My house needed some pizazz! It was just looking a little too bare and dull and I wasn’t prepared to do anything with the brick work. As with everything, there’s a budget too and my budget wasn’t very big. So, how to make an impact on a small budget and spruce up the front of my house? Planter boxes! But, it wasn’t going to be practical for me to water real plants on a daily basis and I certainly didn’t want to have to change out the plants because of the seasons. I wanted some colour and I wanted to be able to change the colours whenever I felt the need. The answer: artificial flowers. Not normally my number one choice, but perfect for what I needed to do and the fact that I can buy them at the dollar store, made them an even better option and I can easily add more colours for each season.
First step, buy some planter boxes. I happened to get mine from Lowes, they were about $7 a piece but they are good quality planter boxes and will last (a year later and they are still in great condition). Make sure you drill some drainage holes into your planter before you do anything else. Even though you are using artficial flowers, your planter is outside and needs to be able to get rid of water should you get rain. Also work out how you are going to attach the boxes to your window sills. I measured where I wanted my planter boxes to go then drilled holes in each of my planter boxes where the screws would go. I then used 3/4 inch long masonry screws and got my husband (I could have easily done it myself 😜) to drill holes in the brickwork (you will also need a masonry drill bit the same size as your screws). I know there are other options if you cannot drill into your house or if you don’t want to permanently attach the boxes, just ask someone at your local hardware store to show you alternative ways to showcase planter boxes.
Obviously, you are going to need several bunches of artificial flowers and something to put them into inside your planter box. I bought the floral foam also from the dollar store and used this as my base. Try to separate your flowers and your greenery (at the original time of purchase, I bought this greemnery but it hasn’t held up well over the year, so I actually interchanged for a different kind when I added some new flowers for Spring). Cut your stems as long as you possibly can using some wire cutters, then insert into the foam pieces, ensuring you try to keep the same number of flowers in each planter and spread them out evenly. You may even want to raise the foam up a little bit if the stems aren’t long enough to show above your planter box, you can either add a second foam piece on top or just put a layer of moss or even dirt under the foam (the only thing you do need to think about is that you don’t want your planters to be too heavy if you are attaching them using the masonry screws so the dirt may not work).
After you have arranged your flowers, you want to make sure they stay in place, so this is when you will need another layer to hold them down, I used moss that I raked up from my yard so it still had some dirt attached to it and was heavier than moss that you would buy from a store along with a few small rocks.
Then it’s time to attach your planter boxes and voila! A gorgeous spruce up to some boring areas that doesn’t require very much maintenance!
*Note: Every season, I have added to my flowers with some different colours. It’s probably time to throw some of the original roses out as they have really faded (Our house faces East so gets the rising sun) but I haven’t worried about that just yet because the addition of the yellow, white and orange flowers and the other greenery, has spruced it up when you are looking at it from afar.
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