Pottery Shed Exterior Decoration

When Kevin fixed up the old garden shed to become my new pottery throwing studio, I had him replace 3 rickety windows with my old kitchen window that he had just also replaced. The old kitchen window was single paned and just above my sink. It had begun to rot and I couldn't even close it tightly anymore. It still had a bit of use left in it though so in it went. 

Because the window took up less room than the 3 windows, he filled the space with some plywood. I had to think of something to do with the two areas of un-aged raw plywood. I took inspiration from Maud Lewis' folk art inspired exterior paintings of her home in Nova Scotia. You can watch a short film about her here. 

I had never painted decoratively on plywood before this summer. It has a rough crinkly texture so it is hard to work like I usually do on flat smooth surfaces like pottery or paper. I decided to just go for it and see what happened. 

First I primed the plywood with basic white. I decided to paint flowers in pottery jugs because I'll be making vases inside the little building. Someday - when all this other work gets done. 

Here's a progression of the first vase with flowers. 

Then I had an accident with some green paint by getting off the ladder without closing the lid on the paint. Big oops. I will have to try to match the color of the shed - which won't be easy. It is stained and it is aged. I'll give it a try though. For the final photos, I can always stick a giant sunflower in front of the oops. 

This is what it looked like after Day One. I like how the blue background color worked - I left some of the white primer showing through - going with the texture of the plywood. 

On Day Two, I had more confidence in what I was doing - standing on the third step of the ladder flinging paint on. I had to hurry because it was late in the day so I didn't take any process photos. Here's the second painting. My sister Laurie thought they were shutters so maybe that is what I will call them. 

I had to hurry to finish before the sun went down. Here are 4 process photos of decorating the vases and then lining the flowers to make them pop. 

Here's the finished look with the giant oops that I will have to do something about. 

I am happy the way it is shaping up. Now to plant a little sunflower garden below the windows now that I don't need to have the ladder in there anymore.