The topic of aging has been forefront in my mind these days since…well..ahem…I turned…forty… this past Friday. And while it takes years, hopefully, to age oneself, it only takes a few hours to age new gardening pots.
I found this pin on Pinterest (are you following us on Pinterest? We’d sure love it if you would!) several weeks back and just love the look of these aged blue terra cotta pots.
Source:Country Living
I knew that with some paint and a little elbow grease I could create some of my own.
They may not be identical but I think they definitely look like they’ve seen some years in the garden, instead of a few weeks on the store shelf.
Here’s all it takes to create this same look yourself.
Materials:
Terra Cotta pots (new or old) in various sizes
spray paint and/or regular paint in the color of your choice (I just used some left over wall paint I had)
inexpensive foam craft brushes
sanding sponge
steel wool
hammer
exacto blade
Directions: (this couldn’t be easier)
Paint your pots, lighter on some heavier on others I painted the teal blue underneath some of the pots and the lighter color on top in layers. While paint is still slightly wet, take your sanding sponge and start to sand off the paint in areas that would normally receive wear.
Do this along the rim and bottom of pot. Also along any edges. For a more distressed look use the steel wool and heavily scrape off the pain along the surface. You can also use an exacto knife to chip off the paint. Take a hammer and lightly chip off some of the pot, revealing the terra cotta color underneath. Continue these steps until you get the look you want.
That’s it!
One of the benefits of having Better Homes and Gardens out to our house was I got to keep all of these gorgeous potted herbs that they purchased for the photo shoot!
They just happened to be some of our favorites!
I can’t wait to start enjoying our fresh herbs this year thanks to Better Homes and Gardens, and I’m so excited to be out working in the yard!
What outdoor projects are you “itchin’ to get working on?
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51 Comments on "How to age new garden pots"
I like the idea of aging some of my flower pots and I’ve been wanting to do this for awhile Thanks for the helpful post!
They look great, Heather! I’ve aged some pots in my time. : ) I usually have done a white wash, so they get that calcified look to them. Of course, I would love when my terracotta pots would naturally do that, no paint required.
Wonderful, Heather. I am pinning this! As for outside projects, I am planning a deck makeover, but I have some pressing inside projects and an adventure to complete first. But then, the deck is GOING DOWN…
I love the idea of aging flower pots. We spent all of Saturday getting our outdoors ready. I’ll be posting about it later in the week. I have to try this aging process. It really looks great.
What a great tutorial! You gals amaze me, you can do anything!
XO,
Anne
Your aged pots look great! I love the blue color. After building 4 more 4′ x 10′ raised beds this winter and planting veggies, there’s always something to do in the garden. This past weekend we bent some poplar twigs and made a makeshift trellis over our strawberry plants and covered it all with black bird netting, which you can hardly see. We also attached hoops on our raised beds. We are already harvesting romaine and head lettuce, peas and potatoes. Still need to work on painting the floor of our deck and decorating/planting on the patio below it.
LOVE these, the shades of blue are gorgeous!!
I love this idea Heather!! I have two terra cotta pots on my deck that I can’t wait to do this to!
I love them all aged and chippy! They look perfect! I want to get some herbs started!
Happy Birthday! I turned forty in December, and I wasn’t too happy about it… But I’m trying my best to embrace it. Nice pots!! Janelle
Love the pots. They look fab! (Score on getting to keep the herbs!) 😉
Heather, I had been thinking about cleaning my old clay pots…now, I’m leaving them as they are…they self painted!Ha!
Your pots looks great! Hope you visit my blog to see what mine are looking like. Thanks, Helen
Great post, and I love the aging process…that is ON the pots, not me!
Love them! Totally going to age my pots…it so bothers me when they look too new. My entire herb garden is planted in the ground, but I may have to add some of these too!
Jessica
Love your aged pots! I have a few that look too new to me. Great idea!
Love the pots, just gorgeous! I have been wanting to do this forever, you made it look so easy, now I have to try! Thanks for linking up and Happy Mothers Day (belated)
XO
Kristin
Love the color of the pots, Heather!
These are so great! I can’t wait to give it a try. Thanks for this fun idea!
-Lynn
What a great idea! I love this so much that I’m pinning …
… oh, and don’t worry about the age thingy. I’ve got 8 years on you (okay, almost nine. That birthday is closing in on me quickly …)
🙂
Linda
Just returned from Home Depot with my way to orange new Terra pots. Llike Halloween neon orange! Can’t wait to paint and distress using your method …
🙂
Linda
One word Heather, LOVE!!
~ Catie =)
Heather I love how your pots turned out. They look just perfectly aged!
xoxo
Karena
Art by Karena
great idea…thanks for sharing!! your pots look perfectly aged!
Love these! I just bought some new herbs and need to pot them, just didn’t know in what….now I know what I want to do…thanks for sharing!
I love your new “old” garden pots….if only forty looked so good on my face…I just turned that “hard to swallow” number also.
Forty!, ah, you’re just a baby! Love the aged pots! I have some that aged and peeled and broke edges all by themselves too, but I’m going to try making some attractively “aged” ones like yours. I might try to fix up some crummy-looking plastic pots too! I love the herbs too, and in pots like yours, they will look good on the patio, for those of us who can’t have garden beds!
I just read somewhere that aging new terra cotta pots takes 10 years off of your face! Oh wait…I didn’t read that, but now everyone else will! I love the colors. In the words of some creative lady who is (hopefully) older than me: “Age is just a number and mine’s Unlisted!” xo
Well done. Thank you 🙂
~Happy Birthday~
Mike in Indy
ooooooo, I love this!!!
Thanks for the lesson — I love old pots but sometimes they are hard to find — especially the big ones!
These are so pretty! Can’t wait to try making one. 🙂
These turned out GREAT! Definitely going to try this with some of my outdoor pots. Thanks for the inspiration!
Thank you for posting this I have so many pots that need to be beautified. LOVE this.
yummy pots – I’m sooo gonna do this….i have a potting table display I’m working on now & will post about it coming up. I wonder if you’ll be able to spy some painted pots in it – be on the look out! xo
http://www.NorthernCottage.net
New follower…
Followed you over from
http://www.itallstartedwithpaint.com/2012/05/like-fine-wine.html
All the best,
Dana at Cooking at Cafe D
Love this idea…I inherited some old Terra Cotta pots when we purchased our home a few months ago. I’ve already planted flowers in them for the season but I am definitely going to do this project in the fall. Thanks for sharing!
Loved the aged pot look, I have done your method and I have also taken dirt and rubbed into the paint. People say you can put yogurt on it to get a little mossy, haven’t tried that. I love to do mosaics on my pots too!
Heather~ I love this tutorial! Book marking it and sending you a big thank you for sharing it!!!
Pots just look better aged don’t they. Love the new look.
Cheri
I love this! I just bought a few yesterday to transplant the ones the kids brought home from school – awesome looking!
What a great look!! I’m definitely going to give this one a try! Great idea!!
I’m a couple of months late here, but these turned out amazing! Just included the planters in a round-up of terra cotta pot makeovers 🙂
Charlie @ Match Made On Hudson
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Thanks for the inspiration, Heather and Vanessa! These are so adorable that you inspired me to age some of my own pots. Age definitely looks better on my flower pots than it does on me!
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