Painting garden room cladding

Painted garden rooms are back in fashion, particularly black and dark grey ones. Painted finishes had gone out of favour with garden room buyers who were opting for more expensive Cedar and Larch designs that are low maintenance due to their natural durability.

The thing is unless timber claddings like Cedar or Larch are oiled as they are fitted, they will weather to a silver grey within a few years. We get feedback from buyers that this change in colour disappoints them as their relatively new garden room looks aged.

For this reason, oiled and painted finishes are becoming more popular with both garden room designers and buyers.

The paint finishes the pros are using on their cladding

We thought it would be useful to link to some of the paint finishes that are being chosen by professional garden room designers for the cladding on their buildings.

Interestingly, garden room designers are still choosing Thermowood, Siberian Larch and Western Red Cedar for their external cladding. All these timbers are durable with long lifespans. Each one could safely be left to weather to a silver grey. By painting or oiling the cladding, the designers are choosing to enhance the durability and create a consistent aesthetic appeal.

For best results, all these finishes need to be applied as the cladding is fitted so that you can work the finish into the joints of the boards.

• Osmo UV Oil – an oil rather than a paint. The Osmo UV Oil is a clear finish that is commonly used on Cedar and Larch to preserve its natural colour. The oil has a soft sheen when dry and does enhance the grain of the wood.
• Cuprinol Garden Shades – a few garden room designers make use of the Garden Shades range. There is a good palette of colours to choose from.
• Sadolin Superdec Opaque – this finished has been used in garden room design for many years. It is popular because of the wide range of colours available. Another plus is that it biodegrades as it ages rather than crack or flake. Because it is an opaque finish, it hides any grain and knots in the wood.
• Osmo Country Colour – another product from Osmo. This time a coloured opaque finish. This range has become popular because of its black and grey finishes, particularly the Anthracite Grey which is a good match with the grey doors and windows commonly used in garden room design. Black and grey finishes are one of the hot trends at the moment.
• Teknos Woodex Aqua Solid – the Woodex Aqua Solid range by Teknos is being used by several garden room companies. Again the finish comes in a wide palette of colours including the popular dark greys/black.

Masonry finishes are also used

You may wonder why we are listing a masonry finish in this list when timber claddings are typically used for the external cladding. We are seeing cement particle boards being used quite frequently in garden room design. Especially on rear walls, walls that are not visible or easy to access. These boards come in large sheets, and we are typically seeing them be painted dark grey to match the doors, windows and trims.

• Weathershield Smooth Masonry – Dulux’s Weathershield is typically used to paint cement particle boards.