AGING URN WITH PAINT

Two big urns sit on either side of my front door. Over the years they have been filled with flowers of all kinds, pumpkins and evergreens. One year a scarecrow sat in one of them.

The have such a fetching shape but I never really liked their color!

So this year I worked some paintbrush magic on them, not only changing their color but aging them too...

Here is how they looked BEFORE...

Totally the wrong color against the Pennsylvania limestone.

Here is how they look now planted with blue hydrangeas for this summer.

Bobby helped me with this project because the pots were HEAVY!

First we took all the dirt out of them, scrubbed them clean and let them dry.

I gave the pots 2 good coats of flat black Rustoleum spray paint for indoor or outdoor use and let them completely dry.

I then used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (ASCP) in Graphite and painted between the raised parts of the urn. Graphite also was painted on the rim and dabbed here and there on the body of the urn and the base.

I poured 2 puddles of ASCP in French Grey and Old White next to each other on a paper plate. I dipped my brush into half the Grey and half the White and dabbed most of it off in a paper towel.

I then brushed and dabbed the raised parts of the urn and also the areas near and over the cracks on the body of the urn. I did the same technique to the base of the urn.

I kept adding more paint and turning my brush so the colors would melt together. I applied a few light coats instead on one heavy coat. If too much paint is applied a soft damp cloth will remove most of it.

I kept going over the piece with Graphite, French Grey andf Old White until I liked how they blended together.

Finally, I took my brush and dipped it into Old White and removed most of the paint onto a paper towel. I then dry brushed the raised area with the Old White.