Spray Painting My Way to a Fancier Porch | 19/52 Projects
The weather is cooling down here in Kansas City, which means I’ll be spending a lot more time on my front porch. It’s not very pretty out there, so it’s a good time to improve things a bit.
I’m planning a few low cost projects, but I decided to start with what I already had: large faded plastic pots, a hand-me-down side table that’s seen its share of color changes and locations, and a big stock of spray paint in my basement, leftover from our upcycling for the Etsy shop days.
The before is a big mess.
I picked a few colors that worked with my porch color scheme: pumpkin orange, light green, aqua, and copper. I waited for a low wind day, laid out a plastic sheet, and spray painted three pots (including one I didn’t love from the water marbling project) and the wood table. I waited a few hours in between each coat, Each piece needed two coats plus a touching up session.
I love how the copper table shines. The change from white to copper will also help to hide the grime that the table inevitably collects. I love that this table is a great place to set down drinks and to house fragrant chocolate mint, which I grow just because I love smelling it.
The sea glass part was my first mosaic project back in pre-blog days–the middle section was previously a mirror.
I filled the largest pot with gardening supplies for now because I didn’t have a big budget for flowers (this is a great use for this pot with casters), filled the medium pot with flowers that match the colors I have going on (I love how hardy, inexpensive, and big mums are!), and plopped one of my indoor plants into the aqua pot. Arranged with the kids’ little metal chair, these spray painted pots add a happy splash of color for cheap.
Side note: I needed the medium pot’s width but not its depth for the flowers, so I filled the bottom of the pot with sticks and leaves so I wouldn’t have to waste extra potting soil at the bottom.
The flowers also help to hide some of the mess that lives on the porch until we can build a shed or find a trunk of some kind: tricycles, potting soil bags, our teeny grill, etc. Totally not a permanent fix, but it looks way better from our front door, that’s for sure.
I need to get more copper going to make this whole thing work (maybe I’ll paint the legs of that orange chair?). I’m also going to do something about the stained couch (which is currently covered with clearance outdoor lounge cushions). For now, I’ll enjoy a slightly fancier space as I drink my morning coffee and read the news.
What tips do you have for improving an outdoor space for cheap?
This year it’s my goal to complete 52 projects; an average of 1 a week. Projects can be art, crafts, home improvement, tech, gardening, or whatever else my brain ventures into. The point is to MAKE. This is project 19 of 52! Check out the other projects: 1 : Script Art / 2: Striped Scarf / 3: Pillow Covers / 4: Eliza’s Doctor Who Valentines / 5: DIY Periodic Table Mirrors / 6: Band Pin Display / 7: French Monuments with Eliza’s Class / 8: Crystal Nail String Art / 9: Adventures in Dye / 10: Spring Poems / 11: Getting the Garden Going / 12: Le Petite Prince Painting / 13: DIY Cleaning Supplies / 14: Picking Up the Violin Again / 15: Shaving Cream Marbling / 16: Water Marbling / 17: Watercolor Crayon Resisting / 18: Doctor Who Guess Who.
