French Flower Buckets Meet Oil-Rubbed Bronze

I love browsing my favorite thrift stores ~ I never know what treasures I might find.

A year or so ago I found a cute galvanized French flower bucket for pennies, and I have enjoyed decorating with it after I painted it a nice bronzy black. But I realized that I would prefer to have two of them when I decorate my mantel; I like a little symmetry up there.

So, guess what I found on my last visit to the thrift store? A French flower bucket! But instead of galvanized metal, it was painted with folksy flowers and a red interior. Fffft. Off to the store I went to replenish my supply of oil-rubbed bronze paint before this spraying session began:

I got over-anxious to paint and forgot to take a before photo until I had this much paint on the bucket.

Here it is, all finished:

And here is the first one I found ~ it is a little shorter than the new one:

After: the symmetry I wanted.

I also picked up this rather flimsy metal pot at the same time:

It got its own coat of oil-rubbed bronze paint, and now it looks like this: