DIY Topsy Turvy Flower Pots

This weekend was full of crafts and gardening. Our back yard patio and our front yard looked so crappy when we moved in and had zero character. I have been itching to add a little colour and this was the perfect way to start. 

This is a really loose way to use the words "How-To", you can easily do this yourself with whatever tools you decide to choose if you can't find the ones we used.

What We Used:

5 Clay Pots, assorted sizes

4" piece of re-bar

Acrylic craft paint

Sponge brushes

Can of spray waterproof lacquer

Black earth soil

Miracle Grow

Assortment of Petunias

We used 5 clay pots - one 8" pot for the base, three 6" pots for the middle and one 4 1/2" pot for the top. You can use more than 5 pots and add special parts for the top (like a bird bath or a light). We bought our clay pots at the Dollar Store and they were actually better quality than the 8" pots we bought from the hardware store. 

To paint we used just your regular craft acrylic paint in 6 colours. One bottle for each colour painted eleven pots in a variety of sizes. You can also use acrylic spray paint or outdoor cans of paint. 

If you're using craft paint like I did - or canned house paint - you can use either a paint brush, or a sponge brush, which is what we used. I really don't like when you can see brush strokes on painted things so that's why I opted for the sponges. Plus, it gave the pots a nice texture. 

Paint your pots and let dry for a couple hours. Some of the colours we chose needed only one coat with touch ups (the cooler toned colours) and others required 2-4 coats (the warmer colours), so depending on what colours you've chosen it may take you awhile to paint them. It took me an entire afternoon & evening to do mine.

Once completely dry, spray with a waterproof lacquer. Read the label to determine how many coats you need. This part is important, otherwise when it rains you can pretty much say goodbye to your beautiful paint job! Set them out to dry over night. Most lacquers say to let dry for 3 hours tops, but trust me - let them dry over night so they're 100% safe for your plants the next day. 

Finally! Your pots are ready to go. Here is 4 easy steps to get them topsy turvy and ready for plants:

Step One: Put your re-bar in the ground about 6" so it's nice and sturdy.

Step Two: Carefully slide an 8" pot down the re-bar and put in place. Make sure its firm and flat on the ground. Fill with black earth. 

Step Three: Add one of the 6" pots, leaning it to the left and pressing it into the soil inside the 8" base pot. Fill the pot with soil as well.

Step Four: Continue two more times with the remaining 6" pots, leaning each one in the opposite direction as the last (left, right, left) and fill them all with soil. Transplant whatever flowers your choose and marvel in the wonderful thing that is your new Topsy Turvy Flower Pot Planter!

If anyone is going to do this please post it on your blog or send me a photo - I'd love to see what colours and plants you chose!

We used regular petunias but some other great flowers for this project would be wave petunias, portulacas, inpatients, hens and chicks, verbena or allysium. Do you have any other flower ideas?