Update old lawn ornaments with paint to give them a whole new look! Let your imagination run wild & turn them into whimsical new showpieces in your yard.

Do you have old lawn ornaments that have seen better days? Several years ago, I bought a cute little “stone-look” toad at Old Time Pottery.  I loved it and thought it would look great in our front garden.  When I brought it home, my daughter immediately hated his “creepy” eyes and has made fun of the poor thing ever since.

Well, time and the elements have not been good to my little toad, and he is really looking pretty bad. His paint is chipping and one of his eyes fell out! So, I popped his eye back in and realized he needed a good makeover, and I knew just who would love to do it. 🙂

Here he is before:

I recently re-painted my kids’ bathroom (which you can read about here) with a nice cheery chartreuse, so I handed the leftover latex paint to my girls and told them to have fun making over my toad. I cannot describe the maniacally gleeful look in my one daughter’s eyes, but if you have teens, you’ve probably seen it, too. 😉

So, when I got home from work, his makeover was done, and I admit, I really love it!

Here he is after his makeover:

As I have mentioned before, I was a children’s librarian in public libraries for many years, and I think our toad now looks like the animal from “Put Me in the Zoo” by Robert Lopshire.

See? 🙂

How to paint a lawn ornament.

Here’s what they used.

Supplies:

• Leftover latex paint. (We used Valspar satin interior. The color is Lime Mousse :))
• A set of acrylic paint my daughter used for a school project.
• Different colored nail polishes. (We have a TON)
• Black Sharpie to outline the details.
• Newspapers to work on and various sized paintbrushes.

Directions:

The girls painted the toad with a base coat of the latex paint and let it dry.

Then they used the acrylic paints and nail polishes on his spots, eyes, and toenails.

They really liked how his eyes turned out, so here is a close-up.  Their secret was to paint a glittery nail polish topcoat on his eyes to make them “sparkle” like Anime eyes.  Their words, not mine…

Finally, they used the black Sharpie to outline his wrinkles and toes.

He is certainly a lot more colorful now and I think he is much more noticeable and quite the conversation piece in our garden.

Because they used latex and acrylic paints, he should hold up in our Florida weather for a few more years.  We can give him another makeover then.

And since I have been ragging on my daughter throughout this post, I thought you might like to see how much she likes Mr. Toad now 🙂

So if you have a weathered lawn ornament that has seen better days, try giving it a new look with paint.  You, too, may decide it looks even better than before 🙂

What do you think of our toad?  Do you like him?

~ Pam

P.S. Do you have wind chimes that have seen better days? My wind chimes weren’t looking very good either, so this is how I refurbished them, too!