Stone spray painted planters

Now that our patio has furniture and a fence, it was time to do something about the empty planters littering our back steps. Actually, they were full of dirt, leaves and the sad remains of plants past.

While I’d love to replace those cheap plastic pots with stone or concrete planters, it’s hard to justify buying something new when our current planters do the job well enough. Also, we just built a fence and installed new floors, so my unnecessary planter budget is around zero dollars. Instead, I bought a can of Rust-Oleum’s stone spray paint and hoped for the best.

In terms of application, it’s really no different than regular spray paint, except that it’s even more important to err on the side of multiple light coats. I went a little rogue, and since each coat needs to be somewhat tacky for the next coat to adhere properly, I mostly ended up wasting a bunch of paint. So, don’t do that.

In the end, I think they turned out pretty well; the notched bottom is the only thing that really gives them away. I spray painted a third planter black and I like how they all look together. The plants are New Guinea impatiens and coleus (and that little guy is called a chocolate chip bugleweed…who knew?). Our patio is shaded by trees for most of the day, which is lovely, but a bit of a challenge when it comes to choosing plants. I had a lot of success with impatiens last year and coleus was recommended to me (by the Internet) as a shade-loving plant.

You may have also noticed that I painted the section of foundation behind our patio. Just kidding. Even Adam didn’t notice, and he lives here.

It was a pretty quick and easy transformation, and it looks so much better than the before. Ignore the algae. Our entire exterior is due for a good cleaning.

Back to the planters. I love this little corner of our patio now, and it should only get better when the impatiens start blooming.