I'm looking to paint some of my plastic containers, Currently they are beige they looking dreadful.

I thought I wanted dark brown but after going to a lecture on container gardening I'm not so sure.


This is the front of my house which is painted cedar brown and the trim is chocolate brown. These will be the containers that will be painted and maybe a few others seen in the first picture.
These are the 2 paints that I have.


As you walk up a gravel path you see these containers that are green






Give me you thoughts.

I love this Clean Green by Sherwin Williams http://www.sherwin-williams.co...

What do you think. Seems like that would stand out and add contrasting color to the house and fence?

Love that. Looks close to the paint can I have. I think if I go green it would be good to try and match the green containers I have. ?

Julia, I just want to make a few comments using photo one and five to make my points.

In picture one, your maroon pot looks great with the plants and the plants look great with the pot.
The plants in the other pots look great, but the pots themselves look yucky and so the entire look is compromised.

In picture five, the grey pots near the house look great with their plants as the pots next to each other are uniform in color and the plants contrast nicely with the color of the pots.
The green pots far away look great but can't tell what is in them because the plants are very low growing and the pots are in the shade.

I am not a fan of green plants planted in green pots unless the plant color is very much in contrast. That's why I think all the dark foliaged plants would look good in your green pots but not in pots that you paint brown. Same for pots that you paint brown: plant the lite and bright colored plants in them i.e. look at how well the plants contrast within the maroon pot in photo one.

Thus, I think that the color of the plants in a pot should be considered before you decide which color to repaint the pot. Good to have 2 colors of paint to accommodate the varying plant colors of your extensive garden.

I avoid the problem with black or white pots. I never know what color plants I will plant every summer.

Good points Bev. The beige pots are bad and green plants in a green pot would be mundane. How do you think the green looks with the house? I do love to go bright so green may not be a bad thing.

I'm like you Cinta never know what might go in the containers from year to year. Maybe black?

I think green is fine!

Ok. The pots in picture 5 to the left are bark brown and look ok so was not going to paint those. Just the ugly beige.

The pots are nothing I have done recently and is just a bunch of plants that have been stuck in pots. No worries in offending me, take you kid gloves off.
I like eclectic but this has gone to far!

I really like those green pots. Now I do think green leaves with green pots might now show up, but I really like the color green you used and I think they could make a stunning display depending on the plants in them.

Julia I was saying what I like not what is best. That is why I think you have to first decide what speaks to you. My style is not eclectic. I buy pots that have a theme or as a conversation piece. If their purpose is to hold the plant I want the plants to speak.

Personally for me I like the black you have in the last pic. My eye was drawn to the plant and not the pots.

Because I do not know from year to year what will catch my eye or what will be available I have all black pots on the patio. If the pot was not purchased black I spray paint them black. So they are plain black, and head pots as my theme.

The front of the house I like white. The reason for white is because generally I use some type of tall green plant in the center as my thriller and for color I use colorful foliage plants around the tall green Thriller. My plants in the front are to close to the flower garden so White does not disappear but it dose not clash with any of the flowers. To my eye the Black would disappear.

It is all preference. Do you want symmetry?......Do you want the pots to be the star or blend?.....

Here are some examples of what my style of white looks like. This is what I have in the front.


This is at front mudroom door


Same pot used as Spring decor as a filler until the garden fills in the driveway bed.

More good points. I don't really have to have everything match. I too plant different things every year but try to have a perennial or 2 in each container to cut down on annuals in the containers. I know lots of people hate annuals but there is nothing like them to keep color going in a container all the summer season. Cinta the containers in the last picture are dark brown, glad you like them. Holly I like green as well. In fact when I was in high school my room was painted that green, loved it. Now that color is in style again!

Green is always in style for me...the plants, the trees, the vegetables at the store, the grass outside, the money in my wallet, this emoticon:

I mean that bright apple - chartreuse green.

This topic of painting pots caught my attention.

I bought this pot earlier this year for this plant. And I didn't think it through very well. I loathe the color, it doesn't compliment the plant at all.

Any suggestions on a color?

When you paint a pot, do you paint the rim of the inside of the pot also?

Needs help. Thanks.
Reine

Do you have a photo of the plant Reine?
I love your avatar photo.

Yes, I forgot to post it.

Oh wow, what is it? I agree with you, needs a different color of container to set it off as a specimen plant.

It is a Pachypodium saundersii. I received it for Mother's Day 1981.

It was in a white pot, but I thought a little color would be nice. Or do you think dark brown or black maybe. It will be in this pot for several years before repotting again.

Thanks.
Reine

Come on all you color gurus. I am not good at this.
But I can see it in a dark red container, or black. Does it ever bloom?

Oh boy, just look at the bloom it gets.


It seems as though most people plant them in relatively neutral colored containers.
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