Sometime in 2019, A home on Watt Avenue in Sacramento built a really striking fence. It features horizontal fence pickets. It looks amazing.

It is redwood, clear of knots, really nice wood with an eye-catching design.

I feel like this one fence has been the inspiration for a whole batch of horizontal fences springing up in Sacramento.

Before we look at other designs, check out how the gaps between the fence boards are uniform and unbroken along 100 feet of fencing. It looks really cool.

Here is a horizontal fence around a house in Arden Park. This is a beautiful fence.

The boards used here are pine or fir and have a rough finish. They ignore the contours of the ground, are all positioned so that they are level. They have stepped variations in height. The corners are covered with color-matched steel L brakets, I think.

A line of trees hides the seams, so the boards look like they are each 80 feet long.

Here's an example of a shorter horizontal fence in front of a house. California has laws about how tall your fence can be, so this is is probably the max height for the front of this home. It looks great.

The 2-inch boards along the top are a nice detail. They also added little "floating" boards onto the end of the fence, so that the fence doesn't end at the post.

Once again, the boards lining up and being uniformly spaced is critical for visual appeal.

Note there are no vertical elements visible from the front.

Here is another horizontal fence, also on Watt Avenue.

This fence has very small gaps between the boards.

Note two details in this fence. First, the fence has a couple of thin strips at the bottom, so that there are no gaps where the fence meets the cement. Second, the ends of the boards are covered with a vertical strip.

This fence also has an entry gate in the center with boards spaced a bit wider. This is a cool idea, allowing the homeowners to peep out of their yard, but the disjointed horizontal lines kind of ruin the visual appeal of the fence, in my opinion.

The fence also features a wide gate for vehicles to enter. Unfortunately, where the fence is supported by wheels in the center, the gate sags a bit. This imperfection is accentuated by the horizontal arrangement of the fence boards.

Here is an example of a horizontal fence with a long gate which looks amazing. This one does cheat a bit by having vertical boards hide the seams, but it isn't distracting.

This one uses incredibly long, perfect horizontal planks, which are aligned well, even though the right hand panel is on wheels.I wouldn't be surprised if the lumber for this fence was $500. It was worth the price.

Here is a fence with large gaps and some style. There are a lot of individual panels, and each panel has both wide and narrow boards aligned beautifully.

I think this would be a good fence for a yard with a small dog.

Here is a horizontal fence in the style of a ranch, with horizontal elements spaced very far apart.

The horizontal boards are inconsistent. This fence has surely evolved to become this crazy patchwork. This structure makes a better ladder than a fence.

The added reflectors are a clue that this fence was built to resist attacks from vehicles.

I hate to pile on, but posts that extend above the horizontal slats should be cut off.

This is an example of a short horizontal fence with no vertical elements. It encloses the front of the yard and one side. Narrow gaps and the seams are staggered.

Here's another wrap around fence that encloses the yard on three sized. No vertical elements and wider gaps. Note that the boards line up on the side fence as the yard slopes downhill towards the street.

The boards aren't kept level, but it looks great because all of the boards line up.

Horizontal fences seem to be a good solution for seperating your house from your neighbor's driveway. This one could use one more row of planks across the top.

This neighbor fence hides the posts a little better.

Note that even a slight misalignment in the boards is obvious with this design.

The end of the fence has mitered joints that completely encompass the post. Pretty slick.

This neighbor fence has many vertical elements. Perhaps these help keep the horizontal planks from sagging over the years.

I betcha it isn't supposed to be this tall.

A final example of a smart-looking horizontal fence between houses.

Finally, here is an unusual horizontal fence. The wooden one, I mean. The slats are woven with thin posts. Perhaps the fence was a bit too easy to climb, because they added a second anti-personnel fence in front of it at some point.

I'd love to see this design make a comeback.