Cactus & Succulent Planter Bookends

Hello and happy Monday! I hope you had a wonderful weekend! It took everything in me to not hole up in the house all weekend and play with all of my new DecoArt paints that arrived Friday afternoon, but I had a lot going on this weekend so my crafternoon had to wait until yesterday.

I’ve been looking for bookends for awhile and couldn’t find what I was looking for (especially challenging when I had no idea what I was looking for!) so I decided to make bookends out of a couple of concrete planters I have which were perfect for my recent cactus and succulent haul! The Cactus & Succulent Planter Bookends also became the perfect craft to use some of my new DecoArt paint colors. They have some ahhhmazing new product lines coming out this year, and guys! Here’s how I made the bookends:

Geometric Cactus & Succulent Planter Bookends

Supplies

• Concrete planters (similar ones here)
• Americana Decor Acrylic Paint (I mixed Snow (Titanium) White and Laguna)
• DecoArt Extreme Sheen in Rose Gold 
• Foam paint brush
• Painter’s tape
• Potting soil
• Pebbles (if planters don’t have drainage)

Directions

1. Wipe off any dirt or dust from the concrete planters.
2. Using painter’s tape, tape off the sections you would like to paint with color. I chose to do 2 different geometric patterns but you can paint them to your liking. Apply 2 – 3 coats of Americana Decor Acrylic paint with a foam brush, waiting a few minutes between coats (it dries very fast on a concrete surface). Slowly peel back and remove all tape.
3. Once acrylic paint has dried fully (about an hour), tape off the sections to be painted metallic and paint with 2 – 3 coats of DecoArt Extreme Sheen, waiting about 5 – 8 minutes between coats. Slowly peel back and remove all tape.
4. If the planters have drainage holes, skip to step 5. Pour 1 ½ – 2″ of pebbles into the bottom of the planters; this will ensure the water has somewhere to drain and escape from the soil, succulents and cacti like it dry!
5. Fill planters with potting soil.
6. Arrange the cacti and succulents in the planters. I like to have a variation in height, texture, width and color to bring dimension to the cactus and succulent planter.

Pin for later!