Skip to Content

Cactus Pot Painting for Colorful Home Decor

Try this easy cactus pot painting with terra cotta and bright paint colors – the cute sayings will cheer up any dreary days!

Skills Required: Beginner. It helps to have experience painting, but only very basic painting. Otherwise you’ll also be applying vinyl – it’s pretty simple.

Cactus Pot Painting for Colorful Home Decor

The East Coast is a BEYOND dreary place to be living right now. It’s gray, it’s freezing – I’m over it. So, this week I knew I had to inject some happy into my gloomy winter life, and I found just the DIY project to do it with these bright and fun cactus planters!

Painted Cactus Pots

These painted pots were so easy and cheap to make and are the perfect little cure for the winter blues. Before we dive into the craft, I wanted to give you some “must dos” before beginning this home decor project.

Clay pots are typically unglazed and porous, meaning that when you water the cactus pot, you could ruin the paint and design on the outside (because dirty water soaks through). If you give these as a gift, that would stink. So – you’ll need to prepare the pots.

Preparing the Pots

The first step in preparing new clay pots is to wipe away dust or dirt. The second step is to carefully seal both the inside and outside. Not only will this help your decorated design on the outside of the pot resist blistering, it will also help the interior to keep moisture in the soil. I can recommend two different sealing techniques:

  1. Spray seal the entire pot, inside and out with a couple coats of Clay Pot Sealer. Allow each application to dry before applying the next.
  2. The second method I recommend is to apply FolkArt Outdoor Sealer over the entire surface. For extra protection, apply a second coat on the interior walls of your pot to help create a waterproof barrier to protect your exterior decoration.

Once you do that, you’re ready to begin your project! You’ll want to use this prep method for any terra cotta painting you do if it’s going to be exposed to dirt and water.

Terra cotta pot, bright colors of paint, and a paintbrush

You’re going to make these pots in three easy steps. You’ve already prepped the pots, so you’re going to paint them. Then you’re going to apply the vinyl decals. It’s easy! Let’s dive in.

Gather These Supplies

Paint the Pots

1. Paint pots in the bright colors of your choice. Let dry and apply a second (and possibly third) coat of paint. Once you’re finished painting, allow to dry completely.

Painting a pot with pink paint, and applying a hello vinyl decal to a blue pot

Apply the Sayings

2. Apply the vinyl sayings. I cut mine using my Silhouette Portrait and my designs are by Kristen Magee in the Silhouette Design Store.

If you don’t have a cutting machine, you can purchase vinyl stickers off of Etsy. You can get custom ones as well. So whatever you can dream of, you can put on your pots! Just search your phrase on Etsy.

Painted cactus pots in neon yellow, pink, and blue

Plant the Cacti

3. Plant your pots! I found these fun colorful cacti at my local Walmart. The colors were just too cool to pass up.

Cacti in blue, yellow, and pink

Don’t pack the soil too tight. You want it to be able to drain still.

Planting the pink cactus in the pink pot

4. You’re done! And your life is a little brighter. I mean, how cute are these?

How to make painted cactus pots

I feel like these painted cactus pots would make perfect gifts, especially for coworkers. It’s totally reasonable that a coworker could keep a cactus alive, right?

Painted clay pots that have colorful cacti planted in them

HELLO! SO. CUTE. And totally customizable.

Animation of three painted clay pots with cactus planted in them

How are you kicking the forever-winter blues? Give me all your tips! And be sure to visit us as we blog about style, food, and the things we love over at the Pretty Life Girls. I’d also love for you to check out these other cute posts:

Judy H.

Friday 19th of February 2016

These are SO Cute!!! do you think i could find pre-cut similar vinyl sayings? I don't have a special cutter to cut some out.

Amy

Friday 19th of February 2016

I definitely think so! I love Etsy for this kind of thing. I found this for example: https://www.etsy.com/listing/216343437/custom-decal-custom-stickers-vinyl

Julia

Friday 19th of February 2016

Hello! Thanks for this most adorable tutorial! I have been planning to get into cactus planting this spring and these pots are adorable! Can't wait to begin.

Also, I featured this tutorial in my latest blog links round up, check it out if you'd like to :)

Julia owlsimplethings.wordpress.com/

Paige

Thursday 18th of February 2016

These pots are beyond adorable! I need them in my life right now!

Paige https://www.thehappyflammily.com/