DIY 5 Minute Chalk Distressed Terracotta Pots!

Learn how to paint gorgeous chalk distressed terracotta pots in just 5 minutes! You will be able to create interesting dripping effects in no time and give new terracotta pots an aged, antiqued, old world look makeover. The chalk distressed pots can be easily integrated into any farmhouse, vintage or French decor, adding a little bit of chicness to any home.

Hello, creative friends, it’s soooo great to see you again! ♥ I hope you are all well and enjoying these beautiful summer days somewhere on a sunny tropical beach, with a peach margarita in your hand (any Something’s gotta give fans out there?)! I know that’s where I would love to be right now! :) I’ve been taking quite a loooong break from my blog and all the other social media channels, I know, but I’m really happy to be back! I mean really, really, REALLY happy! :)

A lot has happened since we last got a chance to talk here, on my blog, I feel like I wouldn’t know where to start. I’m not usually sharing too many personal things on social media, but I would say the most heartbreaking thing I had to ever experience was the lose of my father, who suffered a heart attack and died last November. The lose of a parent is something that can really unbalance you, on so many different levels and I feel like I didn’t totally understand this feeling until it happened to me. You feel sympathy, maybe a little bit of empathy, but it’s surreal when you experience everything first hand. There are so many swirls of unknown emotions, non compliance, denial and so many regrets that you don’t know how to handle them all at first. I would say that the touch of reality and the realization that you can’t do or change anything, are the hardest. But you know, life keeps going on and you just have to move on, learn how to live with all these emotions and just do your best, day after day. All you can do is be grateful for all the good memories and all the time you got to spend together. It’s really important to have your faith and your family around you in these moments and I’m really blessed to have both. A thing like this really sets your priorities straight, so I guess I just wanted to remind you (and myself) that you need to put your things in order with the ones you love before being too late. Say that you love them, forgive them, hug them, just do it right now, there’s no better time than the present!

The only place where you might have seen my work in this period of time was The Graphics Fairy and the super chic, step by step vintage tutorials that I’m sharing there. If you are familiar with these tutorials, you might be familiar with the fact that I’m also sharing free printables for every single one of them. They are so much fun to make and you know how I just love to make things easier for you! :) I will be gradually sharing the previews on my blog too, getting creative can really help while trying to cope with difficult times in your life. It really worked for me!

{you can click on each image to go to that specific post}

I’m totally obsessing over gold foil lately and I love finding unique ways of including it into my DIY projects. I will be sharing what I’ve learned so far in a more in depth post soon, I feel like this golden beauty is like a hidden gem that doesn’t get all the attention it deserves! It really needs to get out there and shine into the world! :) Also, I’m loving my new DIY Ink Sprays, will be also sharing the tutorial in the nearest future!

And speaking of Graphics Fairy, I’ve also started another exciting chapter, on the digital side of things on their Premium Membership site. What I’m basically doing is sharing step by step digital tutorials for designing your own digital art, all with that gorgeous and super chic French touch that we all love. I’m creating the tutorials in Photoshop Elements (find a sneak peek below), if you think this could be something you would benefit from, come take a look. It’s all about that gorgeous Frenchified layering! :)

I’ve also launched an Etsy shop, but only got the chance to add a few designs, you can take a peek if you want here – By Dreams Factory Etsy Shop I will add more digital goodies really soon!

DIY Chalk Distressed Terracotta Pots in just 5 Minutes!

Now let’s just get creative and do this fun DIY Chalk Distressed Terracotta Pots project together, shall we? :)

It all started with a small bag of chalk powder! Quite an unusual ingredient to have around, I know, but I bought it a while ago because I wanted to try my hands on making chalk paint and never really got around to use it for that purpose.As I’ve read online, chalk has the chemical formula CaCO₃, which is the same formula for calcium carbonate. It can be a little bit confusing, but I learned that chalk is actually one of the natural forms of calcium carbonate, along with limestone and marble. Calcium carbonate is produced by the sedimentation of fossilized shells over millions of years, and depending on its origins and from where it is extracted, whether it is used in its natural form or is processed along the way, it can be found as a component in many different everyday items. Think plastics, paper, paints or sealants, building materials and constructions, health care and food products, gardening – calcium carbonate has a large scale usage and many applications in different areas of our lives, we might not even be aware of that. You can check this article – What is calcium carbonate – if want to learn more about it.

