By Dee Archibald
I’ve had a sudden desire to create a little rustic charm to my outdoor area. An up cycled pallet table, some mossy bricks and an old metal lantern I didn’t much care for keeping indoors anymore, and I was halfway there. All it needed were some aged terracotta pots and some green plants which would withstand full sun to fill them.
The road to aged pots was a long one for me so hopefully I can make your road shorter by learning from my mistakes!
In the end I came up with 2 options and they are both quite a different look so skip ahead and decide which look is for you before you take charge. The lime aged pots are the lighter coloured pots pictured below. The darker coloured pots pictured are created from a moss and yoghurt ageing process. You will notice the bigger pots at the back are a mixture of the two processes. Options, options!
Option 1: Lime Aged Pots
You will need:
- Terracotta pots
- A bag of hydrated lime
- A can of clear sealer
- Sandpaper
Step 1
Mix up some powdered lime with water until you get a thick but runny consistency suitable for brushing on. You will need to work quickly as the lime will harden quickly especially when brushing on to the porous terracotta. It doesn’t have to be completely covered as you will sand it back to the pot in parts anyway.
Step 2
Give them an hour or two to dry and then sand them back roughly. Spray them with 2-3 coats of sealer on both the outside and inside of the pots to prevent them being so porous and hold the lime in place.
It was at this point I decided this lime look was too white so I added a slight mint green paint wash to it, so that could also be an option you might like to take..
Option 2: Moss and Yoghurt Aged Pots
You will need:
- Moss from under the grass on your lawn (clumps of it with some soil bound in too. What we are really wanting here are the spores that create the moss)
-
Yoghurt (the older the better) - A natural plant food
Step 1
The idea here is to paint the pot with the yogurt and then rub the moss and dirt into it, but for me the process took weeks and with minimal results so I had another go at it. This time I made up a yoghurt, moss and plant food concoction and painted that straight on to the pots. It seemed to speed up the process immensely and it was easy to scrape off the unwanted debris at the end.
Step 2
Place the pots in a cool damp place. On the floor of a potting shed or garage is best if you have one. Make up a solution of plant food and water as per instructions on the pack into a spritzer bottle. Spray this mix onto the pots every few days turning them over and placing them inside each other to create more of a dampness.
It’s a good idea to spray the inside of the pots with a sealer to stop them being so porous and taking moisture from the plants you put in them.
In the end I was much happier with the finish of this yoghurt process than with the lime one. Though much more time consuming I feel it creates the more rustic look I was going for. As I mentioned before I even brushed my leftover yoghurt concoction on to my lime pots in places with great results.
I hope that you too will have a play with this and find a happy medium for the look your going for. The yoghurt does sound a little yucky but trust me it doesn’t seem to smell bad at all like you think it would!
Happy Crafting X