Easy DIY! Paint Your Cheap Plastic Pots!
Check out this Easy DIY! Paint Your Cheap Plastic Pots! It seems like I have been painting everything! Life seems to get in the way of much of my progress, but how can I say no to a request from my granddaughter to watch a slide show of her year in first grade, have a picnic lunch with her, and an afternoon of games?
Simply put, I can't! So the painting can wait for another day...
This is what the pot above looked like before a little paint. Not so good, right?
As I painted the more ornate, Styrofoam pots from an earlier post last week, I got the idea to paint three of these plastic pots and use a stencil on them to create a little more interest. This pot was cleaned, dried, and two coats of the Folk Art Home Decor chalk paint color Savannah were applied and allowed to dry overnight.
Then using a Martha Stewart pack of stencils, which I found at
Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft store, I stenciled the design using three different design elements from the pack. After the design was stenciled, three coats of the Delta Ceramcoat satin finish Exterior Varnish were applied.
At this point, only one pot is finished. Doesn't the paint elevate this lowly pot? The pot really looked pretty scruffy didn't it? One more pot is waiting to be stenciled and another has not been started. Eventually, there will be three matching flower pots on this wall by the patio.
While painting these pots can be done inside, another project in process is painting the deck. I love the look of the white rails against the stained wood deck floor. When we first had the deck built, I painted it with a base coat of Kilz primer and then two coats of Sherwin Williams white paint. That lasted for years, but it needed to be painted again last year.
The deck stairs needed attention. They needed to be replaced. Originally, we had two stairs off the deck. One to the right, leading to a sidewalk through a little flower garden and to the front yard. The other led to the patio to the left and down to the basement doors.
Dave and I collaborated on a redesign of the short stairs to the right of the back door. When I say we collaborated, I mean a picture was shown to him. (When we were at the beach, I had taken pictures of the deck and stairs on the house where we were staying.) The design made so much more sense than what our builder had constructed. This is what I want. Create it. And he did. (There was a "Please?" added in there!)
The new design allowed water to drain better than the original design and hopefully, we won't have to replace the treads again soon. It will be easier the way they are built now even if we do.
The short stairs were finished, next came the long stairs. Dave took them down and was figuring dimensions for the stringers. I took a glass of iced tea down to the patio and sat on one of the chairs. Looking out into the backyard and the woods beyond, I realized how much of a beautiful view those stairs had blocked!
I suggested we do away with the stairs completely. Dave was not convinced. As a matter of fact, he argued with me and said we would stick to our original plan. He always wants to stick to the original plan.
Coaxing him to come over, sit down, have some tea, and take a look at the view, was my next move. That worked. Less work for him, less cost for more replacement wood, less deck to paint, and we now have a beautiful view, which is not blocked by the stairs.
Last week, three days were devoted to painting the deck. Unfortunately, the forecast is for rain each day of this week and that has to be put on hold. Pictures will be posted when the deck is finished. In the meantime, I'll be painting everything inside the house until the rain is gone.
This really is an Easy DIY! Paint Your Cheap Plastic Pots!
