House Number Planter Box

I have a fun little project to spruce up the front porch for summer! 

A rustic house number planter box!

But really, you would not have to go rustic for this. There are endless color possibilities!  

I was able to get together with some of my local blogger friends back in December, and I felt like I was showered with gifts! We did a fun handmade exchange, and I was lucky enough to receive this awesome caddy from Gina at The Shabby Creek Cottage. Her mister made it. Isn't it fab? Its hard to tell from the photo, but its huge!!  

Angie from The Country Chic Cottage had recently scored a trunkful of burlap coffee sacks (I don't know how she does that!) and was generous enough to share with us all!

Obviously several months have passed since then. I've been debating what to do with both the caddy and the burlap. I thought the caddy would make an excellent tool box for all of my gardening supplies, but then I had another thought...

Combine the two for a fun planter!

I decided I needed to personalize the caddy. 

Luckily I had received the fun French Numbers stencil from Royal Design Studio while I was at the SNAP! conference last month! 

I mixed some metallic copper acrylic paint with regular black acrylic so as not to have the numbers turn out too brown or too shiny. 

I stenciled on our house number. 

Confession time: I should have used some stencil adhesive on my stencils instead of just taping them down. Even though I did use a stenciling stipple brush, there was some bleeding. I did some freehand painting with a thin paintbrush to make my stenciling look a little cleaner. 

Gina had applied a light whitewash coat to the caddy, but I wanted to darken the look. 

I did a little light sanding then brushed on some stain I had laying around. 

I love how the stain looks with the painted numbers! 

Time for the burlap! 

The coffee sack was massive so I trimmed it to fit inside the caddy.

I have a huge stash of pots in my potting shed, and I was able to find three that fit perfectly in the caddy. 

Add some bright flowers that will pop off of the burlap, and we're done!

My front porch (or the cave, as I like to call it) is covered, but I do think I will go back at some point and add a protective coat to the caddy.

A ginormous thank you to Gina & Angie for their generosity in helping me come up with something super fun to welcome guests on my front porch! 

I link to these fun parties!