Our green metal fence was looking pretty rough from the sprinkler’s hard water and the hot Florida sun. So I decided to spray paint it and add an arbor for Jasmine to climb.

Here is how it looked before:

First I scrubbed off the residue from the sprinklers and dirt. If you have rust, use a wire brush to first try to scrap off the rust.

I sprayed with Epoxy paint. Now, this was not something recommended somewhere, I had just tried it on appliances before and know that it’s extremely durable.

I sprayed the first few cans and my finger was killing me! I googled if there was a better way, and sure enough you can buy a $3 spray grip! It’s right beside the spray paint in the hardware store. I’d just never seen it!

So this stuff is sticky, tacky and toxic. I ended up with a mask, long sleeves, pant and a towel over my head for round two! Haha! It got in my hair the first time and was terrible to get out. My neighbors are probably used to this stuff by now.

So the fence was looking fantastic, but I’ve known for awhile now that it was asking for an arbor — with sweet-smelling jasmine climbing to the top and twinkle lights.

I found an inexpensive trellis ($76) on Amazon and put it together in no time. It’s quite pretty, but not very stable. So I asked my Instagram friends and they came up with the solution!

1. We used a rubber mallet to drive rebar into the ground. The arbor slid over the top and actually stood straight!

2. We used hose clamps to attach them to the fence for more reinforcement from Florida storms.

And finally we planted jasmine to grow up the trellis. So far it’s doing well. Looking forward to it reaching the top!

Here are the tools I used:

I’ll share again when the jasmine takes over and I add the twinkle lights!