Open the door.
Keys. Phone. Sunglasses. Coffee mug. Mail. Dog leashes.
That’s all the stuff you drop on that one table, shelf or in our case…the planter.
More on that in a moment.
Everyone has this place, right? Where you come inside and drop everything.
Like I said. Ours is the planter.
Our mid-century home has this integrated, concrete-block planter just inside the doorway. There was a time we had actual plants in it. But the plants tended to grow sideways, toward the light from the front windows and it became a pain to tend to them.
Now our planter has gathered stacks of stuff. A mail-organizer thingy next to an extra storage cube something-or-other and then some books that we precariously stack keys, sunglasses and other stuff on.
I’m sure there’s some plastic army men, legos and hot wheels claiming a portion of the planter as well.
And the planter kinda blends right in being painted the same color as the walls—instead of being the architectural detail it was intended to be.
So this was the perfect project to do over the weekend.
And since Dadand is partnering with Valspar again for 2016, I thought I’d tackle this painting project first.
Ace Hardware 31 Days of Color
During the month of March, Ace Hardware will be helping consumers discover a new love for color through a month-long interactive paint experience called 31 Days of Color. Every day in March, Ace will unveil a new “Color of the Day” on ThePaintStudio.com.
I chose Rue Bourbon—a rich brown that coordinated with the sofa in my living room and complemented the green walls adjacent to the planter.
Here are some reasons I choose Valspar:
- I think they are committed to helping me make a change for the better. Why? They have tons of colors and the right tools to help select them
- The paint is quality stuff. The color is true and it performs—I know what to expect when it goes on, and I won’t have to repaint it again soon.
- And if for some reason I don’t like the color, Valspar is the only paint brand with a color guarantee—love it or get another free.
The Plan for the Planter
So here’s the plan.
- Paint the planter. You got that already.
- Make a decorative top for the planter, so we can put stuff on top of it.
After discussing the plan with the Boss, we took a trip to the home center to get some wood, then stopped by Ace to get the paint.
The Planter Top
I started with a piece of ¾” birch plywood which I cut to size.
I mitered some 1×2 pine to cap the unfinished edges of the birch plywood and create a nice reveal for the top.
I glued up the 1x2s and tacked in place with a brad nailer. A little stainable wood filler for the brad holes and some sanding and I was ready to stain.
I had my helper use the air gun to remove any sanding dust. This took about 45 minutes. Well, it took 30 seconds to blow off the dust, but another 44 minutes of messing around with the air gun…‘cause it’s neat.
I applied an oil-based ebony colored stain to complement the other furniture in the room as well as the Valspar Rue Bourbon color. Added three coats of satin polyurethane for some protection, sanding with 220-grit in between coats.
I chose the Valspar Aspire line of paint for the planter. It has the primer built in. The guy at Ace put it in the shaker for an extra two minutes because he said this paint is a little thicker than other brands and it will ensure a better mixing of the color. The paint label isn’t normally wrinkly, it suddenly started pouring raining and I ran inside with my camera, leaving the paint can outside by mistake.
So I taped up the edges of the floor and wall and got to painting. The guy at Ace was right, this was some pretty thick paint—no wonder it’s durable.
After the second coat, I was done. One coat would probably have done it, but I wanted that extra level of durability since the planter gets kinda beat up right by the front door.
I installed the top with a little silicone to hold it in place.
The planter is now a feature, instead of an eyesore. The Rue Bourbon color complements the wall color and matches the terrazzo floor as well as the other furniture in the room.
It will no longer be a catchall for junk, and perhaps we’ll add a basket for keys and other small items.
Check out The Paint Studio at Ace this month for the 31 Days of Color—you can enter the 31 Days of Color Sweepstakes for a chance to win a $10,000 Paint Makeover, plus a bunch of daily prizes. There’s just a few days left to enter so get going!
Then let us know how you’ve been inspired to add some color to transform your space.
Oh and where is that place in your home where you dump off all the stuff when you come inside?
Disclosure: Dadand was supplied product and compensated to post about Valspar—a company whose products we love and use all the time. Despite that, the opinions expressed by Dadand are our own. To provide as much transparency as possible, Dadand makes every reasonable effort to disclose the source of all products and services reviewed.
