Easy Up-cycled Plant Pot Tutorial

Plastic plant pots, what could be more ugly?  And yet they are very useful and not to mention cheap, in face I acquired most of my plant post for nothing, so rather than fork out for expensive decorative pots, why not up-cycle your own?  Here is a really easy tutorial to improve the appearance of a very uninspiring pot:


1. You need: A plastic plant pot, some thick twine (mine is made from hemp), scissors, a glue gun.

 2. Begin by putting a line of glue along the base of the pot and place the end of the string along the line of glue, add more glue and line the string up along it, careful not to burn your fingers on the glue.  Don't cut the string yet because you won't know how much you will need.

 3. Continue all the way round the put then begin another layer on top of the first.

4. Keep glueing and wrapping the string round the pot, try to push the string up as close as possibly to the row below so that none of the pot shows through.

 5. Keep going...

6. And keep going till you get to the top of the pot.  To finish off put a line of glue around the very top edge of the pot then cover with the string so that the top edge of the pot is covered.  Finish off by cutting the string and gluing the end slightly inside the pot so you don't have an exposed end.

 7. Admire your handiwork!

Wooden trolley makeover

I had this wooden trolley that came with a set of shelves my husband and I bought years ago.  It was totally unfit for purpose because it was supposed to slot in between the legs of the shelves under the bottom shelf and it was too wide. The shelves became a shoe rack and over the years the trolley has served many purposes.  It now takes on a new guise as a toy box for our baby's bedroom.
You might remember these test pots of paint that I bought from B&Q to match in with our colour scheme?  Well I used them to create a sort of colour wash over the bare pine wood.  I am pleased with the result, it is now bright and cheery and much more appropriate for a child's bedroom.  It was a bit difficult to do because I worked on it on the bedroom floor and all the getting up and down was a strain, not to mention the bump getting in the way!  But I did it!  What do you think?

Before - boring old pine

 After - bright and colourful