Bullet Planters Before + After

One of our all time favorite purchases is our vintage style bullet planters! They were one of the first things my husband and I bought together for the first home we owned together in Minneapolis. We purchased them from Hip Haven in a soft lime green color. I can never keep things the same for too long, so after moving to Manhattan we painted them white and then to gold after moving to Downtown Chicago. We could have bought replacement bowls in different colors, but there is obviously no reason to throw away the bowls while they are functioning perfectly. Spray paint has been my solution!

After moving to Bucktown/Wicker Park from Downtown, the gold planters really took a beating. The gold barely survived the jostle of the move and my son’s rambunctious toddlerhood. It was time for another color change! (Oh, shucks!) I decided I wanted an almost black and found “Stealth” by Plutonium Paint. This was the first time I had used Plutonium Paint and it was seriously impressive! The color applied so easily and in one coat! It also dried incredibly fast. I remember using more than three cans of white spray paint versus only one and half cans of Plutonium Paint for these planters. That is crazy! I will never use another brand of spray paint again. Plutonium Paint is also environmentally friendlier, USA made and less toxic smelling after drying. Seriously, give it a try the next time you are spray painting. You will not be disappointed!

Our plants were also in dire need of some repotting and replacing. (Oh, shucks again!) My toddler was obsessed with those poor plants and had basically picked and swatted them to death. I repotted what was left of the Spider Plant into a smaller pot for the fireplace mantel and replaced it with an Alocasia sanderiana. I repotted the Calathea and replaced our Dracaena marginata with a Plectranthus coleoides. I placed the Dracaena marginata on the balcony to give life to the space as summer fades.

The end result is striking! I love the combination of bright and dark greens against the almost black. It makes the space look so polished! Now… I just need to keep the toddler away from them and hope he doesn’t introduce the baby to his little game of plant swatting!