Classy and Opinionated Lifestyle Mom Blog
I enjoy gardening, both indoors and outdoors gardening. Every room inside our home has at least one houseplant with many rooms having 3 or more. I love how they look in our home giving it that cozy feel and houseplants help to naturally filter the …
Heading on vacation this summer to the beach? Live near the beach or have a collection of seashells sitting around collecting dust? Turn those seashells into garden plant markers! Seashells hold up well to the weather! They will help you indentify your garden plants. Use …
I have a lot of small to medium sized figures and statues throughout my flower beds and gardens. Some that I have are 15+ years old and have sentimental value to me. Over the years those items can get beaten up by the weather and broken down. I had several that were in poor shape and needed to be repaired.
Tips for Repainting Garden Yard Art Figures and Statues
1. Inspect the item and look for damage. Some things are beyond repair while other things just need a minor fix. You need to look them over really well…top to bottom and side to side. I toss out any that have huge cracks or holes.
2. Scrub them up with soapy water (recommend using Dawn Liquid Dish Soap). I like to use an old tooth brush and a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to get the dirt, grime, and crud off of them. Rinse with clean water. Let dry for a day or two if you plan on painting them.
3. Make necessary repairs. If you need to glue something, patch a hole, tighten a screw, replace a wire, etc. do it after they’ve been cleaned & dried.
4. I had several that had lost their color over the years from sun-fade and the weather elements. I decided to repaint them using acrylic craft paint. The turtle shown in this post was completely painted using acrylic paint…2-3 coats to get the coverage that I needed. Let each coat dry for 45-60 minutes before adding another coat. Let dry overnight.
5. Whether you paint them or not….each item should be sprayed EVERY YEAR with 2-3 light coats of clear acrylic spray sealer. This will help protect them from the weather elements. I like to do mine at the beginning of every Spring Season. You can pick up clear acrylic spray sealer at your local craft supply store, hardware store, Amazon, Home Depot, etc. Once sprayed you need to let it cure. I recommend placing them in a warm and dry place for 2 days before placing them back outside.
The top photograph in my post shows a completely furbished and repainted turtle that I completed 2 weeks ago. The second photograph in my post shows the BEFORE. As you can see the color was completely faded from it and it had a lot of dirt and debris stuck in small crevices. Most people would of tossed into the trash but I knew with a little bit of work it could be saved!
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Gardening…it’s one of my spring and summer passions. I enjoy planting flower and veggie gardens outside and indoors I grow about 35 houseplants. I wouldn’t say that I have a “green thumb” but I do have moderate gardening experience. During this time of the year …
I enjoy gardening, both indoors and outdoors gardening. Every room inside our home has at least one houseplant with many rooms having 3 or more. I love how they look in our home giving it that cozy feel and houseplants help to naturally filter the …
Children, depending on age can help adults out in the garden. They can be taught how to pull weeds, water plants, label them, and how to harvest them when the time is right. All young children should be supervised when in the garden by an adult or older sibling.
Every year to kick off a new gardening season my grandchildren come over to help me make new plant markers. We start a lot of our plants by seed and need to label each pot with the plant’s name. When it comes to transplanting them into the ground we use those same markers to identify them too. To keep things interesting, we change up our plant markers every year.
For this year, 2022 we made them out of unfinished wood sundae sticks (ice cream sticks) which we picked up a large pack at our local Dollar-Type of store. While there I picked up bottles of acrylic paint, paint brushes, and Sharpie markers. We already had a can of clear acrylic spray sealer at home. You can find that on Amazon or at your local Home Depot store.
You can keep them plain, natural, and simple by just writing on them with a Sharpie Marker. We decided to get a little bit more fancier by painting the sticks a solid color with non-toxic acrylic paint (front and back) and left them dry. We then wrote the plant names on the front of each stick with the Sharpie Marker. Some sticks got further decorated with an image of a pepper, tomato, onion, beans, whatever it is you’re planting.
Let your sticks completely dry. Take them outside and spray them (front and back) with 1-2 light coats of clear acrylic spray sealer. This will protect the painted finish from the weather elements. You could do the same thing with your indoor houseplants if you wanted to remember their “names” for years to come! Certainly more attractive than the plastic markers that come inside pre-purchased pots.
Money-Saving Tip – If you eat out or buy take-out ice cream sundaes you can save the wooden spoons. Wash them under warm soapy water and air dry. Don’t have access to ice cream spoons? Popsicle sticks and Craft Sticks work equally as well for this project.
* This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, we may or may not receive a small commission which helps to support this site. Thank you!
If you have children or are planning to have them in the future, when you are looking for a new home one of your priorities might be finding somewhere with a garden. Most parents look forward to summers spent outdoors, playing with the kids, splashing …
I love gardening and that includes having over 2 dozen indoor houseplants. I have plants in just about every room of our home. They add beauty to every room and help to filter the indoor air. You can sit them on shelves, on a specially …