Painted Terra Cotta Pots

I picked up a few terra cotta pots for $7 total last night at Michaels. I knew they were an ugly orange, but that was okay, because I had plans...




See, after we had put up the white IKEA curtains and hung the new light fixture with the white drum shade in the kitchen, the little white pots I had on the window ledge just looked boring. The whole thing was lacking interest.



So, while the kiddos played outside this morning, I took my three little ugly orange cheap pots, a damp artist's sponge, and three different colors of satin paint, and had myself a lovely time on the driveway. I used a damp sponge because I didn't want any paint strokes and because I wanted the paint to look smeary. A clean, damp rag would work too - but, I had the sponge. I started off smearing Sherwin Williams "Attitude Gray". After smearing that on each of the three pots I went right into smearing on Benjamin Moore "Fieldstone" without waiting for the first coat to dry. Then, I added SW "Balanced Beige" in right on top of the other still-damp coats. I worked quickly with the damp sponge, trying hard to not leave any actual sponge marks. Added a little of each color all over again and inside, too, until I got the smeary, slightly aged look I wanted. Then I sanded a bit and smeared a bit more, scratched them some with my finger nail under a paper towel, and then smeared them more. Basically, I just messed with them a whole lot until I liked the way they looked :) Finally, I decided to rub them some with a bit of the children's white chalk to get the look I was going for. Rubbed most of it off, just leaving the hint of chalkiness behind.



Since I was doing this outside on a warm day, the thin coats of paint dried very quickly. When they were dry to the touch, I wrote "Rosemary" on one, "Thyme" on another, and "Catmint" on the third in chalk. Then, like before, I rubbed nearly all of it off so the words were very, very faint (but, not quite as faint as this photo makes it seem).



They turned out nicely, I think. It was fun, at any rate! (The photos get larger if you click on them). It's hard to tell in the photos, but the 3 different paints gave the pots a depth that a single color wouldn't have given. I still might add an antiquing glaze as a topcoat. Given the fact that I used hardly any of the paint I had, I'd say the only cost was the price of the pots. The "Fieldstone" paint is going to come in handy for another project going on around here this weekend...



And Sam is finishing up his own little project tonight and Saturday...



Remember to come back and check us out on Monday. We'll have pics for you :) Until then, Bye Bye - and have a great weekend!