In a post awhile back on cheap ways to have a beautiful balcony garden, I mentioned spray painting inexpensive pots to make them look more interesting. This is a really great way to make a mismatched collection of pots look more cohesive and it is also a good way to start a balcony garden with only a few bucks. One of the most expensive parts of container gardening is the containers. At least, it is if you want big pots, or anything more interesting than a basic terra cotta one. But does it have to be?!
Here is a 97 cent plastic pot from Home Depot, and a 7 dollar can of spray paint that is designed to make the finished product look like hammered metal:
Here is what the pot looked like after spray painting:
I’m not going to lie and say the finished pot looks like a 50 dollar pot. But it looks a heck of a lot better than couple of bucks I spent on it. I planted it up with some bacopa I plan to train into a topiary. When I popped the bacopa in there, it looked really good. And fit in well with my other metal pots.
Some spray painting tips:
- Use a large drop cloth or a lot of newspaper. Spray paint travels farther than you’d think.
- This is an outside project. The fumes would have been overwhelming inside an enclosed area like a garage.
- Spray in even, thin layers, repeatedly over the same spot until you’ve reached the level of coverage you want. But do not over do it! Spray paint drips don’t look very nice. The hammered metal spray paint I used needed good coverage to get the hammered look, but in some places I got too much paint in the same spot, and it dripped.
- Let the pots dry in a sunny spot for a couple of hours before planting them. Be careful with them, as they’re not fully cured (i.e. the paint is not rock hard) for 24 hours.
I ended up using these pots for topiaries. Check it out!
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
This is a great idea. I have a few pots that I can use for this project. Where do you get the paint?
Louise — I got it from Home Depot in the paint section.
I’ve been thinking about painting some of my plastic pots and have been wondering what kind of paint would work best, so this is really helpful. Rust-o-leum makes a lot of sense because of it’s durability! Last year I spray painted some “tombstones” with a grey rust-o-leum that had flecks of black and white in it so that it looked a lot like stone.
jgh — I was pretty happy with the Rust-o-leum hammered metal finish, but like you mentioned, they have lots of different faux finishes and tons of ‘plain’ colors. I think I saw the paint you are talking about. It would be perfect for tombstones!