Let’s Change the Planters from Plastic to Concrete!

It’s Summer and I have been fixing so many items around the yard that are showing signs of weather damage and updating the looks while doing it. One of our wooden planters was in really sad shape – I’ll share how I fixed that one in another post. Even our plastic planters were showing wear and tear. What I’d really love is to replace all the planters with concrete ones. But since I don’t want to spend $ to buy new ones, I decided to fix the broken one and update all three to look a bit more like the concrete ones I love!

Here are the pots before Mother Nature weathered them

Step 1 – clean and prime

The first step was to empty the dirt, wash the pots and give them a coat of protection. When I was researching how to create a concrete look on a plastic container, one of the suggestions was to rough up the surface by sanding the plastic. I decided to skip that step and use a spray paint that has primer in it. I figured that would provide the surface I needed. I sprayed each piece with just one coat of Rust-oleum 2X in flat black. The red containers are buckets that I bought to use as bases for a couple of planters that aren’t pictured here.

Step 2: Repair broken urn & buckets

Before adding a concrete look to the urn planter, I decided to repair the broken edge. The planter is pretty old, and the edge is brittle. I figured I’d try to both repair the broken section and help prevent more breakage by doing so. I used a couple of lids from cottage cheese containers for the pieces. To attach them to the planter, I applied Gorilla Glue Rubberized Sealant to the back of the plastic pieces and clamped them into place. I also applied some of the product to drainage holes I had drilled in the side of the urn. I then drilled new holes in the bottom. The red buckets that I plan to use as bases for the other planters needed a bit of repair too. I bought the buckets and they came with a handle. To remove the handles, I had to cut the plastic. To fix the cut, I used Gorilla black duct tape. Will that hold up? Time will tell.

Step 3: Apply grout

There are several ways to make a planter look like concrete. There are special spray paints, you can mix sand or baking soda into regular paint, use actual cement, or use grout. Since I had leftover grout on hand, I decided to use grout and sand together. I didn’t have a recipe for the mixture so I poured some grout and sand into a container then added water until I had a consistency that I thought would stick to the planters without being too thick. I started applying the grout with a paint brush but found it easier to do with my hands. To protect my hands during the process, I wore nitrate gloves. The edge of the urn got bumped before the grout dried and a bit of it fell off the repaired section. I added more grout and it seems to be holding up well. I also applied grout along the inside of the top of each planter since that is visible when it is filled with dirt.

As you can see, that the grout I used on the buckets was a different color than on the other pieces. I ran out of the first grey grout and the 2nd grey that I had was darker. To make the buckets look like the other pieces, I made the dark grey mixture thin and painted it over the lighter grey.

Step 4: Attach buckets to planters

I had planned to use construction glue to attach two of the planters to the buckets but after I applied the glue to one of the buckets and set a planter on top, I found that the glue didn’t touch the bottom of the planter. So, to attach them, I drilled holes in the bottom of two pieces and bolted them together. I used three bolts per planter/bucket pair.

Step 5: Seal the grout

The final step is to seal the grout. For the urn, I used Rust-oleum spray sealer in matte. The urn sits close to the house under an overhang so it isn’t exposed to much weather and no water from watering the lawn. The other two planters sit next to the fence so they get very wet with rain and water so I decided to use grout sealer on those two. I applied the sealer with a foam brush which worked well to get it into all the little crevices. After the first coat dried, I applied a 2nd coat. The sealer temporarily darkens the grout but it lightens again once the sealer dries. The curing time will depend on how thick you apply the grout. The connection between the planter & bases was thick (and it was raining) so I kept the planters in the garage for a few days before setting them outside.

Finished planters

Well, this was a fun project! Since I had everything on hand, the cost was ‘free’….well, no new $ was spent. If you are thinking of doing this and have a Habitat nearby, they are a great source for tiling supplies so you can get grout and sealer there. Otherwise, you can pick up grout and sealer at most hardware stores.

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