Easy DIY Outdoor Garden Plaque Makeover

Give an outdoor garden plaque a fun and easy makeover

Most of the time my projects are planned way ahead of time. They sit around in my brain and percolate, sometimes for way too long. lol. Then one day they make their way out of my brain onto the path to becoming a reality.

But every once in a while a project happens spontaneously, like this fun and easy garden plaque makeover.

These projects are often the most fun because there isn’t a lot of pre-thinking or pre-planning.

Pretty much none actually.

I just get to dive in and go for it and how they turn out is often a surprise… even to me.

How to give a garden plaque an easy makeover

I dug this old and faded garden plaque out of winter storage, hung it up on the old deck fence, and didn’t think much more about it.

That night we were sitting on the back deck and John noticed how faded it was and said that it really needed a makeover. I looked at it again, paying more attention this time, and he was absolutely right.

Honestly, I don’t know why I didn’t think of it myself. Score some points for John.

I knew just what to do with it. A quick, fun, and easy makeover.

These plaques, or stepping stones, come in all shapes and sizes and they’re made of some kind of a resin mix.

I don’t even remember what it looked like when I first got it years ago. You can see a hint of some of the blues and greens, but it was definitely ready to be re-styled. These days I’m determined to re-use, re-purpose, and re-imagine things that I already have instead of looking for new things.

Paint markers used for garden plaque makeover

For a quick and easy makeover all I needed was some paint markers. I used what I had on hand, which were some Sharpie oil paint makers and some Artistro acrylic makers. Basically this is just coloring, which I loved to do when I was a little girl and I still love to do today.

I’ve used these markers before, on this vintage resin floral wall plaque makeover.

Coloring the garden plaque with paint markers

I colored the large birdhouse roof a minty green, and the leaves and vines a dark green. The tubular flowers were colored a light pink and for some interest I added some darker pink coming out from the middle.

I just winged it as I went and did what I thought would look good to me.

The other two birdhouse roofs got slightly different shades of blue, and the houses were colored brown. The birds came to life with red bodies, yellow beaks, and black eyes.

This plaque is very textured so I didn’t worry about filling in all the spaces. I like the rustic look.

Close up of garden plaque makeover

Here’s a close up of those sweet little birdies. The birdhouse entrances were colored black, and that one birdhouse had a little heart on it so I colored that red.

The next section of flowers became yellow with pink centers to tie into the pink flowers above, and I colored their leaves the same color as the green roof.

I loved how the bottom flowers were shaped around the plaque and I made them a deep purple, with some lighter purple lines in each petal just for fun. I gave these flowers a yellow center to tie them in with the yellow flowers above.

Even though the fence was kind of white I lightened it up with a white marker so it would stand out more from the grey of the stone.

To protect my garden plaque makeover I gave it a topcoat of a spray matte polyurethane. I didn’t want there to be any shine, just some protection from the elements.

The colors and the 3D look really pop in the sunshine.

I loved how this turned out so much that I decided to give another garden plaque a makeover as well.

A second garden plaque makeover

Here’s how the second looked before… all faded out. This one has a lovely message that I try to live by every day.

I colored in the flowers and butterflies and added a blue edge around the outside for some definition. You can see how faded the letters were against the first letter that I colored black.

Here it is all done. It got the same poly treatment.

And here it is in the sunshine.

Here they are together before.

And after. They really come to life when the sun is shining on them. I’m glad I left the back the neutral gray of the stone. I like how the colors look against the rustic gray texture.

Considering this was a spur-of-the-moment project I’m super happy with how both of these garden plaques turned out and I really enjoyed the process. The paint markers are so easy to work with, and spending an afternoon outside coloring was a lot of fun and very relaxing.

What I love most about sharing projects like this is that different people could re-style the exact same garden plaque and every one would be different. It all depends on your own style and the colors you would choose.

I hope I’ve inspired you to re-style your own old and faded garden plaques or stepping stones.

It would be greatly appreciated if you would pin this project to your favorite Pinterest board, and also share it with your friends.

Thanks so much for reading and until next time,

keep on keepin’ on!

XOX