I recently jazzed up a couple cheap planters that I thought I'd share.  Mostly because they were so easy, that anyone can do it.  And, I want to publicly declare the presence of live plants in the house.  Maybe if I say it here, I'll be more likely to feel the pressure of keeping them alive?  This black thumb sure hopes so!


I found a mini orchid plant from Home Depot that was marked down to $4.99.  I figured if I killed it I would only be out 5 bucks and, who doesn't love normal things in miniature sizes? 

I was on a mission to find a cute pot, but couldn't find anything I liked.  As I was purusing Ikea my last trip, I came across their selection of mini orchids.

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The little pots were the perfect canvas for something more interesting, but I already had the plant so I didn't want to spend the $8 for these.  I lucked out when I found a couple dead ones in the as-is section they were selling for something like $2.  It probably looked weird buying a dead plant, but I didn't care!  I also picked up some more succulents, because our Home Depot and Lowes both had pretty sad looking selections.

We had a party at our house recently and I needed something to mask the little orange plastic containers, so I found these nondescript black plastic planters at Target also marked down to $0.72 a piece.

So, to start this thing I had a plain white ceramic cup, and an equally plain black plastic cup.  I knew I wanted to gold leaf the white planter so I used a foam brush to paint on the adhesive in a diagonal shape.  I wanted the edge to be rough, so I didn't worry too much about being perfect.  I followed the directions and let it sit, then gold leafed it until it looked good and then sprayed it with some gold leaf sealer.  I can't wait for it to flower again, it looks a little sad until then.


For the black planter, I had found this pot on Etsy and thought it would be an easy pattern to replicate. 

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I used a white paint pen and free handed until I liked the way it looked.  It took maybe 20 minutes.


I'm not sure that they'll always live together, because I don't really think a (flowering orchid) really goes with a spiky succulent, but while I wait for the flowers to come back they're together.


 Right now they live on the window sill in the kitchen, and I have two more black planters that I may doodle on with different designs.


And, I know it's hard to get a size orientation with close cropped photos, so here's a little wider shot for comparison.


It was such a quick and simple upgrade that I'm excited to do more, but I may have to cool it on the plants right now, I've only kept them alive for a couple months so far.  I don't want to get cocky and have a bunch of planters but dead plants!

Any tips on keeping succulents alive?  Mine always seem to grow up, which makes them look weird.  I also may have a slight tendency to over water them.  I kill them with kindness, literally!