This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Staining terracotta
cirrus62
Posts: 10
Can anyone suggest what would work to stain a very light coloured terracotta trough to the more usual terracotta colour? I had thought of fence stain but don't know if that would work or have an adverse effect on the plants in it? Has anyone done this successfully please? Thanks.
0
Posts
What about strong tea? I've never tried it but it won't do your plants any harm. Just paint it on till you're happy with the colour.
Oh, that's worth a try, yes, though it may be a little too 'brown'. I shall try it on another, smaller pot first I think. Thanks very much.
I wouldn't use any paint type product as it would eventually flake off and would look pretty awful, flakes or no flakes. Staining with tea sounds like a reasonable suggestion but it would go more browny than red. Rusty water could be a possibility to try as well.I used to be a potter so have some experience with the materials but to be honest I would probably leave it alone.
Hmm, hunting around to find something rusty to make rusty water ;-) Thanks Redwing, I very much appreciate your reply. I'm with you on the paint, as it will be outdoors in all weathers, I don't think it would last long and would look patchy very quickly.
It was a gift, and although its a lovely trough, its not a colour I would have chosen, hence wanting to make it more in keeping with the rest of my pots, which vary in stages of ageing but all the more traditional terracotta colour. The only place I can put it will be right next to two others, which are fairly old, so at the moment it looks really out of place, so I'd really like to find a solution. If it was smaller or for some other spot I'd probably leave it as is too but not really possible here.
I don't have anything else that colour to experiment on, so will have to turn it upside down and try out any options on the base.
Any other suggestions would be much appreciated, I'd love to plant it up but want to try and do something to tone it down first. Thanks again
I remember somebody "ageing" a newly rendered wall with yoghurt. It gave the natural flora a little nudge along. Try everything on the bottom as you say. Maybe by the time you've finished it'll have aged naturally anyway.
I've been googling brick dyes, that could be a solution but so far I've only found kits for huge amounts. That might be a possibility though and yes, I've tried the yogurt trick before, it does work well to age things, as does using mossy water, it won't change the actual colour though. Its going to be an interesting project I think. Thanks Plant Pauper :-)