It’s that time of the year again when I get itching to start planting and making things pretty. This year, for the first time, I picked up some herbs. I’ve always wanted to do an herb garden in a window box outside my kitchen window. I have this romantic vision of opening my window and pinching off some fresh herbs and adding them to my lovingly made home cooked dinner. My family would say something along the lines of, “Oh, Mother, this Coq Au Vin is simply glorious!”
But I have yet to build a window box for my kitchen. My dinners are usually a last minute, “Oh, no! I need to get something in the oven!” type cuisine, and it wouldn’t matter what herbs I put in because the kids would just wrinkle their noses at anything called Coq Au Vin. But, all that doesn’t mean I can’t put some herbs in pots and try to make them cute!
I picked up some pots and herbs at Lowe’s. Clay pots are just fine plain, but why not give them a little push to be more? I rounded up all the usual suspects: chalk paint, tape, and a paint brush and threw in a few extras like label dots and a razor knife. Here’s how it all went down:
Step 1- Tape
Tape is straight and pots are tapered which means when you place tape on a pot it curves up the side. I wanted my label to be straight across. To do this I had to put multiple strips of tape over the front of the pot.
Step 2- Measure and Cut
My pots are approximately 7 1/2″ tall. I measured down 1″ from the lower edge of the pot’s lip and 3″ up from the bottom in multiple places and connected the dots which gave me just shy of a 2″ strip of tape that I would be removing. I then measured 4″ across the top to give my my width. Then with a razor knife I followed my pencil lines and removed the inner tape. After I removed the tape I added the label dots to the corners to give it a little extra detail.
Step 3- Paint, Dry, Paint, Dry…
I put on four layers of paint. The paint dries fairly quickly, but if you are like my shadow and can’t wait a few minutes the hair dryer works well too.
Step 4- Peel the Tape
Umm, no news here. Just peel the tape off.
And there you have it. A chalk board area to label whatever your little heart desires to plant.
There are so many fun ways to personalize it even further. I thought mine needed a little bit of something extra so I drew a simple scroll in the corner with a sharpie. Maybe a stylized leaf, or flower painted in the corner, or your kids’ initials so they could have their own pots to plant in. A little burlap bow or almost anything from the craft store could be hot glued on for more personality.
While looking for chalk a few months back I came across chalk pencils. They are so easy to use and you can write or draw way more precisely than with a piece of regular chalk.
Here they are. All planted and ready.
Now, where should I put them…
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