Now that we’ve moved into a permanent home (Steven and I like to “joke” that we’re going to die in this house), I think my plant lady tendencies are coming into full force. Since I won’t be moving for the foreseeable future, I can have as many plants as I want! Within reason, of course. Or not. I keep seeing cute little plants at the store for a few bucks apiece and bringing them home, but then they need pots. And pots can get surprisingly expensive. But it doesn’t get much cheaper than terracotta pots, which are easy to paint. So here’s a quick little DIY to decorate your pots.

You’ll need paint, sealer, a brush, painter’s tape, scissors, and pots (duh). I used a waterproof patio paint for the white coat, and then plain ol’ craft acrylic for the black triangles. The sealer is optional, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to cover everything with a nice matte sealer coat.

First, paint your terracotta pots white, in as many coats as it takes to get coverage you’re happy with. I think I did 3 or 4 coats. Make sure to paint the inside, too, otherwise your paint will eventually bubble off.

After your white paint has thoroughly dried (at least overnight), tape off triangles for your designs. For the big triangles, I just used full pieces of tape at angles to one another. For the smaller triangles, I snipped the shapes into the tape. Run a fingernail over the edges of the tape to seal it down.

Paint a couple of coats (2 was plenty for me) on your triangle shapes. Let dry, then carefully peel off the tape. My lines were a bit fuzzier than I would’ve liked, so I touched them up a bit with a brush. They still aren’t perfect, but that’s ok.

If you’re using a sealer, paint a coat of that on top of the paint, and let it dry.