I bought my chalk powder in bulk from a craft store and I was curious how it would react when in contact with a porous surface such as a terracotta pot.  I used two new terracotta pots and one that already had a citronella candle in it (the smaller one in the front).

I decided to use water for my experiments, to see if I can get a more natural look and I first mixed 1/2 tsp chalk powder with around 1/8 cup of water to create my improvised ‘paint’.

I used an old brush to paint all over the surface of the pots.

Because the mixture is quite runny, you will get beautiful and unexpected dripping effect on your pots! Don’t overthink this, just quickly go all around the terracotta pot with your brush and see what you get. It will just take minutes, even seconds!

After I finished painting one pot, I used a paper towel and blotted the ‘paint’ here and there, to create a more natural and organic look. If you are not happy with how things are going, you can simply wash or wipe the mixture off and start again. This is the good news, but also the bad news in the same time – if that is even possible! :)

Because we are not using any binders in our mixture, the porous surface of the pot will absorb all the water from our ‘paint’ and you will be left with thin layers of chalk powder after drying. I have to be honest and tell you that things will get messy at this stage, you will have chalk powder all over your hands and your fingertips will leave small impressions on the pots. So try not to touch your pots too much while ‘painting’ them and try to think at all the final gorgeous effects you can create, it will be well worth it in the end! :)

For the next pot I added more chalk powder, I love how you can play around with the ratios of this ‘paint’ and conduct your own little experiments!

Use the paper towel again to wipe some of the paint off and create interesting effects on your pot, add more brush strokes, let the paint drip, you can get this super chic old world distressed look with such minimal efforts, in no time!

For my last one, which also had the nicest shape, I followed the same steps, let it dry a little, then went in with more paint.

After drying, you will have two options:
1. Leave the chalk distressed pots as they are and try to minimize as much as possible the touching of their surface. If you touch them, you will be left with chalk powder on your hands and the distressing effects will wear off in time. The good news is that you can always apply more improvised ‘paint’ when that happens! :)
2. Use a matte spray sealer to protect the surface – this will lock all the gorgeously distressed effects in and you’ll be able to use the pots without any mess on your hands (literally).

As an optional step, only if and after using the matte sealer spray, you can experiment even more and try to decorate the pots using your favorite images. I would probably go with something French (no surprise there) – like my French ephemera printable from my Vintage French Recycled Containers, this one from my DIY Aged French Pitchers or the super chic DIY Faux Rusted French Labels.

Also, if you want to make things more permanent, right from the beginning, use a gel medium or some acrylic paint, chalk paint or even Mod Podge and mix it with the chalk powder, then dilute it with water.

If you don’t have chalk powder around and want to give this project a try, you will have a few other options:
1. Turn regular school chalk into powder and use that instead. It might have a few other fillers added in, but I’m guessing it would produce similar results.
2. Use baking soda, baking powder or plaster of Paris instead. I haven’t tried these methods myself, if you do, please let me know how they turn out.

chalk powder | clear matte finish spray | brushes | terracotta pots

You can style the chalk distressed pots with a few stacked vintage books or other decorative pieces that you have in your home, fresh cut flowers or branches (use a glass jar or a small vase inside), potted plants, herbs, etc.

I love how these simple boxwood branches give such a summery Mediterranean feel to my chalk distressed terracotta pots!

You can use this chalk distressed terracotta pots method on any pots that you have around, old or new, it will quickly turn them into gorgeously distressed beauties without too much of an effort! This can be a quick and fun project to try this summer, hope you will love it and decide to give it a try!

Just have fun, allow yourself to get surprised and see where your experiments take you to! :)

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Don’t forget to smile,
Diana

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