DIY Faux Stone Hanging Planters with Spackling Compound

Learn how to give a new plastic pot an aged faux stone texture with this DIY faux concrete planter hack! I’ve shared how to use spackling compound to create a faux concrete planter effect on a plastic hanging planter.

Faux stone planters are all the rave these days. No one wants a pretty and clean looking new planter anymore. We want that aged patina and worn weathered look, right? This poses a problem if you don’t want to spend a lot (whew those aged pots can be pricey). Also, I haven’t seen many stone hanging planters. That’s when I decided to make my new hanging plastic pot look old with a DIY faux stone effect with spackling paste. Let me show you!

This isn’t my first rodeo with making new pots look aged. As a matter of fact, I did another project on how to age a few pots with joint compound. It works the same as the spackling paste. I have found many uses for spackling paste over the years. I even shared how to make new wood look weathered with this stuff!

Let’s get back to this faux stone planter project;

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Here is my new hanging planter from Walmart in all it’s plastic glory! I purchased the plant and the hanging planter together, but you can get a handful of these plastic planters without plants for a decent price.

When I purchased two of these I had no intention of giving the pot a makeover. After I got home and hung them, I realized how boring they looked!

They look so cheap! I wanted to give them an upgrade. I thought about painting the plastic. Naaaahhhh. I needed more than paint, I needed texture!

I pulled out an old trick that I’ve used previously. This is such a fun and easy way to update a pot with spackling compound. You can also use joint compound for this project too.

Side note; I used whatever spackling compound I had on hand. This happened to be INTERIOR spackling compound. I made it work by applying a spray sealer after it dried. If you are purchasing product for this project and you are going to use it outside, I would make sure to purchase an OUTDOOR product. They make joint compound and spackling compound specifically made for outdoor use.

Materials to make faux stone planters

• Plastic pot, hanging planter, your choice of a planter
• gloves
• spackling compound or joint compound
• dark paint or dark wax
• Spray sealer

How to make a faux concrete planters with spackling compound

1. Apply gloves
2. Grab a good amount of spackling compound
3. Apply a thick layer of spackling over the entire surface of your pot
4. Use your fingers to “stipple” the spackling
5. Let it dry overnight (or atleast 4 hours)
6. With the same stippling method, apply a small amount of dark wax or dark paint over the spackling
7. Use a spray sealer to cover the entire surface
8. Enjoy your new aged planter!

Tips to make a new pot look aged

A few things you can do to make the pot look more aged:

• Add a little dirt or moss to the spackling compound
• Mix a little dark green and dark yellow paint in with the dark wax or dark paint
• Use a fine grit sandpaper to create different textures
• Tear up pieces of paper (tissue paper works best) into thin strips and mix into spackling compound mixture or apply with mod podge

Below is the spackling paste I used. Like I said before, I pulled out whatever I had in our garage. If you are going to purchase it and you know it will be for an outdoor project, go ahead and get an outdoor spackling product.

Grab a big handful of the product. You can also use a putty knife to apply it but I find that using my hands creates a more “authentic” texture.

Now for the fun part; applying the spackling to the pot. My kindergartener even helped me with this project! She said it was like playing in the mud! Honestly y’all, it is! It’s good for the soul to get your hands dirty every now and then and let the creative juices flow. LOL!

Here’s a view of what the new plastic pot looked like with a little spackle paste.

The key to creating an aged texture is to “stipple” the joint compound or spackle to make it look more aged.

Now to add some dimension to the “aged pot” with dark wax. You can also use dark paint for this too.

Once again I’m using my gloves to apply the wax. You can also apply the wax with a brush if you choose to. I prefer to use a clean set of gloves to apply it.

Just a dab will do it! You can see how I barely touched the surface with the dark wax and it creates a really nice looking aged texture. The dark wax against the white spackle creates dimension and brings out the texture better.

Once you add as much dark wax to the pot as you want, let it dry and then apply a spray sealer if needed.

You can see that I covered the plants with a grocery bag. I sprayed one application of this spray sealer. I’ll update this post in six months or so to let y’all know how they are holding up to the weather elements.

Once the spray sealer is dry, sit back and enjoy your new aged hanging planter.

What a difference a little spackling can make!

What do y’all think? What could you transform with a little spackle or joint comound? I’ve got loads of ideas for more projects now.

Thanks for stopping by,

Lindsey**