Pretty Planters

Hi y’all! Spring has sprung and now I only want to be outside! Every year around this time when the last frost comes (and kills my plants that just bloomed, ugh) the next day is always 80 degrees or some sh*t, and the cycle of me heading to the deck for hours and hours every day begins.

I enjoy my blooming redbud trees, my azaleas, hydrangea bushes, flowering almond plants and I am thankful, appreciative, and fulfilled for a full 5 minutes before I hate everything in my yard and house and think it needs to be upgraded!!!! What is wrong with me? Nothing. Everything. Who knows? Since we built our deck from scratch two years ago, off of the back of our house/around our above ground pool, I have been in décor mode. Yall. Outdoor furniture ain’t cheap. Umbrellas, ain’t cheap. Outdoor throw pillows and cushions, ain’t cheap. Outdoor rugs, ain’t cheap. Plants, planters, you guessed it ..AIN’T CHEAP!

I have been piecing things together in the off season, buying things that didn’t *really* match, but served their purpose, & asking for things as birthday gifts for the deck just so we could entertain. I am going to show you a number of ways I did this as inexpensively as I could, and bring you along for upgrades I have made.

In my last blog post, I hope you read about the Target Salvage Store and all my finds I have come across in the past two weeks thanks to the Target queen, Aubrey Swan @aubreyswanblog. After finding her post of Target Salvage Store Round-up | Aubrey Swan Blog I found out there are three near me in Louisville. Two are actual stores that kind of remind me of an Ollie’s Bargain Outlet, and the prices weren’t as cheap as I was hoping. The third store, Gimme A $5 , was a TRUE salvage store. I’m talking empty warehouse with a bunch of rolling bins filled with junk. I say junk lovingly. Gimme a $5 restocks the bins Saturday and Sunday and each item is $5. Monday everything is $3. Tuesday and Wednesday, $2, Thursday $1, and Friday everything in the damn store is 25 cents.

My inexpensive find of all finds (thus far) were these beautiful, 8 inch, cherry red ceramic planters from Home Depot. I think they were last season, as I couldn’t find an exact match on their site, but, similar ones were $12- $30 each and I got two..each one costing me $3 at the Gimme a $5 store! Now, they are very pretty pots, but I am neutral gal headquarters, so I wanted to update these to go with neutral décor on my new deck and get them painted white.

I started off with a 3M 80 grit sanding sponge and gently rubbed them down with it, just enough to roughen up the top glossy layer, but not too much to make any deep scratches in them.

Next, I sprayed 3 light coats of the Rustoleum 2X Flat White Primer I purchased from Ace Hardware. I am such an impatient spray painter. I used to always try to spray a thick coat and only do one, maybe two, but over the years I have MADE myself change to three and four light, light, coats .With the impatience came drip marks, so I have made every effort to change that. This primer dries super quick so even in between coats every 15 minutes or so, I would do a mini coat in between drying. I am covering cherry red and going to bright white, so I was nervous coverage wouldn’t be opaque, but Rustoleum never lets me down. Make sure you are doing this outside, the fumes are strong.

I’m talking LIGHT coats

You can see that the primer did its job. Full coverage, no gloss, white, matte paint. Since I wanted a glossy finish like they were originally, I kept going.

After those dried, I sprayed two coats (25 minute dry time in the sun) of the Ace Hardware brand Premium Finish Gloss Enamel. I wanted to make sure to use Rustoleum for the primer paint color, but for budget purposes, I went with the cheaper Ace brand for the enamel since I already had it on hand. Again, use a sweeping motion holding the can about 12 inches away and use a very light coats.

A quick afternoon project– $6 for two pots & 2 cans of $4.99 Rustoleum Flat White Primer= LOVING these Pretty Planters. How great do my $4.99 hydrangeas from Aldi last week look in these!?You don’t have to break the bank to make things pretty.