DIY Faux Concrete Planter & DIY Flexible Medallions

9 Materials
$30
3 Days
Easy
Figuring out how to make flexible medallions and how to get the best 'faux' concrete look was a good, creative challenge for me. And, I'm loving the end result...so a 'win' there too! So, let's dive into the details for this DIY Faux Concrete Planter with DIY Flexible Medallions!
All I wanted was a pretty, stone/concrete pot with some sort of decoration/medallion in which to plant my new, baby Olive Tree. I thought, "how hard can that be to find?" Turns out they are not hard to find, but, when I saw the price tags...well, let's just say that I really didn't want to spend that kind of money on a flower pot.It was in one of my searches that I ran across the perfect shaped pot (for $3.98 mind you) and then, well, it just started snowballing from there.With pots in hand, I next needed to figure out how to DIY flexible medallions. Turns out that the glue I use for so many projects was all I needed, but it took me a while to figure that out.So, consider this my gift to you...I will save you time and money, cut through all my failed experiments and just give you the knowledge...all you need to make perfect, flexible medallions is the ubiquitous E6000 Industrial Strength Adhesive and a silicone mold. If you don't have E6000 laying around your house right now, then you need to hightail it to your local craft or hardware store (who are we kidding, if you're like me you'll just order it from Amazon!) and purchase a tube or two, whether you make these medallions or not.E6000 is my go-to adhesive for so many projects.
  • Figure out where you want your diy flexible medallions to be. I had the center of my medallions 3" up from the bottom of the pot, so I measured and drew a line around the circumference of the pot 3" up from the bottom.
  • My circumference was 21" and since I wanted 4 medallions equally spaced, I divided 21" by 4, so I spaced my medallions every 5.25" apart and marked those spots on my pot.
  • Using the E6000, I glued medallions on the pot. Once again, don't stress if glue oozes out under the medallion as the concrete paint will cover all that up.
  • I used 3 bungee cords to hold my medallion in place while it was drying and then repeated it 4 times...I didn't really try to get more medallions under the bungees but give it a try.
  • I gave my pots and saucers a quick spray of black spray paint. I just used up 4-5 cans of almost empty black, metallic black and blackish brown spray paints...BONUS POINTS FOR CLEANING OUT THE SPRAY PAINT SHELF!!
  • Mix up the concrete paint. You can use the paint right out of the jar, but it was a little too blue for me so I added in some brown and black acrylic paint to tone the blue down. If I had to come up with a recipe, I would say about 1 TB of each of the brown and the black for 1/3 cup of the concrete paint.
  • I also didn't try to thoroughly incorporate the brown and black, instead leaving some unmixed to give the final color of my faux concrete planters some depth.
  • Use a wax brush to dab the paint on your pot.
Once the paint is dry, you could leave your DIY Faux Concrete Planter as is or give it a whitewash.
  • If you leave it as is, make sure to give the entire pot, inside and out, 2 coats of an acrylic sealer.
  • If you are going to whitewash, I found that a true white was too stark so I mixed up a sandy color using white, yellow, brown and black. You could do the same or purchase a sandy color, I listed some in the materials list above.
  • To whitewash your pot, use a dry brush technique in which you wipe most of the paint off of the brush before you apply it to your pot.
  • And once again, seal the entire pot before you use it or the paint will bubble
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Lynn @ Nourish and Nestle
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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Frequently asked questions
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3 of 8 questions
  • Grace Yaeger Grace Yaeger on Mar 03, 2020

    Was the original pot plastic?

  • Susan Caswell Susan Caswell on Feb 04, 2022

    Am I the only one who thinks E6000 stinks so bad I don't use it? Wouldn't hot glue work just as well?

  • Pat Griffith Pat Griffith on Jan 22, 2023

    I don't see directions on making the actual medallions, just 1 photo that looks like you are making them with e6000?. Your directions just say to glue the medallions to the pot with e6000. Please explain.

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3 of 26 comments
  • Thanks for sharing I gave this a try this morning on a silicone rope mold and by this afternoon it popped right out! Much easier than clay!

    • Pam Nelson Pam Nelson on Feb 07, 2022

      You used E6000? You didn't have to use anything special to coat the mould for easy release?

  • I did and I have silicone mould and didn't use a coating! I used fabric tac to hold the mold on after dry (about 5-6 hours) and it holds almost everything beautifully and dries much faster than E6000! When I use E6000 I often use it along with hot glue for an instant sticking!


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