Whether you want to protect children, pets, or both, a fence can make a valuable addition to your home. On the other hand, you can spend thousands of dollars on a fence, which makes building one a significant drain on your budget. If you need a fence, but you don't have the money for a wooden fence, you can save money by dressing up a chain-link fence. 

Vinyl Coatings

One of the biggest problems with a chain-link fence is its color. While galvanized-steel grey will look at home in an industrial park, it will look grossly out of place in a residential neighborhood. If you want a cost-effective boundary, without making your outdoor space look like a prison yard, then you should look for chain-link fencing which has been coated with vinyl. You will gain two advantages from this coating:

1. The vinyl will provide an extra layer of protection between the steel your fence is made from and the elements, which will help the fence to withstand corrosion even longer than a bare galvanized-steel fence. 

2. Vinyl coatings come in a variety of colors, which will give you the option to find a color that blends into the background or complements the design-scheme of your yard. 

Wooden Accents

Chain-link fences will typically have metal posts and some designs will include a metal top rail for added support. If you want to further improve the aesthetics of your fence, you can add wooden posts and multiple wooden rails, which will create the look of a wooden rail fence. 

Slats

Using vinyl-coated chain-link and and wooden accents will not improve the privacy provided by a chain-link fence. Any nosy neighbors or unsavory characters can look right through the links in the fence. To provide better privacy, you can purchase wooden slats, which can be woven down through the channels in the chain-link fence to provide a privacy screen. If you don't have the money available to place these slats when you install your fence, you can add them later as funds become available. 

Many people rule out chain-link as a fencing option simply because they object to its utilitarian appearance. In fairness, aesthetics can be just as important as the barrier provided by a fence. If you are trying to marry impressive looks with low cost, you should at least consider installing a chain-link fence around your home. A fencing contractor from a company like Fence Pro can help you decide if chain-link is a good choice for you.