DIY: cheats way to age terracotta pots

I love, love having plants especially inside my home because I think plants add so much to any interior space. But I’ve always resisted because I can’t seem to ever keep them alive. Recently I decided to try again but as I normally fail in their upkeep, I didn’t want to spend much on the plants or the pots. So I bought cheap plants and the cheapest terracotta post I could find.

I’m not a fan of the bright terracotta colour of the pots so I thought I would age them somehow. There is the smearing yogurt method but that takes ages so I decided to take a shortcut and cheat. This cheats way to age terracotta pots is really quick and I’m pleased with the results. It may not be as authentic as naturally aged pots, but I wanted these plant pots in my home right now so this was the best way I could think of getting rid of the bright orangey/red colour.

Cheats way to age terracotta plant pots

Materials:
terracotta pots
sand paper or sanding block
acrylic paints – white, burnt umber, yellow ochre & lemon yellow
paint brush

1. Sand down your terracotta pots quite well
2. Paint the pots in white using long brush strokes – you want to keep the coverage pretty uneven.
3. Leave the pots to dry and then sand again.
4. Mix white with other acrylic paints. Use approximately 6 parts white to 2 parts burnt umber and 1 part yellow ochre and 1 part lemon yellow. You are looking for a darkish nude colour as per the pictures.
5. Paint the pots with this mixed paint keeping coverage a bit uneven so that a bit of the white shows through.
6. Leave to dry and sand the pots again.

I mixed up the paint separately for each pot as I wanted them all to look slightly different in tone to keep them looking more authentic. I didn’t bother to paint the inside as it won’t be seen.

Here’s a quick video showing the different stages of ageing these terracotta pots:

As you can see it’s really quick to cheat your way to aged terracotta pots. I’m keeping these pots inside my home so I didn’t bother with a waterproof varnish but if you’re going to leave them outside then you’ll probably need to varnish too.