Perhaps a few annuals planted right around the planters in the ground?

Normally I would, but they would immediately be destroyed. I have several dogs. That's really the reason for the planters this year. I'm hoping the elevation will allow the plants to survive. Anything on the ground is immediately considered food..... or peed on. :-/

Could you spray paint them with the Krylon paint for plastic? Perhaps if they were a nice color the family would approve.

You could even get fancy and spray paint stripes, or spray thru a stencil to "pretty them up".

You can buy a spray paint at craft stores (I got mine at Michael's) that will make a plastic planter look like a textured stone planter - similar to a hypertufa look.

What about twig or bamboo or rope coverings for them. Upright twigs lashed together with small gauge wire, or sisal twined around them, either glued or siliconed on or just tied on? How about burlap coverings... or maybe some sort of plaster or even tufa on the outsides of them? Hope some of these help... I would hate for your planters to get the "thumbs down" from the family and you not be able to have your garden!

The branch/twig "fence" is what I am doing to a couple of big bins of some unknown use that we found behind one of our barns. Hauled them into place and filled with dirt and now I am prettying them up with a sort of wattle fencing. They are looking okay now. Rather rustic but not unsightly!

Along the same lines as what windyone said-- could you wrap them with those inexpensive bamboo-twig looking (can't think of the name) roller shades from the ground to the top of the pots? If you lined them up nice and close it would cover up the bricks and the pots and might actually look really pretty. Good luck! I know what you mean about family vetoing creative garden solutions- my DH loves everything pretty and neat in the garden and does not like my concrete block garden beds we put in this year- but has agreed to give them a year to grow on him and if he still doesn't like them - he will build me some cedar ones next year!!

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I laid them all out as ideas but everything was rejected. :( Apparently it didn't matter after all how good they would look because the family would still "know" they were bins underneath. *sigh* I had to get rid of everything.

Hmmm. And "nothing" is so much more attractive!

I think I would have gone with your favorite choice, and told the family "Feel free to upgrade them yourselves!"

Pricing out planting containers might make them a little more appreciative of your frugality!

Has anyone used chaulk paint on plastic? I saw it on the Victory Garden once where they were using it on cheap plastic pots. They featured Annie Sloan's Painted Garden book.