Painting Terracotta Pots

After some time, I started to run out of pots to place the plant collections in; there weren’t many plant vessels at thrift stores and a trip to IKEA seemed as daunting as Lewis and Clark’s expedition. A trip to Home Depot, though? That I could do. So I picked up two terracotta pots (one 4-inch and one 6-inch) for less than $3 and a test pot of paint for another $3 and got to work sprucing up standard terracotta pots.

Before painting, I sealed the drainage holes with air-dry clay leftover from my Whimseybox and clay bead necklace. Since I am notorious for neglecting houseplants, I don’t really have a need for drain holes; I also didn’t feel like dishing out an addition $1 for a saucer.

After letting the air-dry clay dry overnight, I sealed the inside of the pots with spray Polycrylic to prevent any moisture seeping through to the paint. Once the Polycrylic was dry, I taped the terracotta pots using painters tape. I didn’t worry about achieving a perfectly straight line with the tape, I just followed the curve of the pot and firmly pressed on the tape to achieve a clean line. I then primed with Kilz Original and painted two coats with my sample paint (Snow Fall by Behr).

The purple succulent (which you may have spotted here) was a gift for my birthday last year and the pothos was free; they grow like weeds and are extremely hard to kill.

I have always worried that painted terracotta would bubble with moisture but the paint seems to be doing fine. Now that I have braved the task of painting terracotta, I don’t think I will ever buy another glazed ceramic pot again. This also means that I have more houseplants to hoard collect – I better get started.