A Passion (and a Dash of Paprika) for Vintage Planters

I'm with Dorothy Parker on a lot of things, but especially so when she said, "a little bad taste is like a nice dash of paprika." I like to believe she was referring to some of the things I love just plain out of my rational head, like daisy swim caps, Corelle, and my beloved ugly lamps. I think she'd also include these vintage planters, which date anywhere in the High Golden Age of Kitsch, roughly 1940s-1970s. Check out my freshly curated (sounds like I picked 'em out of a Golden Kitsch Tree) treasury over on Etsy's website:

ON SALE Vintage Pla... ismoyo $17.00	Vintage Wall Pocket... DragonflyGirlV... $25.00	Pink Wise Owl Trio ... alanna88 $16.00	VINTAGE MADONNA PLA... vinestreetvint... $12.00
Vintage1950s SPRING... sugarlily $13.50	Vintage Green Plant... whentheylovedo... $25.00	Squirrel Wall Pocke... CampHobachee $24.00	Burnt Orange Plante... MyRetroStuff $40.00
vintage art deco wa... CypressHouse $18.50	SALE - Midcentury M... SwankyModernRe... $13.00	Vintage Retro Exoti... TeamRuster $12.50	Vintage Green Stove... TheModShop $8.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio. 

What's great about these planters is they're still everywhere, mostly still affordable, and in all sorts of sizes, shapes, and colors. What's even better about pottery planters is that, if you are given to more than one form of obsessive personality disorder, they've got you covered. Love aqua blue? Terriers? Cowboys boots? Aqua blue terriers wearing cowboy boots? There's probably a planter out there made just for you.

I tried for variety, but looking at this Etsy Treasury I curated, I can see that it ended up reflecting some of my other "dashes of paprika" (bless Miz Parker!)--chickens, Asian kitsch, the color green, and my somewhat psychologically troubling attraction to what I call "dorky color combinations" (the yellow deer on the red thing-y, the pink owls on the mint green log). I don't know what possessed me to throw in the Madonna planter, and as a non-Catholic I'm puzzled by it. Is it disrespectful to fill the Blessed Virgin's head with dirt and some nasturtiums? Beats me.


You don't have to use these as planters. They can be transformed into pencil holders, pin cushions, remote control caddies. I have a mermaid planter that I keep cotton balls and swabs in for the bathroom, and a small oval McCoy planter that holds business cards on my desk. I'm thinking I need a teeny one to hold my rings while I wash dishes. Spread that paprika everywhere, readers!