Flower Pot Painting Ideas for Kids or Adults

We have some great Flower Pot Painting Ideas for you to check out. A great way to personalise your garden, give it that extra something or get kids involved with gardening. DIY Painted Flower Pots also make GREAT gifts to friends and family. Today, we share a variety of Flower Pot Painting Ideas – some for kids and some for grown ups. Hopefully something for everyone. Let’s make our planters look fantastic, with this fabulous set of tutorials!

DIY Flower Pots are a great summer craft or wonderful for any gardening enthusiast! But they also make great Mother’s Day Gifts or Teacher Appreciation Gifts too. We have some great Flower Pot Designs for you today – you don’t have to be super artistic to have a go at some of these.

What types of plants can I put in DIY Painted Flower Pots?

It really depends on what paints you end up using, as some paints will be more water resistant than others. So if you are using one, that is likely to peel or fade over time, then I think indoor succulents are best or even some “fake” flowers, like some adorable crochet cactii or crochet succulents you can now make. They would make great DIY decor.

But with the correct paints, you can use your personalised flower pots with any plant and can also keep your decorated plant pots outdoors.

What kind of paint can I use on a flower pot for both outdoor and indoor plant pots?

Whether youare painitng terra cotta pots of plastic potting pots, the paints are widely the same. It is easier to paint indoor plant pots, as they don’t weathered as much and are less likely to get very wet regularly. However, you can use most of these paints for both outdoor pots and indoor pots!

Acrylic paints are the easiest – and what most people have to hand. I have used acrylic paints to make these Panda Painted Pots. They are still going strong partly, I believe, because they are in a more shelter position. They get wet, but not SOAKING wet if it rains. Acrylics are more likely to scratch or peel off over time. Especially if exposed to the elements. If your terracotta pot however is in a shelter porch, they are fine.

I find that gloss enamels work REALLY well and have a lovely finish! They come in super small bottles. But you will find that you won’t need much paint to cover large areas of your clay pots of plastic pots. And often one layer of paint is enough. Though you may need to apply two!

Chalk paint is a great option too – you will see it used below. But I haven’t tried it myself.

You can also use spray paint. They are probably the best outdoor paint. However, they are harder to use, tend to be quite expensive and of course, you need to think about the environment and any gases they release (take care not to breath anything in, masks should be worn!). Used in moderation, they should be ok though.

Paint pens – such as Posca Pens are a great for details and tend to last well. Though some sharpies and marker pens are great too.

I would say the paints are pretty similar, whether painting terracotta pots, clay pots, concrete or even plastic pots! Simply grab old pots and give them a new lease of life.

As a final note: if in doubt, you can always use a sealer to seal your painted pots!

DIY Flower Pot Painting Inspiration and Techniques

So let’s grab those plant pots, paints and brushes and have a go at some of these ideas!

A super quick and easy one.. we used acrylic paints for these little pandas and then added the detail with posca pens. They really are fab. A quick and easy pot idea for sure. Read more about our Panda Bear Plastic Pots here. This also comes with a handy video tutorial!

A super simple one – paint a little rainbow plant pot with the kids! This is the first time we tried out the gloss enamel paints on terracotta and we loved the results!

This is a great example of lovely succulent pots. Add some sparkle to your succulent planters, with these super easy unicorn pots! They are best for drier plants, so you don’t get the embellishments wet!

Something a little different – recycle a dolls hairdressing head and turn into a fabulously whimsical upcycled doll planter. Isn’t this clever? This one was done using spray paints. So fun and again, relatively easy!

Shared before, as part our Frida Kahlo Ideas collection – make this wonderful Frida Terracotta Pot! All you need is some posca pens or ceramic pens. Easy!

Be inspired by Day of the Dead DIYs, with these fabulous sugar skull planters. Perfect for the your indoor plants come the fall crafts months.

I love this easy tutorial from instructables – showing you how to make a simple cat template and then use that template to layer up your plant pot! If even shares reader photos.. so you get an idea of how could look with your own personalised colors and details! So cute.

Clever painting techniques that don’t require artistic skills

Don’t feel too confident with your “artistic” skills or worried about a steady hand? Then try your hand at stencilling and learn how to stencil a flower pot with DIY Candy. Stencils are a great way to decorate a number of pots relatively quickly and give them a common theme.

Here is another great plant pot painting hack if you feel you don’t quite have the artistic flair – rubber band painted plant pots! Don’t they look fantastic? Such a clever technique, with fantastic, stylish plant pot painting results! Original photo from website called We Can Make Anything, which has now lapsed. But I found you a good how to on Youtube: how!

DIY Candy has another great technique, that looks fabulous and just a little bit magical and sparkly! Here is a great flower pot painting technique to add names to your plant pots. A great birthday party activity or personalised party favour craft. No brush needed for this one. Just a sharpie or other permanent markers!

How about some geometric painted flower pots? This is another easy idea for you to use for plant pot decorating. Remember the “viral” painter’s tape geometry patterns that lots of people made during the covid lockdowns? Same technique! With fabulously stylish plant pot designs. Definitely one plant pot painting technique for adults and kids who want to make DIY designer pots! Pop over to Merriment Design for full instrucions and tutorial.

A painted clay pot really aren’t hard to make! Even if you feel you are “creatively” challenged or don’t have a steady hand. The easy painting techniques continue with this paint pouring effect from Crafts By Amanda! Drip painted pots really do look great and are so fun. They would make a lovely Mother’s Day Gift too!

Extra fun one plant pot ideas for kids will love

The Fresh Mommy Blog has these wonderful Ice Cream painted flower pots. Don’t they look great?

Country Chic Living’s video tutorial (and step by step photo tutorial), shows you how quick and easy these adorable bee pots and ladybug pots are to make. The kids will love them.

Another cute and easy one for the kids – Kawaii Watermleon Planters from Soap Deli News. Aren’t they cute? And lovely and easy to paint too! You can mixed these up with pinks and reds for the watermelon. So sweet.

Fingerprint flower pot crafts are ALWAYS great as Keepsake Gifts, especially on Mother’s Day or for Grandma’s birthday gift. Check out this cute design by Crafts by Amanda.

Similarly Oriental Trading has a super fun set of adorable finger print planters. I love that they combine it with some beaded plant pot markers too! A great way to get kids using their fine motor skills and practice spelling some words and learning about herbs. Simply PERFECT!