By Traci Tuesday, March 3, 2015 3 Decorating, Paint Americana Decor Chalky Paint, Chalk Paint, Paint, pets Permalink 0
I really liked these fancy dog dishes when I saw them in the Frontgate catalog. It was the price that I didn’t like. There is no way I would spend $50 to $100 on a dog dish, not that my dogs are not worth every penny but I knew I could recreate the look for less.
My plan started to take shape when I found a 14″ tall ceramic planter. I was so excited to start this project that I forgot to take a Before picture so you will have to take my word for it when I say that it was butt ugly. It had a faux moss finish on it very similar to this planter. The best part was the price, a whopping $3.99.
I decided on an aged concrete for this urn to go with my garden bunny. You can check out a step by step post showing how I turned an ugly ceramic rabbit into a garden statue here.
This project was more simple since I was already starting out with the texture of concrete. The first step was painting the entire urn with Americana Decor Chalky Finish in Relic. Relic is a medium grey that works for well for recreating the look of concrete and the finish of this chalk paint gives it just the right texture.
After the base coat I mixed up a glaze with Americana Decor Chalky Finish in Primitive using just paint and water. A little bit of glaze goes really far so you just need to mix up a small amount.
I want this project to look like it has been out in the garden for years so the glaze/wash doesn’t need to look perfect. It will actually looks better if the wash is added in layers.
I used about 60% water and 40% paint for my wash.
I brushed the glaze on with an old brush and dabbed it off with a soft rag, let it dry and washed on a second layer. I even let the wash drip a bit so that it looks like rain had aged it.
This planter has beautiful details and they really showed up after I applied the wash.
The only thing left to do was seal the piece. I usually use spar varnish for outdoor projects but I had just picked up this Krylon Triple Thick Clear Glaze and I wanted to give it a try.
It went on well and gave the urn a soft polished look over the chalk paint.
I only had to go as far as my dog’s current water dish to find a fit for the urn.
I love the way this project turned out. I can visualize it nestled in one of my flower beds looking beautiful and functional at the same time. My dogs love to drink out of random puddles, don’t yours?
Unfortunately none of my dogs are tall enough to drink out of this fancy water bowl so it is looking for a home and I am on the hunt for a smaller urn.
My next post will be the third installment of Puppies to the Rescue and I hope you will return to find out what happens next.
Thanks for reading,