Terrazzo up your plant pots

Before you begin:

I only used three paint colors – Tan, White and Black, to create the different hues for the whole project. As many plants have interesting textures and leaves, the tonal variation of Tan and grayscale would not clash with the plants but bring out their beauty instead. I’ve tried potting interesting plants like the Ludisia Discolor (Jewel Orchid), Pilea and other cacti with interesting caudex forms into the terrazzo painted plant pots and they go really well!

I used Crafter’s Acrylic paint found at Spotlight, but you could use any type of acrylic paint to paint on terracotta plant pots. Terracotta plant pots are the usual plant pots you see that come in a red-brown colour. This project can be easily done on several plant pots in a couple of hours, as the paint dries quite quickly on terracotta. I attempted the same DIY project on a wooden tray, and the first coat of paint on a wooden tray had to be left to dry overnight. For brushes, I used small and medium sized brushes as my pots were on the small side. If the plants are placed indoors, the paints do last, and would not flake off, even after a few years.

Leave the first coat of paint on terracotta pots to dry for about 30 minutes.

Check if the paint is dry by lightly tapping your finger on the paint. The first coat of paint should be as thin as possible to just lightly cover the pot. Follow with a second coat. After the second coat of paint is dry, mix a range of greige tones with combinations of the three colours in different quantities. I used pure white and pure black for the dots along with the different greige tones.

To make larger sized dots, the thick end of a chopstick could be used. The small dots were made using the thin wooden end of the smaller paintbrush. If you want a more ‘colourful’ effect, before painting on the dots, dry brush the various hues of greige at random parts of the pot after the second coat of paint is dry.

Experiment.

These shades of greige combined together with black and white dots for contrast would not go wrong no matter where you put them. I painted some of the plant pots a darker shade to see the effect. The white dots stand out beautifully if the terracotta pots are painted a darker gray.

Terrazzo on wood:

I had lots of remaining paint left over, so I painted over a wooden tray that was used to hold my indoor cacti and succulents. The tray took a considerably longer time as I let the wooden tray dry overnight. I also dry brushed lighter shades after the second coat of paint was dry, and created a gradient effect with more white dots on the borders and smaller black dots in the centre parts.

Just a word of caution for acrylic over wood – if water is left on the painted parts, for instance, if a puddle of rainwater gets on the wood and stays on for a few days, there will be an uneven area created from the expansion of the wood, and eventually the paint will crack apart in that area. It’s best to let the wooden tray stay indoors to be admired by everyone who visits your now terrazzo-chic plant area!

The last step is now the hardest : to decide which one of your plants gets re-potted in your beautiful terrazzo plant pots!