Giving the pots some patina with paint

My pride of my plants – The ficus robusta (ficus elastica, rubber fig, rubber tree) is growing like nature never heard about growing before. It feels like I’m giving it a new pot every other week – well there you have it probably why it loves me so much! Watch how big it used to be just a year ago. I went to the nursery to buy a new pot but they didn’t have it in black or grey. So I had to take the matter in my own hands and since I was to cheap to buy their pot paint I experimented a little at home.

I had some gray lime paint but thought it was a bit too light gray, wanted it darker.  So I started to look around. Took some charcoal from the fire place and smashed it with a hammer in a plastic bag. Added some soy sauce and also mixed it up with some dark gray “normal” wall paint. Pretty much anything with a darker gray-blakish tint I could find at home.

I didn’t want it to look painted and somehow even & flat surface. I still want the feel of terracotta pots that get a bit white-grayish from mold and moist coming true the clay, like it originally was but just darker and not brown.

In the end I painted the pot with my new mixture and sat down with Beppe for lunch. He’s been home sick with an ear infection.

It didn’t really turn out as dark as I wanted (the door is painted with the original gray lime paint) but still good. I loved the terracotta color that was but all my other pots are gray and black and I think it makes a better unity at home if they all are the same tint. Also we have a lot of brown and one more thing turned the place from funky to old mans crib. I hope the moist will go thru the clay and give it even more shadows and life. But also I like to mix lime paint with normal “plastic” wall paint cause you get the best of both worlds. The color also sticks better. You don’t want to water the pot and see all paint leave.

And just look how happy the plant now look with the right size of shoes!

xx

Isabelle