Plants are a beautiful accent to your home decor and really brighten up a room (as well as make the air cleaner). But sometimes the soil in a planter looks less than appealing. Even with new soil, it often looks a little dingy.
(I know, I know... the dirt looks dirty -haha)
I love Mexican Beach Pebbles (although they're a lot bigger than pebbles). They're
smooth and are often used for walkways or patio-scapes. Got these at Home Depot for around $11 and will only use a small portion of the bag so I can do several projects with the one bag. They have a couple of stone sizes so select what works best for your planter. I chose a natural color but I've also seen them in white. The natural color is pretty enough but I wanted to ratchet it up a bit with a little paint.
Select the stones - I chose a variety of stone sizes (small, medium and large).
For my 13" pot, I used 45 stones. Just make sure you have enough to cover the top of the dirt and add several extra stones so they can be stacked up in the planter to cover any open spaces.
Wash and dry the stones to remove any dust and prepare the surface. I washed them inside a colander so it wouldn't scratch my sink and they were easier to move. When completely dry, start the painting.
Wanted to paint the stones to accent my decor colors so I chose a red. It was a little too bright so I mixed it with some raw umber to tone it down. I used acrylic paint, but maybe in the future I would just spray paint them as it was a little messy. Painted one side with a foam brush and placed them on an egg carton for drying. It took about 15-20 minutes drying time between coats. Did 2-3 coats.
Once finished, I sprayed the stones with two coats of clear acrylic spray paint.
Loved the final look! Such a simple thing, with a big return.
I think I'll do this for my outdoor patio planters too.
Happy decorating.
Love, Steph
