How can I hide or decorate a rain barrel?

Some of my barrels will be white plastic, and I'd like to have something less stark.  I'm open to suggestions.

Let's see...

First I found some barrel covers.  Umm...  They're covers for quarter horse barrel racing.  Zebra striping or blue camo is a little bolder look than I'm after.  That's hardly surprising, as these are supposed to be visible to the racers.



Well, a pretty sunflower.  That's more of a decoration than a disguise.  These are pretty, but then everyone's an art critic.  There are any number of ways to make a barrel slipcover or paint a barrel.  Or to have it painted, depending upon your talent at painting a rain barrel.


My talent at painting is about right for the leaf stencil spray painting method.  Spray a coarse background pattern on the barrel, then use various leaves and small branches as stencils to create natural patterns across the barrel.




A wooden container is an interesting alternative.  Pick your favorite wood and color, and build a barrel-sized box.  I suppose that could also be done with bricks if you prefer brick walls.

Speaking of wood, a wooden lattice was my first thought.  I see that a nearby hardware store has prebuilt lattice panels that are three by four feet, which seems about right.  But they'll cost more than inexpensive barrels cost.  A compromise is to get 4 x 8 foot lattice panels and make smaller panels from those.