I had so many questions about the rockers and the garden stool after my latest porch post, so that I thought I would show a step by step of how I painted the stool.
(This is a re-post of the tutorial I shared two years ago.)
See the white chinese garden stool. That’s the famous one from Big Lots that was on sale for $14.99. It needs painting so it will fit in with my porch makeover. I want to bring in some color as an accent to the house colors, so I am thinking an aqua color.
These are the paints I am going to use. The aqua color is called Jade and then Emerald Green will give it some character. The Clear Glaze will seal it when it is painted.
First I took a sanding block and sanded the entire stool down. I sanded just enough to take part of the shine off and rough up the surface a little bit, then I sprayed the bottom 2/3 of the stool with the aqua color. When that was dry I sprayed the top and feathered down the sides to meet the jade with the emerald green.
Once it was all dry, I used Min-wax walnut stain and sponged it on over the Emeral green top part and also feathered it into part of the aqua. This needed to dry for 2 days to really set up, then I finished it with 2 coats of Clear Gloss.
To tie my design together, I made some new pillows in an outdoor fabric with both the aqua, brown and green colors in it.
I added another aqua planter that I already had with a pretty plant and a cute little frog for some whimsy.
The stool is just the perfect size for a couple of glasses of iced tea and fits nicely between the rockers.
The fern makes a great backdrop between the chairs and gives the space a nice lush garden feel.
I hope this encourages you to paint a ceramic piece to fit your decor too. This stool has been on the porch for two years and still looks like new.
