How to Age a Clay Terra Cotta Pot With Paint

I love seeing a garden with aged clay terra cotta pots and fresh blooms. I’m not much for gardening, but mix anything “antique” or “vintage” with pretty flowers and I’m in awe. I notice that I always stop scrolling Pinterest or a magazine to stare at a picture of anything with a vintage, worn looking clay pot. That brings me to my dilemma; finding a good aged terra cotta pot. I’ve been unsuccessful on my hunt so far, so when I saw the perfect size clay pot in Target, I snagged a few up and decided to create my own aged clay terra cotta pot with paint.

Let me share with you the clay terra cotta pots I found at Target. I love the clean lines of the pots with no extra “frill” or edging like you see on most terra cotta pots.

Time: 30 Minutes Cost: $20 Difficulty: Easy

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I purchased two because my purpose for these clay pots was to hold my faux fiddle leaf trees.

This is a super simple project, so I’m going to keep this post short and simple.

Before I share the supplies, I want to share a little secret about this craft. The purpose of “aging” something is to make it look more unique and antiqued. Every pot will look different after this process. Just like I don’t think there is a perfect type of paint for this. The different types of paint will create different effects, which adds to the “authenticity” of creating your own aged clay pot.

Am I making sense or just rambling? All that to say that any paint will work and it really just depends on your own paint preference.

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Steps:

1) Use a paint brush to put a light coat of white paint around the pot

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2) Let the paint dry. It doesn’t have to be completely dry, but mostly dry. Take a lint free wipe and wet it. Wipe the pot with the rag until it removes some of the paint. You want to wipe in the direction of the paint strokes.

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3) After you’ve removed the desired amount of white paint and it looks more “aged,” let the pot dry.

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4) Use a dark wax with a lint free rag to LIGHTY rub over the pot. A little bit of dark wax goes A LONG way, so don’t over do it. I’ve learned to add just a bit of water to the rag before I dip it in the wax so when I apply it to the piece it won’t look as dark.

5) After you let the clay pot sit for a bit to dry, then style your clay terra cotta pot as you wish and enjoy!

I USE THIS TECHNIQUE TO DISTRESS OR AGE LOTS OF MY DECOR PIECES. IT’S SO EASY AND IT DOESN’T TAKE A LOT OF TIME TO TRANSFORM A PIECE OF FURNITURE OR A DECOR PIECE TO MATCH THE REST OF MY VINTAGE STYLE.

IF YOU LOOK CLOSELY AT MY FINAL PICTURES YOU WILL SEE I BARELY USED ANY DARK WAX ON THE POTS AT ALL. I DIDN’T WANT TO MAKE THE CLAY POTS ANY DARKER, I JUST WANTED TO CREATE THAT VINTAGE AGED LOOK.

Here are a few final pictures. I’m so pleased with how it turned out, what do you think?

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Thanks for stopping by and I hope you've been inspired to create!

Lindsey**

Materials used for this project:

• Clay terra cotta pot   (Target)
• White paint   (walmart)
• Paint brush   (walmart)
• Lint free cloth   (walmart)
• Dark wax   (amazon)