Flower Pot: Before and After

My Valentine's gift this year was a pretty, purple, petite orchid. This is my first orchid and I am happy to say she is still alive and growing! However, I noticed the other day that the plant was quickly out growing the pot.

Here is the original pot and the roots busting at the seems.

So Saturday, JD and I went to Home Depot on the hunt for a new pot and soil. Little did we know, orchids have their own special pots and soil. The pot must have a hole in the bottom for proper draining and their is soil especially made for orchids. Maybe this is common knowledge but we know next to nothing about plants, gardening, etc.

Here is the special orchid soil. I have enough to last me a lifetime.
So for $5.83 we had what we needed.

I didn't think about it until we got home but the clay color pot was boring and was quite ugly on our window sill. I had just the idea to liven that baby up.

I went back to this post I stumbled across a few months ago. With a few adjustments, I was ready to paint my pot.

Here it is BEFORE:
In the post above, they suggest sealing the pot with water concealer. Water can seep through clay and ruin the paint. In attempt to spend as little money as possible I went with a craft sealer I already owned. Now it doesn't say if it is water proof, but I was willing to take my chances.

So I gave the whole pot, inside and out, a good spray. I sprayed the outside to hopefully help with the painting (more on that later).
After it dried, I was ready to paint. I actually didn't paint until the next day but after 2 hours you should be ready to go. The best paint to use on clay is high gloss exterior latex paint. However, since my pot is staying indoors and I did NOT want to spend money on new paint, I used acrylic paint I already owned. I knew this could cause potential problems but again I was willing to try.

So as you can see, one coat did not work...
So I waited until it dried (30 minutes) and gave it another coat.

After another paint job and some soil, here is the new and improved pot and plant...
If you are lucky enough to have a front porch, back porch, or anywhere outside to display plants, I suggest you tackle this project. It is very fun and easy, plus bright colors can really spice up an outside area. Or if you are like me and live half underground (bottom level condo), with no outside area to claim as your own, go for a little window sill pot. Not liking the green and purple? Go for all yellow like in the post here or red, orange, or any color of the rainbow. The choices are endless.

Summer is coming...happy painting!