Blessing #117 - Updated Porch

For several months, I have had many home posts.  In November, we moved into a new rental house that is 150 years old.  For someone that loves antiques and old stuff, I loOoOoOove this house. 
I have more freedom here to paint and such, and it's amazing how far a little work will go in this house.

Sometimes all the projects that need to be done are overwhelming.  I've been working in our mudroom for about a month now.  So I decided to pick a small project so I could actually feel some accomplishment. 

Our side porch...

First, I stained the porch with an opaque deck stain.  This was the only money I spent in this project($27), but I am also using the stain on another porch hopefully next week. 

I really debated about the stain color.  I don't hate it, but I don't love it either.  To add a pop of color I used two planters that I found at a yard sale last year for a dollar. 

I spray painted the outside of the planters orange with some spray paint I had from another project. Now, I have a feeling that spray paint is probably not the best idea for plants, but with my black thumb, I didn't care. 

For the planters, I used some pansies that my landlord gave us.  (He's very nice like that.) 

I normally love color, but I just wasn't loving the orange planters.  Orange seemed to make the porch stain look not quite right, and it took away from the pansies colors.  I think with the right flowers, orange would look awesome. 

To fix it, I used the same black spray paint I used on my mudroom light, and spray painted the planters again. By this time, I had already planted the pansies in one of them so I used a Walmart bag to cover the flowers as I spray painted...I'm sure that wasn't good for the flowers. 
 
Here is the after picture...

Yes, I had to label the planters. I know...it's a sickness.

At first I thought about labeling them "water me" to remind me and my black thumb, but I settled for "hi." 

It's almost too cutesy for me, but I like it anyway.  Oh! But wait, the back gets even better. 

A simpler way to do planters like these is to use chalkboard spray paint.   Then you could change the sayin' anytime you felt like it. 

I just love these planters and they make me smile every time I see them.  Here's the before and after so you can see them together. 
{before}...                                        {after}....


I'm sharing this project with these great sites.