Ugly Watering Can Painted To Pretty!

Over this past Summer I finally got to create a little garden of my own on my top floor apartment balcony. It was the first time renting a place that I had an outdoor space to call my own. Being on a very tight budget I snagged this mini watering can from my best friend who had planned on tossing it out because she had been using it as a temporary source until she could find a prettier looking one. As you can see, you can't really blame her. So I snatched it up and brought it home to try to salvage. This only took one quiet afternoon with just me, some acrylic paints, finishing spray and a little patience.

Before:

That sticker absolutely refused to budge. It took a lot of soaking and scrubbing and picking to finally come off. Because it had that nasty little rust mark on the spout I painted the other side but I did cover the rust with a little yellow paint.

After:

I used a picture of a magnolia for the general idea of how I wanted it to look but I knew I wanted a blending of bright pinks against the yellow. I think I would try a purple or maybe a blue next time around. I did the lettering freehand which can be really tricky so if you don't think your hand is steady enough then another way you can do this is by browsing through the fonts on Microsoft Word and printing out the size you want on a piece of paper. Then you just cut out the letters using an exacto knife and tape it to your project. Basically your just making your own stencil which is easy peasy. When I was finished with the paint I covered my outdoor table in newspaper and sprayed down the can with a finisher to make sure it could withstand the elements outside and not crack or peel. The total cost of this project was $1.50 for the spray since the watering can itself was free and I already had paints and brushes.


This is a little shot from my balcony. My pretty new watering can helped keep these flowers very happy!