How to Age Plastic Terra Cotta Flower Pots
Plastic pots are light and cheap, but they look brand new. A little paint gives them the chalky, mossy look of clay pots that have sat in a garden for years. It takes an afternoon and works on pots of any size.
- Time An afternoon
- Skill Easy
Before you start. Work outside or on a covered table, and have a few paper towels ready to wipe the brush. The dry-brush technique depends on using very little paint, so test it on the bottom of a pot first.
What you'll need
- Plastic pots in a terra cotta color
- Fine sandpaper
- Acrylic paint in white, gray and moss green
- Terra cotta acrylic paint, if your pots are too orange
- A cheap chip brush
- A sponge or rag
- Outdoor matte sealer
How to make it
- Scuff. Sand the shine off the pots so the paint can grip.
- Tone down the base. If the pots are bright orange, give them one coat of terra cotta acrylic for a duller, clay-like color.
- Dry-brush the white. Dip the brush in white paint, wipe almost all of it off and brush lightly down from the rim. Dab with a damp sponge to soften.
- Add moss. Dab a little green and gray near the rim and the base, where moss would grow.
- Seal. Spray the pots with an outdoor matte sealer once the paint is dry.
Make it your own
- Use the same dry-brush method on a plastic urn or window box.
- Add a few strokes of light blue-gray for a cooler, stony look.
- Stencil a house number on one pot for the front steps.
Care and storage. Bring the pots inside or turn them upside down before a hard freeze. Paint holds up better when water doesn't sit on it through the winter.