It’s Pinterest Challenge Day everybody! It’s like “show and tell” for bloggers… times ten. Since the weather has been getting warmer, the yard has been on our minds more often lately. What better way to kick off our outdoor season than with garden style Pinterest Challenge project. We attempted a somewhat ambitious project and decided to make a monogrammed concrete planter.
Here’s one of the pins that inspired this project..
(via Lowes)
We already had SOME experience with concrete when we made those concrete counters way back in 2007. This planter was a little different than the counters though. It was considerably easier, but the approach was the roughly same. I found a basic procedure on Popular Mechanics website that I followed dimensionally, but I used some different material.
Here’s what the form looked like with the concrete poured. We’re going to do a full-blown “how-to” post or at least a lessons learned post on this (probably next week), but today we’re just doing an overview.
After the concrete cured, I popped the planter out of the form and here’s what we have.
It looks pretty good dry and it looks sick when it’s wet.
But hang on… wasn’t this supposed to be monogrammed?
We DID monogram it. On one side.
But, that part didn’t come out as hot. We used a metal “V” from Restoration Hardware, which is the initial of our last name. The idea is we’ll have two of these on our front porch with a small green plant of some type. Very personal. Very unique.
So the concrete didn’t fully settle into the form around the “V”, obviously. The worst part is, I was hoping to be able to pop out the V and use it on the next one. Thought it would look pretty cool as a relief. We also wanted to make one to see how it worked and make a matching one later. Now I can’t get the letter out! LOL!
Did I mention that’s the only V I had and Restoration Hardware doesn’t sell anymore! Whoops.
Oh well. Still looks cool though. Weighs about 80 lbs.
So, when I make the next one… I’m going to take some extra concrete and fill in that space near the V so this one won’t look weird.
In the meantime, we’re going to turn the one planter around and stick with the solid side 😉 So it’s not a total loss. Fun project.
Oh and we decided to wait to on the plant until we’ve got both built and ready to go.
Here’s a link to our last Pinterest Challenge Project, the Reclaimed Wood Frame with a map.
So, here’s the rundown on the Pinterest Challenge. It’s hosted by four bloggers.. this season it’s…
Katie from Bower Power
Sherry from Young House Love
Emily from Sparkle Meets Pop
Renee from Red Bird Blue
So pop on over to their blogs and check out all the projects! We’ll be back on Monday!
