Refresh Metal Garden Art - Part Two

We’ve been working around the yard, deck and patio getting the outdoor areas cleaned up and refreshed. I’ve been moving some of the perennials around the yard and filling in spaces. This week I worked on our small pool area. Mr. Blu pointed out that some of the metal flowers hanging on the fence were in dire need of some color. Here they are just all faded and starting to rust.

There are two that are similar.

I had sprayed them pink and yellow and white. I had daisies on my mind. And this one is a little simpler

As you can see, they have begun to rust and have seen much better days.

Alabama sun and weather are absolutely brutal on your garden decor. Inevitably, everything fades and rusts. This being the second time to refresh these flowers, they have just about run their course. That said, I’m not buying new fence decor at the beginning of the season. So, I grabbed the spray paint and gave these sad flowers a much needed refresh.

Welcome! I’m sharing this post today with some friend in the Creative Craft Hop. This fabulous group of creator’s share monthly posts to help feed your love of all things crafty. If you are joining from Modern on Monticello…I know you enjoyed Donna’s patriotic florals. You will find all of the other posts for this month at the end of this post. Be sure to check out all of the great projects!

Let’s Upcycle Some Metal Garden Decor

First step is to prep your piece by removing any debris like leaves and vines that tend to grow on our fence where these flowers hang. After removing the debris, I gave each flower a good wipe down. It is also a good idea to give the item a scrub with a wire brush. This will remove and surface rust. And for more advanced rust, use some sandpaper and give the piece a good spot sanding. Then I grabbed the spray paint.

My go to spray paint is Rustoleum 2X with primer. It constantly does the job quickly and effectively with great coverage.

I have a collection of vibrant colors from previous projects so I grabbed those.

The backs of the flowers were rusty so I started there with a heavy coat to mitigate the rusting process. I suppose the last time I concentrated on the fronts of the flowers and may have failed to spray multiple coats on the backs. Not this time. I layered quite a bit so they should be good for a while.

I am going with a multicolor look on these flowers so I sprayed the first flower and allowed it to dry. Then I laid the second on top and sprayed that. I repeated this process with the third flower. I gave each a nice thick first coat.

When the first coat had dried, I started over again with a second color. I concentrated on any areas I had missed with the first coat. I simply sprayed a spot here and a spot there and created random color. I used the layering method again until all 3 flowers had a second coat. I used 2 primary colors (pink and yellow) during this process.

Time for the 3rd coat where I used two other colors (purple and teal) as a highlighting or tertiary color.

This was a super quick project. I recommend this quick refresh for any outdoor metal decor that is still quite sturdy and exhibits minimal rust. Rustoleum colors are fabulous and the 2X coverage is incredible.

I placed the flowers back on their screws on the fence.

And I added some flowers in colorful pots to the galvanized shelf that I made a few years ago. I need to touch it up again since the Alabama heat has cause some more surface rust.

Did you know that in Alabama, portaluca will often return the following spring/summer like perennials? They don’t return after an abnormally cold winter but most winters are not brutal so we can get several years out of our portaluca. And being in the succulent family, they thrive in the Alabama summer. I have several posts about succulent and fun containers I’ve used over the years.