Painting my AeroGarden Sprout LED

[matt]

Earlier this year, we pulled two Sprout LED Aerogarden's out of our storage unit and found that one was significantly yellowed.

They still worked fine, and we used them for starting seeds - just trays of soil blocks and the AeroGardens as glorified lights with a timer.

However, I wasn't a fan of the yellowing, and since the AeroGarden worked OK, wanted to see if I could give it a new lease of life. So yesterday I painted it.

I think it's turned out really nicely! I haven't painted any of the surfaces that'll be in contact with water, but I'll give it a few days to fully cure before planting it.

Only time will tell how well it holds up, particularly when it comes time to clean it after the first run.

However, for anyone curious, my process was to completely disassemble it, thoroughly clean and dry all the parts, mask off any areas I didn't want to get painted (e.g. the clear reservoir screen, label underneath, control panel, etc) apply two coats of Rustoleum spray-on gray primer followed by two coats of Rustoleum spray-on charcoal satin paint. The color turned out to be a very close match to the AeroGarden Ultra LED next to it in the photo above.

[Jeff]

That looks great! Not only did you get rid of the yellow and give it a fresh look, but it looks like the latest model 😀

[slw]

That really turned out great, matt!   I have seen customizations of AGs with stickers and such, but that paint job is really nice. 

[lynnee]

matt, how did you ever figure out that gray primer + charcoal satin paint would produce that lovely silver finish? The machine looks beautiful!



EDIT: I love the banana you included for a color comparison!

[matt]

Thanks Jeff and slw!

lynnee it's funny you mention the primer. With two paints of coat, it completely covered the primer so I don't think the color of the primer made any difference to the final color. However, if I were doing it again, I'd recommend using a lighter colored primer - it would make it much easier when painting to see if you've missed any spots, as the final paint color and primer color were so close that I almost missed a few spots.

I do really like the color and finish - and it does look almost identical to the Ultra next to it. I'm very tempted now to paint my second Sprout, even though it's nowhere near as badly yellowed. I think a really bold, high-gloss red, like the Kitchenaid Mixers, would look really cool and a great contrast to lots of green leaves!

[scarfguy]

matt, I think you could have a little business there.. 

"MATT'S CUSTOM AEROGARDEN PAINT SCHEMES"

specializing in candy colors, pinstripes, and flame motifs

[maskedsonnet]

ooooooh now I wanna paint all my machines, that never even occurred to me!!! And all these years I've been pining for the red bounty that they sold out and never re-stocked!!! Maybe I'll make all my machines red *_*