Painting a coop

[Chickylady77]

I've decided not to paint. I have two chickens right now and would love to be able to build my own coop some day, I just don't have the help unfortunately. I am attaching a bigger run to this as well as more roosting bars. I know this wont last forever but hopefully long enough until I can gather some proper help. Thank you all for your suggestions!

 

[Echelontheory101]

When it comes to having chickens, I strongly encourage new folks to place health and suitability far above esthetics (appearance.)

It might be worth scrolling back to posts on this particular sub-forum from summer of 2025 to read the frantic (and occasionally heartbreaking) posts by those trying to keep their beloved birds alive during record heat. I recall a streak of posts, many by experienced chicken keepers, where one or more healthy birds died a day from heat.

I’m up in the mountains of NC, and our temps were frequently in the mid-90’s. I assure you that inland central Carolinas gets much, much higher than that in the summer, and again, chickens suffered and died.

This was a huge learning curve for me when I started too! Except for me it was more about predator proofing vs aesthetics not health issues vs aesthetics but same I started with a super pretty set up and while thankfully no predator has ever succeeded, with each new predator visit my set up became more and more "ugly" as I piled on more hardware cloth, more ugly fencing, more screws and giant washers etc and at first I was kinda resistant and still trying to find nice looking ways to keep them more protected and that lasted all of about a week and then I got over it. Gotta care more about safe and healthy than cute and aesthetic.

But OP @Chickylady77 I totally get! Been there! Maybe find a middle ground with a cool looking grey with some black trim and accents or something?

 

[Echelontheory101]

I've decided not to paint. I have two chickens right now and would love to be able to build my own coop some day, I just don't have the help unfortunately. I am attaching a bigger run to this as well as more roosting bars. I know this wont last forever but hopefully long enough until I can gather some proper help. Thank you all for your suggestions!

Based on that pic I think if you wanted to paint the Run portion wood black that wouldn't affect the temperature at all and that would be a nice middle ground to get the look that you want because that area is almost 90% hardware cloth I think those 2 inch boards would be fine black, other than dust and sun bleaching showing up crazy on them(think black clothes and light colored pets haha) and tyen maybe a light Grey on the actual coop part with some cool black trim? That way you aren't risking making it more uncomfortable gor the birds but can still get the cool look you want!