The planter box painting day at Friendly Bay last weekend was an opportunity for families to show off their creativity together.
The opportunity came out of a collaboration between the Waitaki District Council and Mitre 10 Oamaru which ran an in-store planter box design competition.
Children were encouraged to submit a design for one of 20 planter boxes to be placed along Thames St.
The winners were then given a planter box to bring their designs to life. The boxes had been built by the Waitaki Menz Shed with timber donated by Mitre 10.
Last weekend, 20 boxes in total were built and painted.
Of those, 16 were to designs from the competition winners and the other four were painted by either local artists or organisations.
That included one by the art department for the Netflix production of East Of Eden.
Competition entrants who did not win still had the opportunity to participate with a tent set up on the day where they could paint their own plant pots so they did not miss out on the fun, council placemaking lead Cyndi Christensen said.
Almost 200 people came through on the day.
"The families were just really excited, the kids were really excited. Art really did bring people together. It was more than we could’ve expected."
Ms Christensen said the planter boxes were within the concept of the Oamaru Master Plan to make Thames St "more people-friendly".
"It’s still a work in progress but we do want to activate the south end of Thames St with a little bit of beautification. "
The planter boxes and seating would be in place late next month on a trial basis.
Mitre 10 staff were on hand to help out throughout the day, even running a sausage sizzle.
