddler around? They love to wash up the paint brushes! Adam spent ages washing up in his Mud Kitchen.

So that is four fence panels down, only 6 more to go. Any ideas what I can do with the other fence panels?

Equipment:

* Cuprinol Garden Shades sample paint pots

* A small paint brush

* A fence panel

* Large foam numbers as a template.

Adam was 2 years and 1 month old.

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