Erin Spain

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DIY Faux Concrete & Gold Leaf Planter

November 3, 2016 By Erin Spain 16 Comments

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Plaid®. All opinions are my own.

I have had such a fun time collaborating on this fun Plaid project along with the other Plaid Creators, and I’ve been looking forward to finally sharing it with you! The rest of the Plaid Creators and I each designed and created a couple of items for a family room makeover, and then everybody shipped their creations to Atlanta and we set up an entire room in my house. Then, a photographer came to shoot it for Plaid. The entire project was so much fun! Today I’m sharing a tutorial for the DIY faux concrete and gold leaf planter that I built for the room. I love that it is a little bit industrial and modern, with the added “glam” factor of the gold leaf. Also, I’ll share a peek at the room reveal, and the most exciting part is that you can enter to win the ENTIRE gallery wall full of art that we made! I am so excited about this giveaway! Not only that, the grand prize winner will also win $500 in arts and crafts supplies. (See epic giveaway at the end of this post.) Also, be sure to head over to Plaid® to see tons more photos of the reveal!

Plaid Creators Family Room Reveal

First, let’s talk about the room! Here is the family room full of DIY projects that we collaborated on:

I created the tree string art for the gallery wall, and the planter (tutorial included in this post).

Wow! 10 bloggers collaborated on this family room, sending all of their DIY creations to one location for this photo shoot. Amazing how all of their different styles combined to make this space! You HAVE to see which items are DIY projects!

Wow! 10 bloggers collaborated on this family room, sending all of their DIY creations to one location for this photo shoot. Amazing how all of their different styles combined to make this space! You HAVE to see which items are DIY projects!

Wow! 10 bloggers collaborated on this family room, sending all of their DIY creations to one location for this photo shoot. Amazing how all of their different styles combined to make this space! You HAVE to see which items are DIY projects!

DIY Faux Concrete & Gold Leaf Planter

Wow! This DIY faux concrete and gold leaf planter is gorgeous! I can't believe the whole thing is DIY. Love the industrial style mixed with gold glam!

Project Supplies:

  • 1 – 2×2 cut into (4) 15″ long pieces
  • 1 – 1×2 cut into (5) 12″ long pieces (cut to fit)
  • 1 – 2×12 cut into (4) 12″ long pieces
  • (16) 3″ wood screws
  • (10) 2 1/2″ wood screws
  • Countersinking drill bit
  • Drill
  • Saw (Miter Saw or circular saw work best, but a hand saw will do.)
  • FolkArt® Painted Finishes in Concrete
  • FolkArt® Shortie Brushes
  • Plaid® Liquid Leaf in Classic Gold
  • Small paintbrush
  • Painter’s Tape for textured surfaces
  • Paper plate
  • Putty knife
  • Wood filler
  • Sandpaper or sanding block
  • (Optional) Landscaping fabric

Step 1

First, cut your boards. I prefer using a miter saw, but a circular saw or a hand saw will work too. You will cut 1 – 2×12 board into 4 segments, each at 12″ long; 1 – 2×2 board into 4 segments, each at 15″ long; and 1 – 1×2 board into 5 segments, each at 12″ long.

This DIY faux concrete and gold leaf planter is amazing! Easy to build and I love the geometric design!

Step 2

Using your 3 inch screws, attach two of the 2×2 pieces to each side of a 2×12 piece, forming one of the sides of the planter. Countersink the screws with a countersinking drill bit so you’ll be able to patch over them later. Repeat this with the other two legs and one of the 2×12 pieces, so you should have two that look like this:

This DIY faux concrete and gold leaf planter is amazing! Easy to build and I love the geometric design!

Step 3

Using the remaining 2×12 pieces, join the two side segments together by attaching them with 3″ screws. Be careful to stagger the placement of your screws so you don’t run into the screw you’ve already drilled in when connecting the legs.

This DIY faux concrete and gold leaf planter is amazing! Easy to build and I love the geometric design!

Step 4

Attach the 1×2 pieces by evenly spacing them and attaching them to the bottom. Attach them at each end using 2 1/2″ screws drilled from the outside of the planter. (Note: You can use pocket holes if you’d prefer.)

This DIY faux concrete and gold leaf planter is amazing! Easy to build and I love the geometric design!

Step 5

Patch over your screws using a putty knife and wood filler, and then sand smooth.

This DIY faux concrete and gold leaf planter is amazing! Easy to build and I love the geometric design!

Step 6

Now it’s time to paint! I used FolkArt® Painted Finishes in Concrete.

This DIY faux concrete and gold leaf planter is amazing! Easy to build and I love the geometric design!

It comes in “Light” and “Dark”. Pour a little bit of each onto a paper plate which you can use as your palette.

Wow! This DIY faux concrete and gold leaf planter is gorgeous! I can't believe the whole thing is DIY. Love the industrial style mixed with gold glam!

 

Then, stipple on the light color with a Shortie brush, covering the entire planter.

This DIY faux concrete and gold leaf planter is amazing! Easy to build and I love the geometric design!

Step 7

Working in sections, one side at a time, stipple some of the dark lightly on top of the light color while it’s still wet, blending and pouncing your brush as you go.

This DIY faux concrete and gold leaf planter is amazing! Easy to build and I love the geometric design!

Step 8

After the concrete painted finish has dried, tape off your diagonal design using painter’s tape for textured surfaces. (You can find this at the hardware store.) I created an alternating diagonal, so on one side I had the diagonal running from the top left corner to the bottom right corner, and then on the next side I started where I left off, so that one would run from bottom left corner to the top right corner, and I continued with that pattern all the way around. Make sense? I hope so!

