How to: change a folder icon in leopard

I was adding folders to the “Places” section of Finder so that I have easy access to my often used folders but regular folders look boring.  I was only looking to change the icon to the pictures folder icon, but in the process I found that you can easily change the icon to any picture.

1. Right click the folder whose icon you want to change and select “Get Info”
2. Find a photo that you want to use as the folder icon, select it by single clicking, and copy the file by pressing command+c or going to Edit > Copy.
3. Back in the “Get Info” window for the folder you’re trying to change click on the folder icon in the upper right and press command+v or go to Edit > Paste.

Voila!  The folder icon changed.

Alternatively you could just steal the icon from another folder by going into that folders “Get Info” page, selecting that icon and copying it, then pasting it onto the folder you want to change.