DIY Herb Pots by Painting Terra Cotta Pots

I have tried to paint terra cotta pots before by using spray paints.  They took many layers and the paint peeled after a few years.  I decided to try it again as I want to plant some Herbs this year to use in my baking and cooking and have a pot that I can bring in the house and maybe keep them growing all winter

DIY Herb Pots by Painting Terra Cotta Pots

Disclaimer I received paints and stencils from DecoArt to complete this project.

I was amazed how well the Patio Paint Outdoor from Decoart covered the terra cotta pots.  Both pots had been used before for plants so were dirty and water stained.  One of the pots was even tinged green from where the water had stained it on the bottom and I wasn't even sure that it would work.  It covered it fairly well as you can see in the green pot.. there is a bit of discoloration at the bottom of the pot but I felt that it looked great and made the pot look a bit weathered.  What do you think?

These are the pots that I started out with.
I forgot to take a picture of them before I started to paint the first one, but
you can see how stained the  pot (green pot) was. 

Materials:

Terra Cotta Pots

DecoArt Patio Paint - Blue Jay

DecoArt Patio Paint ~ Antique Mum

DecoArt Patio Paint ~ Sunshine Yellow

DecoArt Patio Paint ~ Apple Green

Patio Paint Home & Garden Reusable Stick on Stencils - Spice of Life and Funky Flower

Foam/Sponge  Brushes

Small Paint brush

Directions:

Assemble your supplies

Wash out pots with soap and water, especially if they have been used before.

Decide how you want to paint them - colours and design (I decided to paint one Blue Jay and one Apple Green with Antique Mum on both around top of the pots).

Paint pots, you may need to put a couple of coats on,.let dry with each coat. 

If you are changing colours you may also want to tape your pot so the colours don't run.  I didn't do this step.

Once the pots are painted, let dry completely.

Arrange stencils.  I arrange the herbs around the top of the pot.  Painting them in the contrasting colour.  I found it was easier to paint them with a dry brush that had very little paint on it.  This way it didn't smear.  Remove stencil before paint drys and wipe it off immediately.   

I then arranged the funky flower stencil to the bottom of the pot.  I painted the leaves in the contrasting colour and the flowers in the Sunshine Yellow.

Let dry completely before using (about 72 hours).

Crafters Notes:

I was reading a post on the DecoArt Blog about paint Terra Cotta Pots and that if you use them without a pot inside you should paint the inside or when pouring water into your pot it will bubble the painting that you did inside.  So off I go to pait the inside of the pots.

The paint that I received was 2 ounce bottles and I used about half a bottle of the green and the blue to complete these two pots.

I love the colours of the Blue Jay and Apple Green... as you can see in the pictures I have a blue door so this will look wonderful with my outside colours.  I can't wait for my herbs to grow (now to decided what to plant in each of the pots and to get a couple more pots to paint and plant herbs).  I will add another picture once my herb garden is growing... 

                           

                               

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