This DIY faux concrete and gold leaf planter is amazing! Easy to build and I love the geometric design!

Step 9

Paint the bottom section below your tape with Plaid Liquid Leaf in Classic Gold. A little bit goes a long way, so even though the bottle is tiny, there is plenty in there. I used a small paintbrush to apply it and it only took one coat.

This DIY faux concrete and gold leaf planter is amazing! Easy to build and I love the geometric design!

This DIY faux concrete and gold leaf planter is amazing! Easy to build and I love the geometric design!

Step 10

Remove your tape while the liquid leaf is still somewhat damp, but not soaking wet as you don’t want it to bleed.

This DIY faux concrete and gold leaf planter is amazing! Easy to build and I love the geometric design!

Step 11

Insert your plant, and enjoy! I opted to just drop the planter that my fiddle leaf fig came in directly inside this one, but you could also add a layer of landscape fabric and then your soil and plant on top of that.

 

This DIY faux concrete and gold leaf planter is amazing! Easy to build and I love the geometric design!

This DIY faux concrete and gold leaf planter is amazing! Easy to build and I love the geometric design!

This DIY faux concrete and gold leaf planter is amazing! Easy to build and I love the geometric design!

Epic Plaid® Giveaway!

Enter to win this ENTIRE gallery wall full of DIY art made by the Plaid Creators! You could win every single piece of art you see hanging on the wall here:

Enter to win this ENTIRE gallery wall full of art made by the Plaid Creators team of bloggers!

Enter to win this ENTIRE gallery wall full of art made by the Plaid Creators team of bloggers!

PLUS, not only will the grand prize winner walk away with all of this original art, they will also win $500 worth of arts and crafts supplies from Plaid.

  • Grand Prize: Collection of gallery wall art AND $500 in arts & crafts supplies from Plaid
  • 2nd Place: $200 in arts and crafts supplies from Plaid
  • 3rd Place: $100 in arts and crafts supplies from Plaid

And here’s a fun little stop motion video of me hanging the gallery wall!

https://www.erinspain.com/wp-content/uploads/wall-gallery-stop-motion-v2.mp4

To enter the giveaway, simply follow the instructions in the Rafflecopter widget below. U.S. entrants only, must be 18+ years old. The giveaway ends 11/30/16.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You Might Also Like:

  • DIY Stenciled Canvas Instagram Photo Display
  • Side Table Makeover
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-Erin

Filed Under: Decorating, DIY, Home & DIY Blog, Room Makeovers, Tutorials, Woodworking

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Comments

  1. Stacy Risenmay says

    November 3, 2016 at 2:10 pm

    Wow! That really does look like concrete!

    Reply
  2. Jeanie says

    November 4, 2016 at 3:32 pm

    That looks great! Looks like it came from a high-end specialty store!

    Reply
    • Erin Spain says

      November 6, 2016 at 9:29 pm

      Thanks so much, Jeanie!

      Reply
  3. Amy Anderson says

    November 5, 2016 at 6:08 am

    That faux concrete finish is everything – I LOVE IT! Your planter is awesome Erin – love how you incorporated the gold. Beautiful!

    Reply
    • Erin Spain says

      November 6, 2016 at 9:30 pm

      Thanks so much, Amy!

      Reply
  4. chris aka monkey says

    November 5, 2016 at 2:05 pm

    love the planter and every single piece on the wall, we have vaulted ceiling and this would be fabulous on t, I don’t have instgram so I only got 2 entries but I still hope I win, plaid makes the best craft supplies xx

    Reply
    • Erin Spain says

      November 6, 2016 at 9:30 pm

      Thank you, Chris! Good luck!

      Reply
  5. Laura Kelly-Walters says

    November 7, 2016 at 10:11 am

    Your room is gorgeous!

    Reply
    • Erin Spain says

      November 7, 2016 at 6:19 pm

      Thank you Laura!

      Reply
  6. Nikki from Tikkido says

    November 10, 2016 at 10:19 am

    The texture on that planter is amazing! I never would have guessed you made it from wood.

    Reply
    • Erin Spain says

      November 10, 2016 at 1:34 pm

      Thanks so much, Nikki!

      Reply
  7. Olivia says

    November 15, 2016 at 9:17 am

    Thank you for the step by step tutorial, Erin! One small question – my living room is painted in different shades of brown (matching the colour of the furniture), what colours do you think I could use for the leaf planter? I was thinking of beige, but I am not very satisfied with this combination, I would like something bolder. What colour do you advise me to chose?

    Reply
    • Erin Spain says

      November 15, 2016 at 9:23 am

      Hi Olivia. I would definitely go with something more bold. The combo I used would work with any color room. Or you could go white and gold. That would be pretty too! Do you have any other accent colors in the room? You could pull from that too. Good luck!

      Reply
  8. kristin says

    May 3, 2017 at 11:14 am

    This turned out so beautiful!

    Reply
  9. Emma Metson says

    June 21, 2017 at 3:53 am

    This planter is awesome Erin! I love all your faux concrete DIYs.

    I was in my local hardware shop the other day and saw concrete spray paint for sale. Have you every tried some? Or do you prefer hand painting the concrete effect?

    I LOVE that gold leaf, it’s so pretty.

    Keep up the great DIY work 🙂

    Reply
    • Erin Spain says

      June 25, 2017 at 10:23 pm

      Hi Emma! Thanks! I’ve never tried the spray paint. Let me know how you like it if you end up trying it. I like to hand paint it since I have more control over the effect.

      Reply

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