DIY – Paint Face Planters

Learn how to paint your own face planters. Face flowerpots are incredibly popular at the moment, but planters can get expensive and I hesitate to invest in a trend. Instead, I painted my own face pots at a fraction of the price and I can always paint over them or simply turn them around in the future.

Paint Face Planters – Suggested Face Designs & Plants

One of my new favorite trends is the potted plants that have faces on the pots and the plant looks like hair. It is so creative and hilarious. As someone who contemplates every purchase, I couldn’t bring myself to shell out the $20 for a new trendy pot. So instead I purchased cheaper and more versatile terracotta clay pots and I knew I could paint face planters.

This year we built a new garden. I’ve gone to the local garden store nearly every week, I wanted this same look but after all of my recent purchases I didn’t really want to splurge for the fun pots that I fell in love with.

Choosing a Planter

I decided to make my own out of a simple terracotta pot. Terracotta pots are incredibly popular and usually available at nearly any hardware or gardening store. They are also much cheaper than a glazed pot. These six inch pots were only $3.

I’ve painted terracotta pots specifically to grow herbs on my patio. Check out this blog post on how to paint them in order to be food safe if you plan on potting herbs or small veggies/fruit in your face planters.

If you have a spare planter (glazed or unfinished) you could absolutely use that instead or purchasing a new pot. Get creative with things you may already have around your home. As long as it has or you can add drainage holes, it can be a planter!

Choosing a Plant

One of my favorite places to shop is Groovy Plants Ranch. It is about 20 minutes north of 270 in Columbus, Ohio. It is such a fun place full of unique plants. They unfortunately no longer ship, but your local nursery may have plants or you can check out other online options (usually pricier).

They have an entire greenhouse with just houseplants. I found these two plants and fell in love with them for the pots. They are Peperomia ‘Napoli Nights’ and Peperomia Orba ‘Pixie Lime’.

Some other good ideas for plants would be a plant that vines, so they would look like longer hair:

• Oakleaf Creeping Fig, String of Frogs
• Callisia
• Ceropegia, String of Hearts/Spades/Needles

It would also be fun to get a plant that has more volume and grows a little like a bush:

Succulents of course are always a good idea for house plants. They are also popular and can even be found at grocery stores sometimes.

• Haworthia
• Echeveria
• Jade Plant
• Snake Plant
• String of Pearls
• Euphorbia

Choosing a Face

If you do a quick Instagram, Pinterest, or Google search you can come up with so many ideas for different faces to draw/paint onto your pot. I threw together a few of my favorites into sketches on my pots. Feel free to use one of these or come up with your own!

Paint Face Planters

I suggest sketching out your face on your pot in pencil first. This way you can modify placement and it doesn’t feel quite so permanent. Once you are happy with your sketches you can paint over them. I painted mine with a small paint sample of Grays Harbor from Sherwin Williams.

I love picking up paint samples to use as paint in small home decor projects. The color options are endless and a sample is typically under $5.

If you want to just use what you have you could always test out a Sharpie or paint pen.

Put on Display

Now you can enjoy your fun and creative project. The best thing is that if you tire of your pot or your plant outgrows it, you can always paint over the faces for another look or turn the planter around to display just a plain terracotta pot.

Just make sure that you research how to care for your plant. Light and water are the two most important things. Too much and too little of both can kill a plant.

I am great with my outdoor garden plants, but somehow my indoor plants tend to only last a few months. Fingers crossed these cuties last longer!