The Crafty Cat: Flower Pot Make-Over

With summer here, the Panther was checking out her old flower pots and was bored with what she saw.  The pots are classical in design with nice detail, but they were just so rustic looking.  There is nothing wrong with rustic, but the Panther likes things a little glitzy... or gilded!

Here are the pots before.  As you can see, they have a great design, they are just boring.

The first thing the panther did was wash the pots down to get rid of residual dirt and dust, and then dry them well. 

Next, is to decide on a color.  You can go out and buy some craft paint, but  you don't have to.  Look around at house paint you may already have on hand.  The panther went through some old house paint she had in storage and found a lovely creamy oyster color and some black trim paint.  These were perfect classic colors for the pots.

Regular house paint works perfectly well.

She painted a nice thick coat of paint onto the pots.  Use as many coats as you think necessary to completely cover the pots, outside and in.

The base coat is on but the pots are still a little boring...

Allow the paint to dry thoroughly: several hours or over night.  When the paint is dry check the pots one more time to make sure they are evenly coated.

Now the fun part.  The panther loves all things gold and found it only appropriate to add a little gold to these once rustic pots.  The panther used gold sign paint because she had that on hand.  You could also use any metallic paint you find at a craft store, or a product called Rub n' Buff.

1 Shot gold sign painter's paint

The panther's goal in adding the gold metallic paint was not to gild the pot, but just to add a little shimmer and highlight the existing details.  She used the dry-brush method for this.

Simply dip the tip of your paint brush into the paint.  Then blot the paint off on paper towels until the brush is almost dry.

blotting off the gold paint

Take the dry brush and sweep it gently against the details in the pot to bring them to life.  Again, the goal here is not to completely cover the pot in the gold paint, but to emphasize the details.  If you just lightly brush and dab the paintbrush against the pot, it will high-light the high spots.

gently dab the dry brush over the high spots

You can add as much or as little high-lighting as you want.  Start light and build up to accomplish the look you want.

the Panther's new, elegant flower pots.

Happy crafting!

-The Panther