Plastic Pot Makeover

My mom was filling all her pots with flowers and plants, as she does every year, when she took a look at one of her old plastic pots. She decided it either needed to be trashed, or handed over to Yours Truly for some much needed love. She asked if I had any idea how to spruce it up, and give it a new life. Uhhh, only my favorite thing to do!! I mean, did she even need to ask?! I grabbed that puppy, threw her in the van, and when naptime came, I got down to business...

I mean, what CAN'T spray paint fix?! This was one yucky pot...

So first thing I did, was grab the hose and clean 'er up a bit. Once she (don't know why I'm talking as if this is a human, but just roll with me) was good and dry, I sprayed some primer on her, I mean it.

Just wanted to be sure the gray spray paint would adhere. Probably not even necessary, especially since the gray paint was made for plastic, but I did it anyway. Never sprayed a plastic pot before;). I didn't worry about spraying the inside, just the inner lip - I figured the dirt/plants/flowers would hide most of it.

At this point, I still didn't know what direction I was going with it, as far as jazzin' it up. I knew I wanted to add their house number on it somehow, but didn't know exactly how. Then I had a vision. I sprayed some white satin spray paint all over a large rectangle-ish shape, then I grabbed my painter's tape and covered that shape with paper and tape. Then I sprayed the gray spray paint all over. Are you with me? Confusing, I'm sorry. Basically, I thought I'd paint their house number on the pot, but wanted the space to be white.

I removed the paper and tape, and then decided to make a navy border, to match their shutters. I taped out another rectangular shape with painter's tape, and just used my navy acrylic paint that I had on hand. I stenciled on their house number with pencil first, and filled it in with some red paint I had. But I wanted it to match their front door, and it was TOO red - their door is almost a browny-red, like a maroon. I added some brown paint to my too-bright red and got the EXACT color!

When it was all dry, I sprayed it to death with some clear top coat spray paint. I've used this on my DIY coasters, and they don't bat an eye to even the largest amount of condensation (Iced Tea on a hot summer day in Maryland - trust me, I've tested it...and again, giving my projects human qualities - what is UP with me today!?), so I'm assuming this will protect the paint job from rain, watering the plants, etc. I think it will.

I took it to Mom and she LOVED it! She had no idea what I was going to do with it, she thought I'd planned on just spray painting it a solid color, so this was a surprise. The navy and red are perfect against her house.

So the lesson here, folks, is ALWAYS think spray paint before you trash! It can work wonders, and save you some serious cash! (WOW - just totally made a rhyme there...I'm pulling out all the cheesy stops today, aren't I?!)

Happy spray painting!