Last summer while out garage saling I saw a house with fabulous lights in big flower pots on either side of their driveway.
I have to laugh, because initially I was completely flummoxed as to how they accomplished that. I thought they’d had to run electrical wiring to the pots somehow. But duh, of course, they were solar lights.
Seriously, how did I not just realize that immediately?
Well … anyway … I thought they were fabulous, so I decided to copy the idea myself this year.
But I didn’t want to spend the $70 for the really pretty copper lights that I found online, so I decided to see what I could do to dress up a pair of plastic lights that I found at Fleet Farm for less than half that price.
I’m not sure that photo shows it, but these are made out of black plastic and that’s exactly what they look like up close. In other words, not terribly nice.
So I pulled out Dixie Belle’s patina paint and went to work on them.
Rather than doing my usual rusty finish using the Iron paint and Green spray, I brought out the Copper paint and Blue spray.
Full disclosure, I probably should have used the Bonding Boss primer in this situation since I was painting over slick plastic. But I was being impatient and I skipped it. I may pay for that later, especially since these lights will be out in the elements. I’m willing to risk it though.
So although I skipped that important step and went right to stippling on two coats of the Copper paint, you should do what I say and not what I do and use the Bonding Boss over slick surfaces.
While the 2nd coat of Copper was still wet, I sprayed on the Blue spray. It was looking really blue though, and I wanted more of that green verdigris sort of color, so then I quickly added some Green spray as well.
Perfect!
I think the lights look totally legit with this paint treatment.
If you want to see the full instructions on how to use the Dixie Belle patina paint, check out my how-to post by clicking here.
My only complaint about the lights is that big honkin’ solar power collector thingie. No one would mistake these for proper electric lights!
Although the panel is not very well disguised right now, as my plants get a little taller it will be a bit more hidden … but I can’t let it get too hidden or it won’t work properly.
But aside from that, I love how these turned out.
I’ve had them outside for a couple of weeks now, and so far the paint is holding up just fine as well. I’ll be sure to give you an update at the end of the season to let you know how they did.
By the way, speaking of plastic to fantastic, those planters are also plastic.
I gave them the rusty treatment (Iron paint with green spray) last year … or wait … maybe two years ago? I’m not sure.
Either way, they definitely don’t look plastic anymore, right?!
Leave a comment and let me know if you’ve tried any of the patina paint, or if you have something that you think would benefit from the rusty treatment, or the verdigris copper treatment.
Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the patina paint used for these projects.