Painted Pots for the Front Porch

Potted plants and/or flowers flanking the front door have been on my to-do list since we moved into our house 16 months ago.  Pots are pretty expensive, though, so I put it off.  This spring I decided to use some junky pots that were laying around and spruce them up a bit for the porch.  With just two coats of paint, a stencil, flowers and dirt, I now have two beautiful pots!

This is what they looked like before I started:

 I sanded these rough edges as much as I could to get them a bit smoother.  It didn't completely fix the problem, but they do look much better.

I then painted the entire pot, including the inside to the top of the dirt, taped a stencil on, and used some yellow paint to make 'W' on each one.  My husband had to come behind and fix the letters because the stencil stuck to the paint {that's what you get for using a paper stencil}.  In hind sight, I should have just traced the letter  and then carefully painted in the lines.  Live and learn.

The flowers are from a local nursery where I had the salesperson tell me which plants to buy that could withstand the heat pretty well.  She helped me choose three different plants that would fit into the 'thriller, filler, spiller' rule and I was good to go.  I love how the Sweet Potato Vine curves nicely around each pot to make it symmetrical.  

Just to keep it real for you, I did not sweep my porch before taking the pictures.  This is my life.  

I love walking to my front door and seeing this sight every day!  And, it will be nice to switch out these plants for something new come fall.  Love that they can be versatile!

Can you pick out what is missing in this picture?  Hopefully I'll have a post on the missing item sometime next week.

What's on your front porch?