Idea For Covering An Outdoor Railing

I saw a really clever idea for covering an outdoor sundeck railing on the Dear Genevieve show recently. You can view the episode here (although I'm having trouble downloading it!)

 

The team redesigned a couple's huge 30 foot sundeck overlooking a pool in rural New Jersey. A multi coloured cloth wall was created to surround the decks perimeter.

 

 

The rickety old wooden banister around the deck was transformed with fun and funky outdoor fabric. Before the sundeck looked similar to this image except not yet nicely painted.

  

This Tom Sumbrella bright striped outdoor fabric was chosen to cover the railing. I think bright colour fabrics are a must for the outdoors.

So this is what they did ... The top railing was removed and the fabric was stapled to the top of the bottom railing and then the top railing nailed back on. To keep the fabric from blowing around a cord weight was placed in the bottom of the fabric to keep it down. The fabric hung from the front so you could see only fabric and the view from the other side was of the railing legs with the fabric peeping through. The entire railing was also painted white to freshen them up.

This image is similar, except the fabric covered the entire railing.
 

 

My patio railing is in need of some serious TLC, it's covered in ugly brushwood and wooden lattice that has seen better days. I'm so tempted to steal Dear Genevieve's idea and cover it in some outdoor fabric and create a cloth wall.

I'm not quite convinced on how well outdoor fabrics really hold up against the weather - rain and sunshine.

Have you used outdoor fabric? Does it weather well?

[Images via HGTV, Deck 1,  fabric, Deck 2, Deck 3]