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.

Are you great at looking after plants? Please share your tips in the comments below – I need all the help I can get.