French Flower Pot for Obelisk and Hoya

First, I want to thank those who left suggestions for the color to use on the baseboards and trim in my son's room.  Opinions were all over the place, but it was a great help to me in reasoning out what I wanted and why.  In the end, I mixed the darker gray floor paint with white (half and half).  I was afraid if I did the trim the same color as the walls, the stripes would look as if I just randomly stopped them.  But I didn't want such a dark contrast as the floor color either.  I appreciate each and every comment very much!

Now on to a little project that I started a couple of weeks ago.  I had the pot all painted, but was missing a saucer.  My mom came to the rescue, as I could not find any left in town.  It's finished, my Obelisk and Hoya are planted, and I'm a happy camper.

This was a fun and easy project. I had a big clay pot in the barn that I hauled outside to paint. This puppy is heavy without dirt and a plant in it...don't think I'll be moving it around much! I do have a rolling plant stand I think I'll paint and use underneath it.

I plunked it down on the grass, then plunked myself down beside it, and almost sat on this guy:

I think he was getting ready to hibernate.  He was moving really slow and couldn't fly.  I gave him his space. 

First I sprayed it with white primer, the pot...not the bee, then hit it with a couple coats of heirloom white. I used Fusion because that's what I had. Maybe it will stick better than regular paint...I hope. I didn't get pictures of that, but I think you can picture a white pot.

It already looked better, but not the look I was going for...yet. I whipped out my palm sander and gave it the once over. Now we're getting somewhere.

But it still didn't thrill me. After some hem-hawing about what to do, I remembered the fleur-de-lis foam stamp I bought earlier this summer when I was downstate at a Michael's store. Those of you who live near a Michaels don't know how lucky you are!

 First I painted the rim black, using a foam brush with most of the paint squeezed out of it.

I wanted a worn look, with some white showing through.  I did a small section at a time, then quickly, before the paint dried, dabbed some back off with a paper towel. 

It was a little too light, so I did a second coat.  Ooooh...I like, I like!

Next I used the same brush to put paint on the stamp.  I used the paper towel to dab some back off the stamp, then pressed it onto the pot, rolling it side to side a little and pressing hard because of the curved shape of the pot.  Even so, I had to realign a couple of times to get a spot that didn't print.

After it dried, I used the palm sander once again, but with a very light touch, to go over the black areas, giving it a worn, aged look.

Here it is all finished with the saucer:

 

 Now with the Hoya planted and the Obelisk doing it's job:

I think it has a French vibe.  My Hoya and I are lovin' it.

I'm also working on a very cool (I think) bulletin board.  After installing baseboards tomorrow, I hope to get if finished.  So ya'll come back now, ya hear?

I've linked to these great parties.  Go explore and enjoy!

French Country Cottage