how to make a diy faux concrete planter

Round concrete planters are very popular right now. They maintain a strong presence in high end retail stores. Although I love the look of concrete planters, I don’t love the hefty price tag or the hefty weight!!! To remedy both of these issues, I decided to create a faux concrete planter using just a few supplies! My first stop was Dollar Tree to grab the supplies to make the planter.

In the Dollar Tree Plus section you will find these 12″ plastic pots for $5! I picked up two of them for my planters. Next, I needed to find something to be the base of my urn shaped planter. In the pet section, I found these aluminum pet food bowls, and I knew they would be perfect for the base!

For this project, I used the following supplies:

(2) 12″ plastic pots from Dollar Tree
(2) aluminum pet food bowls from Dollar Tree
E6000 glue
Apple Barrel paints in White, Country Gray and Black
Chip paintbrush
Foam paintbrush
All purpose joint compound
Paper towel
Sanding block

First, I glued the base and the bottom together using E6000 all-purpose glue. To do this, I turned the food bowl upside down and applied the glue to the rubber rim.

Then, I turned the plastic pot over and pressed the food bowl down on the bottom of the pot. I had a quart of paint handy, so I placed it inside of the bowl to apply some pressure.

Next, it was time to work some magic! I scooped out some of the joint compound into a small bowl and added some paint to achieve a concrete color. I used mostly country gray and added in a touch of black.

The mixture was a little thick. I probably should have added more paint to achieve a thinner consistency, but I went ahead with the thick mixture. Using my chip brush, I painted on a layer of the mixture and allowed it to dry.

Make sure you paint the inside rim as well.

I allowed several hours for the pots to dry. Because the mixture was so thick, I sanded the pot slightly to smooth the surface just a bit. You can see below how the sanding helped smooth the brush strokes.

After sanding, I brushed off the residue and applied another layer of the joint compound mixture. This time, I used less joint compound and more paint. This mixture was very similar in color to the previous mixture, but it would be totally fine if it was lighter or darker. Concrete has slight variations in color, so matching exactly is not very important.