December 2, 2013

DIY [Faux] Concrete Planters


I'm not the type of gal who can keep plants alive. Cats and dogs, no problem. Maybe even a baby, although I haven't tried yet!  But plants? No me gusta! If you look close enough, you can see the brown tips at the leaves. Fortunately, the plants have survived long enough that I could get pictures of them for this awesome post. I don't expect them to survive my "house of plant death" much longer, so I'm taking bids if anyone wants to place a bet when these bite the dust. 


Although the plants won't last long around here, at least they can look good while they're here! I love the concrete pots I've seen around the Blogosphere, but I haven't had a chance to try it myself. In the meantime, I already had some of those cheap, orange terracotta pots and I thought I could mimic the look I wanted. 


Here's how to try it create this look yourself!


Materials:

  • Paintable pots- I used those orange terra cotta pots
  • Primer
  • Grab your favorite concrete-ish colors
  • Sponges

Directions:

  1. Prime your pots.
  2. Take your paint colors like grey, slate blue, and black and put small circles of paint on some scrap paper. 
  3. Use a sponge to dab the paint colors together and start applying the pain. The paint will be applied in layers and you want a darker base. The base color should begin very gray.
  4. Once your paint is dry for your bottom layer, you should lay out circles of white and gray paint.
  5. For your top layer, the paint should be much lighter. Apply with a clean sponge and begin building a white/light gray layer.



6. Once the paint is dry, for your final touch, use a stippling brush or a hard sponge and apply a few flecks of black and brown to the top coat to recreate the speckled look of concrete.



That's all she wrote. 
I would still love to try the real concrete pots- I think they are super, duper cool. But I've had these brand new, empty terracotta ones FOREVER (since Zack accidentally bought them & I was too lazy busy to return them!) and they weren't about to grow legs and walk themselves out of my house. Sooo, now I can finally enjoy them!

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