French Glazed Plant Pots

This easy tutorial will show you how to make lovely French glazed plant pots.

French glazed plant pots on the ledge.

One thing I really love is creating my own French style and in this post I will show you how to make your own French glazed plant pots but first I have something to share with you!

I call this project “French glazed’ because I absolutely love everything French. There really isn’t anything French about it, per se, just that the grey with the stencil makes it like something from France.

Let me show you how to make them!

French Glazed Plant Pots poster.

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Supplies:

  • unfinished clay pots
  • white latex paint (I used what I had on hand, just semi-gloss white latex paint, no color, just off the shelf)
  • grey latex paint (I used Behr Stonington Grey in semi-gloss)
  • stencils made from my Silhouette Cameo machine
  • OR you can purchase ready made stencils and use it with a foam pouncer brush
  • chip brush

Tutorial:

First start with a terra cotta pot.

Terra cotta pots lined up on the deck in a row.

Here is how I made the glaze:

  • 1 part latex paint (white & grey)
  • (I used Stonington Gray by Behr & semi-gloss Behr for white, not mixed)
  • 1 part water

Mix together. It will be really runny. You can add more paint if you’d like to get more color depth.

Make sure to stir it up good and you may need to give it a little stir every few minutes or so.

Glaze in a container with a brush in it.

You can use a chip brush or a good brush. Dip your brush in the paint and just paint it on.

It will be runny but that’s okay. You can brush over a few times until you like the way it looks.

Brushing the glaze onto the terra cotta pot.

When you set it down to dry, the paint will run and leave marks. That’s okay.

Wait for it to dry. Add another coat if you’d like. When it dries, it will look like a glaze (like you fired the pottery yourself in an oven, seriously) rather than just a regular ol’ paint job.

Wait to dry again.

The glaze drying on the pots.

Next I wanted to add a graphic to each pot so I downloaded and cut some images via my Silhouette Cameo machine.

Note: If you are not using stencils like this, you can always stencil over the finished pot with a regular stencil and white paint. I’ll leave more details below.

The Silhouette vinyl in French design.

Next, press transfer paper over them.

 Pressing stencils over the silhouette paper.

Press down with spatula.

 Using the spatula on the transfer sheets.

Peel the transfer sheet away from the vinyl sheet and the graphics should be stuck to the transfer sheet now.

Peeling back the transfer sheet.

Press each image firmly over each pot.

Pressing the image onto the clay pots.
 Fleur-de-lis on the pot.

Next you’re going to mix another glaze with using the grey color. Paint this right over the image and the entire pot.

Once it’s nearly dry, pull your image off with a weeding tool (that fancy hook thing).

Pulling off the image on the pot.

On some pots I spritz them with water just like Jen’s tutorial. It has such a cool effect!

If you are using a regular stencil, you can place your stencil over the finished pot and secure it in place with painter’s tape. Using a foam pouncer (round foam brush) and white paint, stencil in the area on the pot with the paint making sure to wipe excess paint off first onto a paper towel and use an up and down motion so the paint doesn’t bleed underneath the stencil. 

The glazed pot on a tree stump outside.

I used a fleur-de-lis, angel wings, chandelier and laurel wreath.

The two pots outside by the garden.

They are so cute and pretty and well, French 😉

Angel wings on the pot outside near the garden.
Close up of the stenciled pot.
The potted plants on tree stumps.

Why not try to make your own French glazed plant pots!

I have a few more pots to finish up in the reverse, grey first then white. I’ll be posting them on Instagram at the big event.

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21 Comments

  1. These are fantastic! Jamie – they looked just as good in person!

    It was so much fun to see you again today; we’ll have to make it a habit!

  2. What a great tutorial!!! I hope the demo at the Garden show went splendidly. I love the pots, they came out just gorgeous. I am featuring tomorrow and definitely pinning! Thanks for sharing at redouxinteriors!

  3. Your glazed pots are so cute Jamie. I hope your event was a success and that it was puke free for you – lol.

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