French number planter...

Well, I have finally finished the planter.
First of all, the plant that I got for the planter:

...was £18.50 from our market or two for £35.I didn't think this was particularly bargainous until a few days later, we went up to the garden centre for lunch and I saw what they were charging. Theirs were £59! Each! That is a staggering difference! I've noticed before that you can pick up little plants from the market for a fraction of the price at the garden centre but that's incredible.

Hitchin market rocks.

Having said that, this hasn't been a cheap project as even the smallest tin of gloss paint isn't cheap.

It was painstakingly slow as I could only do one coat of paint a day of the primers and the gloss which needed two coats. I decided not to use a reverse stencil technique because of it needing two coats. I'd have had to peel it off whilst the paint was wet to avoid cracking the paint and then reposition it exactly in the same place. Nah.

We blew up a photo of our French house number and used that as the number, rather than trawling through number fonts for a match. I drew it onto the front of the box and painted around it.

I found a Dulux colour that was a good colour match too. Even though I painted in a nice smooth line, the paint bled over the line slightly which gave a slightly fuzzy look. You can really only see that up close though.

So let's look again at the before pictures...

and my inspiration...

  and the after...

 Wehey! A tad smarter. It would of course be much better with a matching blue wooden door...another thing for the endless list of home improvements! One day...

I normally like a bit of symmetry but with the down pipe and its stonking great aluminium cover right by the door, it never really worked having a pair of plants, and this way I think it looks better. Not a dead plant in sight.

But that pipe still needs painting...

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