How to age Terra Cotta pots with paint + a simple spring garden centerpiece

It may be raining non-stop and not exactly feel like spring outside, but that’s not stopping me from doing some gardening, planting, and spring decorating!   I had a lot of fun pulling together this simple spring centerpiece and thought I’d show you how I took some inexpensive terra cotta pots and gave them a bit of an aged look. 

You can pick up terra cotta pots at any home improvement store or even Walmart and they are very inexpensive- I think the largest ones were $1.48 and smallest close to $1.  Don’t forget to pick up the coordinating saucer too – those were very inexpensive too. 

I really am loving the terra cotta look this year BUT I love the more aged or even whitewashed terra cotta look not so much this solid bright orange look.  But I figured I could easily create that look with just a bit of paint. 

You can use any kind of white paint you have on hand and could even add some gray or brown paint to age them even more.  But you will want to dry-brush the paint on very very lightly to create the look I did.  Dry brushing means you barely dip your paintbrush in the paint and then you basically dab off all the paint on your work surface ( use newspaper or a flat box to paint on) leaving hardly any paint on your brush at all.  See how my brush below looks dry?  Doesn’t even look like there is wet paint on it.  Then once you have dabbed off almost all the paint you will quickly and randomly brush it all over the pot and saucer.  I found going in different directions helped create the look I wanted vs. in painting straight lines as you would normally do if you painted something.  For this saucer, I basically swirled my brush all around to get that look.

If you get too much paint in on the pot or in one spot you can use a wet paper towel to rub some of it off – even that creates an aged look.  Honestly, there is not a right or wrong way to do this – it totally depends on how you want the pot to look.  You could completely cover it in paint and then rub some off in areas (sanding it off might work too).  And if you wanted varying colors or it darker you could dry brush some gray or brown on it too.  Have fun with it!

I had all 3 pots and saucers done in about 10 minutes – doesn’t take long at all!  And I did them all in my Instagram stories if you would prefer to watch a video of the process, I will link it here. 

I picked up the back fern off the discount plant rack for $0.50 and hopefully I can keep him alive/nurse him back to help.  The front plant is a foxtail fern I actually had on my patio last summer but I have been wintering it inside.  It is very easy to care for!  And I just fell in the love with the plant on the left when I was in the garden center – its called a Creeping Wire Vine.  I loved the trailing nature of it and how it looked with the terra cotta planter.  It’s not intended to be a house plant and it may spread like crazy so we’ll see how it does!

I actually had intended on just placing these throughout the house or maybe lining up in a row on my table as a centerpiece but then I saw Suzy from Worthingcourt Blog do some plants on her table all on different size stools and risers and just loved that idea!!  So I 3 varying stools and risers and arranged them all on my dining room table as a spring centerpiece!  The little metal sign in the one plant came from the Target dollar spot for $1.00 and I thought it was so fun to add to my little garden on my table. 

Until everything turns green outside at least I have lots of green to look at inside!

I changed up my dining room shelves back in January after Christmas  to sort of a spring/everyday look.  Lots of white, wood tones, a few terra cotta pots, and lots of greenery!

The risers on the table all came from different places – the wood stool I got at a yard sale but Hobby Lobby has something basically identical in the spring shop right now.  The wood riser with the metal legs is in the current spring Target dollar spot section for $3.00 – they actually have 3 different sizes but I have only found this 1 so far.  The chippy stand in the back was also a yard sale find but again Hobby Lobby has something very similiar in their spring line. 

I think this plan is so fun!  It has a cottage farmhouse look to me

If it ever stops raining here in the South, they should get lots of sun on my table which should make them happy! 

Here’s another closeup of the how the pots look – pretty aged to me!

I have added quite a few houseplants to my home since winter – guess I am just craving green and spring!  Can’t wait until I can get outside and garden but for not my little dining table garden puts a smile on my face!

So if you are looking for a spring centerpiece – maybe try some real plants?!  They would be so pretty on a table for Easter too!