As I was decorating my front porch for Fall, I realized that I had no containers, pots or planters for the mums. I’m not much of a gardener, flower or plant person. I mean, I love flowers and plants, but they don’t love me back. I have the brownest thumb ever. So therefore, I don’t have all the accessories, gadgets, pots, planters, etc. But what I do have are three mums (that are still alive – for the most part) for my front porch that need a home. Now I know I’ll plant them soon, hoping they’ll come back next fall, but they won’t. I plant three every year and only ONE has ever come back {sigh}. But in the meantime, I’d like to put them into something decorative for the front porch.
Have you priced the pretty urns, pots and planters lately? Holy moly! I especially like the Zinc ones that I saw at Restoration Hardware, starting at $205. I don’t think that’s in my budget.
Here they are. Pretty, right? Well they should be for $200+
Well, since I don’t have $600 laying around to spend on planters, I came up with an idea to make my own version for next to nothing.
Not too shabby for a buck right? Except the flower IS looking a little shabby : ( I warned you!
My faux zinc planter started life as a popcorn box! Yes, a $1 popcorn container from the dollar store!
You can find lots of faux zinc tutorials on Pinterest, but since this is not a piece of furniture or high end accessory, I went pretty basic with how I did this. I kept it really simple. Simple, cheap and fast. My kind of project. Here’s what I did:
First, I spray painted the sides of the container that have the red printing with white spray paint with primer. I used Rust-Oleum 2x Ultra Cover Paint+Primer. I’m not sure that step was really necessary since I then applied two coats of black acrylic craft paint with a foam brush. But I didn’t want to take the chance that the red would show through.
After the black paint was dry, I applied three coats of metallic silver craft paint. I applied the silver paint with a foam brush, also, but before each coat dried, I rubbed it with a rag to reduce the brush strokes somewhat. And that’s it! Just pop in your healthy, happy, vibrant flower (not a half-dead, sad one like mine). And if anyone has any tips on keeping mums alive, I’d love to hear them!
Before I came up with this idea, I spray painted one of these containers with chalkboard paint. You can see it in the photo in my Fall Front Porch post.
I love doing Knock-off projects. Come on over to Create & Babble and take a look. I especially like the Pottery Barn Mercury Glass Vase knock-off. I wasn’t sure that one would turn out, but it did! Oh, and while you’re there, I’d love for you to read about the Ride of My Life. Dan and I rode over 150 miles on our bicycles through Pennsylvania on the Great Allegheny Passage. That was quite an adventure for two middle-aged, slightly-out-shape, non-athletes! But it was fun!
Audra @ Renewed Projects says
So cute! Never would have thought of using those popcorn containers like this. Very creative!
Rebecca says
What a great idea! I would never have thought of that!
Lori @ A Bright and Beautiful Life says
Jeanie is always a great resource for making a dollar store find into something that looks so great. And this planter box is no exception. I never would have thought to transform a popcorn container into a faux zinc planter box. It looks nice enough to have indoors, too.
Mauren says
I never would have guessed they were popcorn containers! Well done….again…Jeanie!! I think these would look gorgeous on my mantel with pointsetta plants this Christmas!
Leilani says
Clever! Nothing more disheartening than to look through the pages of Restoration Hardware–so expensive!! This is a great idea. 🙂