DIY: Striped White and Brass Planter

I'm having a major cactus moment - I can't get enough of them. They're (obviously) everywhere here in Arizona, but the graphic shapes and pretty colors ranging from vibrant to soft and muted, feel so fresh and modern to me lately.

I bought a large prickly-pear-looking succulent at Home Depot (it was more kid-friendly without the giant spines) and reached for this big brass planter after bringing it home. I have a (bad?) habit of carting pretty much anything brass sitting on a thrift store shelf. This planter was only a buck or two, but the brass was pitted and not in the best shape, so I decided to give it a little stripy makeover before potting the new succulent.

After cleaning the brass well, I tried a few different widths of painters tape, and decided on the 1" in the end (it fit the overall dimensions best). You can measure and make registration marks if you feel like taking the time, but I just eyeballed the first bottom stripe and then used a sort of cheater method by using another piece of tape in the empty space to keep the lines even and straight.

For really crisp stripes, you should burnish the tape edges with your finger at least two or three good passes to make sure there's no gapping or wrinkles in the tape. I also used a plastic bag to cover the inside of the pot, which I didn't want painted at all.

Two light coats of spray paint gave plenty of coverage without any drips to speak of. The drying time between coats is key!

I love white and brass together. Such a happy combo.

We are starting to move more furniture into the studio space this week, and the new cactus feels right at home under the calendar white boards.

I'm surprised at how well the brass took the spray paint. I'm thinking it might be a new way to breathe fresh life into the collection of brass bowls and planters and cache pots I have stashed in cabinets and closets all over the house! Hmmm...

New Red Door and Lemon Trees

I had hoped that by now we would have finished more with the outside of the house, but it looks like we'll probably leave the exterior projects for next spring. We're making some big changes to the trim (mostly just ripping it out) and to the front portico area that I'm really excited about. (Remember here?)

I think just a paint job will go really far. And actually, when the painters were here a few weeks ago, they offered to paint the front door. It's so bright and shiny now that the rest of the house looks extra old and dingy! :) It's got me excited to get the whole house painted and cleaned up in the next couple months.

To help the pretty rough-looking space look a little more put together, I picked up these chalky black planters at Home Depot and these Meyer lemon trees from Lowe's.  I can't even begin to describe to you how heavenly these blossoms smell!

I've tried keeping citrus trees indoors before and I think I just didn't have enough sunlight to keep the plants happy and they've always died. The guy in the Lowe's nursery recommended using cactus soil with rocks at the bottom of the planters for drainage, and he suggested letting the soil dry out so much in between waterings that the leaves begin to droop. So far, so good.

I love the little trees! And I love the new bright color of the doors, but, admittedly, I was a little sad to drive up for the first time and see that the jamb was painted red too.

It was my fault for not telling the painters specifically to paint the jamb white and I wasn't here on the day they painted the door. Since they threw in the labor on the door for free, I felt like it wouldn't be at all fair to ask them to fix it. I'll just have it changed when we have the rest of the house painted. It's not that big of a deal. (It just looks so Christmas-y right now with the old green and yellow trim still exposed. Ha!) I've since got the creamy white siding color-matched and now I just need to find an hour to paint it out. I'm know that will be a huge improvement and the red jamb will be less annoying to me. :)

I do really love how the red looks with the new entry rug though!

I feel like we're getting there! Slowly but surely this house is starting to feel more and more like ours. It makes me excited to think about all the changes I hope we'll have done by next Christmas.

Cheap and Easy to Find Fiddle Leaf Fig Trees

We likely all know about and love the fiddle leaf fig tree - it's a gorgeous plant. In the past few years though, they've been so hard to find and very expensive. I found one a couple years ago in the flower district that was a good six feet tall, but was priced at $250! Ouch.

If you're looking to add one of these lovely trees to your houseplant collection, IKEA sells mini plants (about two feet tall) for around the $14 mark (I wrote about those here). They don't come potted though (but it's easy to use one of their pretty terra cotta pots that I love so much - they weather beautifully). Home Depot and Lowes both recently starting selling fiddle leaf figs on a wider scale (it was sort of urban legend for a few years, but this year I've seen them in New York, New Jersey, Arizona and California, so I think it's safe to say they're available in most states). This little three+ footer was only $20 and it came in a pretty little pot probably worth $15 on its own.

I bought a five footer for only $30 for my bedroom.

Getting it home safely without spilling the soil everywhere in my car was the only tricky part. I found putting it the front seat worked best.

It's a good thing the price went down so much on these trees beacause they can be a little finicky (read: very easy to kill). They need lots of sunlight, but it can't be too harsh, and just the right amount of water (which seems to be about a cup per foot of tree, once a week?).

If you find a good spot for your tree and it seems to be thriving, try not to move it - or even rotate the plant. Often their leaves grow in a way to maximize sunlight absorption, so moving or turning the plant can really throw the plant for a loop.

I water my plants just once a week - every Friday evening. I used to actually put it on my calendar, but it's become a habit now and I don't have to remind myself. My thumb is no where near green (see this post from earlier this year!), but I did myself a favor and started looking up how much water and sunlight plants need to thrive, and suddenly I wasn't killing everything! (I did accidentally neglect that Bougainvillea tree in our mudroom though and it's toast now - bummer. Maybe I'll just get another fig tree?)

Also, check out this cool planter I found and spray painted for our bedroom.

I loved the Greek key pattern and thought it would be pretty in a crisp white.

I just used a spray primer that I had on hand and no top coat (I know - such a rebel). Don't forget to spray the first few inches of the inside lip.

Pretty right? It's made of clay and it weighs a million pounds, but it will last forever and it was only about $25 at Home Depot.

Do you have any fiddle leaf fig tree care tips? Have you seen them in your local hardware stores? Or were you one of the suckers that spent $250 on a tree a few years ago, like I so desperately wanted to? :)