Whitewashed French Vintage IKEA Planters

by Ashley Rader {Giddy Upcycled}

Recently I took a trip to IKEA and was looking in their planting area. I wish I could say I had a green thumb, but I really just don’t. So finding realistic looking (and pretty!) fake plants is always something I’m looking out for. I came across these cool looking plants, and loved the look and color of the greenery, so I picked them up ($4.99 each) and a couple of their metal tin planters which are a steal for only $.70 each.

ikea planters whitewashed french vintage, chalk paint, gardening, repurposing upcycling

Step 1 - Stencil a design onto the tins using dark paint

I had also picked up this random piece of gilded carved wood – I’m not sure if it was from a poster bed, or something else, but I bought it at Goodwill for a buck, and figured sometime down the road, I’d have a use for it. When I saw these pots and the plants, it reminded me almost of a messy looking topiary, and I thought it might look cool to put this wood topper into one of the planters, as sort of a accent piece coming up out of the middle.

Step 2 – Whitewashing the pails

Go VERY easy on the paint here. You want to very lightly just tap the tip of your brush into paint, and then wipe it off. Using very light strokes, just touch it gently to the pail – its basically like dry brushing, if you’ve done that before. I went VERY lightly over the top of the stencil, to give that part an aged look as well.

Let that dry, and then I wrapped some twine around the top of the pails, put the plants into them, and they were all done!! I think they turned out BEAUTIFULLY!!!

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2 comments

Miriam Illions on Sep 22, 2014
You did an amazing job!

1 Reply
Andrea | Personally Andrea on Sep 23, 2014
Awesome project! I keep a big pile of these pots stocked all the time, this is a great idea :)

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