These outdoor planters were brought to life with spray paint for metal crafts. There are some great colors available and it is easy to use.

It is amazing what spray paint can do to brighten up old or boring items. These metal cat planters were super cute but sort of drab when I got them. They are thrifted items that a friend gave to me and I was so excited to bring them back to life with some color.

I am not sure if you know about our “catio”. It is an outside space we built for our indoor cats. They love it but I wanted to add some cat friendly plants to the inside of the catio and I thought these cat planters were perfect.

This is our catio. It is a nice, big area for the indoor cats to come outside and take a nap or roll in the dirt. They love it and use it all of the time in the spring, summer and fall months.

There used to be some grass and catnip growing in the cylinder blocks but it is now gone. I should re-plant some grass seeds for them again.

If you love DIY metal projects you can click here to find more metal crafts inspiration!

Paint for Metal Crafts – Outdoor Planters

These were the metal planters I got from my friend. I just love them but they definitely needed some color. Chloe is helping me decide what colors to use.

Materials Needed:

• Metal planters
• Spray paint
• Sandpaper – if needed

Choosing your paint for metal crafts

I love spray paint but even with care it can wear off over time. I usually don’t mind this because it is so easy to re-paint so this is my paint of choice.

Step 1: Clean and Prep Your Paint Surface

Be sure your project is clean of dust and dirt so the paint has a good surface to stick to and if you want, you can do a little sanding to rough it up. This also gives the paint something to grab onto. This is basically all of the prep work I do.

The weather in Northwest Iowa is not great for painted surfaces so I keep them out all spring and summer and bring them into the garage in late fall. This helps but the paint still gets chippy sometimes.

My favorite spray paint is Rustoleum and even with the tons of colors they offer, I sometimes like the Krylon for color. So these are the two brands I used on these metal outdoor planters.

And these are the colors I used. The one without the lid is a light green called Pistachio.

Step 2: Spray the metal

Separate the pieces based upon color. For example: I wanted the planters (the actual pot) to be a different color from the cat frame or plant stand.

So I separated the parts so they could be painted individually.

Spray painting tip: spray light layers to avoid drips

If you spray it heavily to try to cover in one coat you risk getting the horrible drips. Be sure to spray light layers and be prepared to add more layers to get good coverage. That is really all there is to spray painting. Oh…and shake the can really well before each coat.

They are right side up because I wanted some of the paint to go inside the pot too. It doesn’t have to cover the entire inside area but enough so when the plant and the dirt is inside it will show the color all around the dirt.

Now for the cat planters

These were great. The first one I just painted one solid color. It turned out super cute.

The next one I used two colors on his little face and it actually turned out nice. I was afraid I would have to paint it over but I love it. The paprika went on first then I followed up with the yellow.

I think I may have just done a really light spray of paprika over the yellow on his cheeks.

Step 3: Finish them up

All I had to do to finish them was to add a plant and place them in their new home.

I am so happy with them.

What do you think of them? I love them and they look and add so much to the catio space.

The cats like them too and that is important.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you learned a little bit about paint for metal crafts.

Michelle