Thinking about what to do with this plant, took longer than the actual doing of the plan for this plant.
First it was…”Look at that house-warming plant my bro gave us. It needs a bigger pot”.
This was followed by trips down the garden aisle in various home improvement stores on at least 3 different occasions. Didn’t like anything.
Then it was… “Hey, I have an old terra cotta pot in the garage just collecting dust. Maybe I could paint it?”
That was followed by, “Do I dip paint it? Mmm, pretty big to dip it. Do I paint it to look dip painted? If I’m going to do that why don’t I paint a pattern on it. Oh, I could do a bright bold yellow! In a bold stripe! Dang, I don’t have any bright yellow paint right now”.
Then that turned into, “Can I gold foil a terra cotta pot?”
I am here to tell you, yes you can. (And yes, it is totally bizarre that I HAD gold foil and I DID NOT have a yellow paint. It’s backwards day around here — but I had purchased the gold foil at least a year ago for a project that never happened… so now, I finally got to use it).
First I gave that old pot a good wash with some warm soapy water, and let it dry.
All you really need is some painters tape, and spray glue (or foil glue, or modge podge), your gold leaf foil, and a brush.
I taped out my pattern, and then used a plastic bag to protect the areas I did not want touched by the spray glue.
I gave it a good spray and then chose to remove the tape as I wasn’t sure how the gold foil would behave if I peeled everything away after the fact. (I didn’t want big chunks of it coming off with the tape).
Then in about 2 minutes the gold foil was applied. So easy! Just brush it down to adhere and to brush away the excess.
Aaaand. Done!? Yeah, it’s that quick.
I took a minute to enjoy, and then I popped the old plants into their new home.
Done like dinner. I still want to seal the gold foil. It seems pretty tough, but to be safe — I think I will still follow through with that step, however I won’t mind at all if this gets a little roughed up over time. I think it will look just as great either way.
A bit of a mod twist on an old classic right? And I love any project that I get to use what I already had lying around. Win-win. Love it!
I love how that bit of gold really classes up a plain terra cotta pot. Glad your thought process took you there!