With the Spring season underway, it’s time to start thinking about adding color and beauty to
our outdoor living areas. Why not create some custom painted flower pots for your porch or
patio? Here’s a little inspiration to get you started and the lowdown on what products to use
to make sure that your paint finish holds up outdoors for months to come!
Terra cotta pots are great blank canvases for outdoor art. For this project, 3 various sized
pots were painted, one in Antoinette, one in Paris Grey and one in Duck Egg Blue.
Once the paint was completely dry, Fine Stone, an exterior grade plaster product with
aggregate texture from Artisan Enhancements was pushed through a small portion of their
large format Venetian Damask stencil.
Creating a raised stencil relief like this one on a curved surface can be a bit tricky. It helps to
tape the stencil down. Use a color shaper tool to smooth the Fine Stone across the stencil to
make the design go on evenly. As soon as you have covered the area of the stencil you want
to appear on your pot, lift the stencil straight up off of the surface. Your stencil will clean off
easily with water and a soft rag if you take care of it while the Fine Stone is still wet.
Drying time on the Fine Stone varies depending on how thickly you have applied it but it
should be completely dry within a few hours. To create an aged patina, apply a thick layer of
Artisan Enhancements Crackle Tex all over your pot and allow it to dry before proceeding.
Once the Crackle Tex has dried, a second paint color can be applied. Here, Old White was
brushed on thickly. When painting over Crackle Tex, it is important to not overwork
the surface as the crackle medium will start to activate quickly.
As soon as the cracks begin to appear, you can begin to remove areas of the top layer of
paint with a damp sea sponge. Distress as much or as little as you like until you are pleased
with the overall look.
As great as this finish looks at this stage, one more step will add additional depth to the
design.
Artisan Enhancements Scumble tinted with a French Linen/Old White mix was used to create
a glaze to further age and enhance the patina of the 3 flower pots. Five parts Scumble to one
part paint was the ratio used for this step. The glaze was brushed on and then wiped back
with a damp sea sponge.
After giving the Scumble glaze around 40 minutes to dry, you can proceed with sealing your
pots for outdoor use. Artisan Enhancements Clear Topcoat Sealer is an eco-friendly
exterior grade sealer. Use a quality brush such as Artisan Enhancement’s Topcoat brush to apply a
thin layer on both the exterior and interior of the flower pot. The pot’s interior should be
sealed to insure that once planted in, nothing from the soil will seep through the porous clay
pot and effect the paint finish.
Note the minimal amount of sealer on the brush in the photo above. A little goes a long
ways!
At least 2 thin coats of Clear Topcoat Sealer should be applied, giving the first coat ample
time to cure before applying the second. Twenty four hours is recommended.
Once your pots are painted, stenciled, crackled, glazed and sealed, the creativity doesn’t
have to end there! Consider stacking varying sized pots for a tiered display. Once these
three were filled with potting soil, a dowel was pushed down through the centers to hold them
in place.
The dowel was then trimmed down and a half flat of white Alyssum was planted in the top pot
and around the edges of the bottom two.
Though the flowers may wilt in the sun or die back come winter’s frost, with Artisan
Enhancements exterior grade Clear Topcoat Sealer, the new finish on these flower pots will
still be beautiful come time for next year’s plantings!
Thank you so much for your visit!
Best Wishes and Blessings,
Amanda
Disclosure: This is an Artisan Enhancements sponsored post, however the opinions and ideas expressed here are mine and I will only ever promote products that I enjoy using and feel may benefit my readers.
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