If you’ve been following me here on Swoon Worthy for a little while, you’ll know that we have been working on revamping the entire front patio with the help of the lovely folks at Original Style. We’ve gone from old broken tarmac paving and bad planting to a beautiful patterned black and white Victorian Floor Tile. The installers, Alberti Pavimenti (in Disbury for those local to me) did an amazing job and completed the work a little while ago but we had so many other things going on and in combination of the rather rubbish weather we’ve been getting here in North West England, I’ve not managed to complete the dressing of the space until last week.
Catch up here:
Intro to the Project and Before Pictures / Deciding on a Tile Pattern Design / Work Begins / Tile Progress
The full reveal of the front patio will be coming VERY SOON (I promise!) but for today’s post, I wanted to share a couple of really inexpensive and simple DIYs that I did to give the front patio a little love without having to spend a huge amount of money and you’ll get a little sneak peek of the final look at the same time!
First up is this really cute little tiered black double planter…
This cute little planter started life as a greige colour which was perfectly nice but didn’t suit the black and white look I was going for out here. But if you like the shape/lines of a piece it’s SO easy to change. And so that’s what I did…
For something like this where I didn’t want to take apart the whole thing but still needed to get to all sides, it’s so much easier to spray paint if it’s hanging up. I simply used a bit of paper towel to protect the washing line from over-spray, put a piece of old MDF on the ground beneath it and hooked it on the line. Bear in mind the chain was already black so I didn’t care about any over-spray on that – if your chain was a different colour, just use some masking tape wrapped around it to protect it from being sprayed as well.
I then found a tin of primer from our stash and covered it first with that to make sure the paint adheres well to the glossy ceramic. The primer I found was dark in colour and it happened to be one that Wayne got from work so it was a dark almost-blue metallic colour. I had half a mind to just leave it like that because it was so sparkly in the sunshine but I persevered on. Obviously, it doesn’t matter what primer you use as long as it’s okay for the material you are spraying.
One that was dry (check the directions on your tin as they’ll vary), I applied a coat of the black satin spray paint – again, left over from our desk makeover. A couple of tips for spray painting anything: Keep the tin about 8-10″ away from whatever it is you’re spraying, use short even back and forth strokes and always start and stop the spray OFF the piece you are working on. Also, it’s always better to do a few very light coats then do one heavy one – that’s how you end up with drips, people (taken from experience!) ;)
Finally, once it was completely dry (again, check your directions), I planted some ivy in the pots. The reason I chose ivy rather than a flowering plant is that pretty much everything I’ve ever tried in a hanging basket at the front of the house comes to an early demise because of the lack of direct sunlight it receives and I know ivy will thrive even in less than ideal sunlight.
The front of our home is North East facing which means it only gets the sun at the very earliest part of the day and then is plunged in shadow for the rest of the time. I’m grateful for having a lovely sunny garden for a good portion of the day at the back of my house but it makes for challenging planting at the front.
The second super ridiculously easy DIY I did was for the window boxes. I chose a selection of simple black plastic planters which are really inexpensive but still look pretty great. I really wanted the paving to be the star of the show here so I wanted something really simple and classic to compliment the tiles.
I took inspiration from my talented friend Julia of Cuckoo4Design’s patio makeover where she used electrical tape to dress up her outdoor planters. A little search online brought me to ’24-carat’ Duck Tape so I decided to use this to dress up the window boxes with a stripe of gold. I could have sprayed these as well by taping off a line but this was a million times easier – literally a 5 minute job plus I knew it would be able to withstand the British weather!
(We clearly only drive Minis on our street! Ok, joke and sorry for the glare but I do find it amusing that my car’s chequerboard roof now matches our house.) Again, I kept it simple with Wilma Goldcrest, a nice evergreen with pale green foliage – another plant that does really well with indirect light.
So those are two REALLY easy ways to take some inexpensive planters and dress them up just a little bit for hardly any cash and it’s really added some life to the front of the house.
So what do you think of these simple DIYs? And what do you think of the sneak peek so far? Have you been doing anything to the front of your home this summer?
Disclaimer: *Please note that Original Style does not supply directly to the public but works with carefully selected and incredibly talented retailers to bring the same kind of personal service that I’ve received straight to you locally. To find your nearest retailer, please visit Original Style.
I am working with Original Style on this latest project but as always, all words and opinions are completely my own. Thank you for supporting the businesses that allow me to bring you new content here on Swoon Worthy. That said, I only work with companies I really like and think you might like too!
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So fab friend! That tile with the door with the gold…ooh la la. I had to do a double take on that planter! Hooray for gold duct tape! xo
Thank you darling! And YESSSS Gold duct tape… whooda thunk it?! It’s ace ;) xxx
Love both your planters! My entryway is dark too, but Gerber daisies seem to love it and bloom all summer there. I’m off to buy some gold duct tape!
Oooh good to know! If I end up killing off these plants, I may have to look into Gerber daisies ;) xx
Wow infact double Wow ☺ your front garden is really coming together it looks brilliant. Theres nothing better than a beautiful front garden, and yours has got it in spades (sorry no pun intended) lol xxx
Awww thanks darling! Spades – ha! (I see what you did there ;) xxx
Your home is making such a chic and pretty first impression! Your dragonfly knocker still makes me smile. Those black and white tiles are amazing! Gold duck tape? Got to get me summathat. And the black sprayed double planter is so cute :). It’s got me excited about doing a bit of spraying myself for my little one’s room design.
Aww thanks darling! It’s so nice to come home to now! And yay for spraying! Best. Thing. Ever. So satisfying ;) xxx
This looks so good – as you know I love the shiny black tiered planter, it is so classy and effective! The gold duck tape on those black planters is such a simple stylish update, what a great idea.
It’s all looking beautiful!
xx
Aww thanks my darling! And a big yessss to the gold duct tape – couldn’t believe they even make that stuff but who am I to argue over the wonders of the universe? xx
Oh wow! Looking gorgeous! I loved the sparkly blue but black is definitely the way to go for the porch. I have serious tile envy right now. Our front path is a concrete/tarmac broken nightmare, but we need to get the major renovations done before tackling that as I think it’s going to take a lot more beatings over the next couple of years!
Also, as a former mini owner (an original one in metallic purple) I applaud your choice of car.
Oh we lived with our awful paving for nearly 5 years so I hear ya!! And YAY for minis!! The originals are just the absolute BEST but I do love my little car ;) xxx
The b+w tile combined with the greenery looks gorgeous. And, of course, I caught a glimpse of that pop of pink. The front yard is coming together beautifully. Nice job doll!
I gotta have some colour in there somewhere right?! Ha! Thanks so much darling, can’t wait to show the whole thing off! xxx
Thanks so much for the shout out! It all looks so amazing together.
Aww no worries, thanks for being so damn inspirational ;) xxx
Looking good! Can’t wait to see the full reveal of that tile :) Love the idea of the goldcrest in the planter, I’m a bit of a plant serial killer but had noticed that the goldcrest are practically indestructible, I just hadn’t thought of planting a few of them together for the front. Can I ask where you got your door knocker? Love it!
Aww thanks hun, yep, it was recommended to me at the garden centre I went to as the guy told me he has them himself and they are great in shady areas – I just love the pop of pale green! And of course, the door knocker is from here :)
http://www.thedoorknockercompany.co.uk/acatalog/info_165.html
HTH!! xxx
Kimberly.. loving the tile , planters.. all the black n gold. Classy!