Give An Ordinary Concrete Planter Coastal-Chic Vibes With A Resourceful DIY

Coastal luxe is a beachy yet sophisticated home decor trend perfect for everything from cute and cozy beach cottages to luxury lake houses. Can't justify a full-on renovation right now? Filling your yard or balcony with subtly beach-themed individual decor items, like glass bottle candle holders wrapped in fat rope, driftwood wall art, and throw pillows printed with sea-inspired imagery, can also work. Or you could create your own shore pebble-covered footed planter! Pour concrete over two molds — one for the planter body and one for the base. Press small round beach or river pebbles onto their exteriors. Amp up the coastal vibe by adding shells or pressing sand into the gaps between stones ... Additions are only limited by your imagination!

A plastic bucket or plant pot works as a mold for the planter body; get a low-sided plastic bowl for the base. A 2-pound bag of Natural Decorative Real Sand costs about $12, and a 10-pound bucket of spreadable Quikrete Vinyl Concrete Patcher is about $28. Alternatively, you can make a slurry of your preferred cement mix and a concrete bonding agent. Follow the manufacturer's instructions on each product for mixing ratios. Get, too, a clear acrylic sealer to finish your planter. As suggested in our ultimate guide to coastal decor, natural elements really bring the coast to your porch, balcony, or patio. Smooth beach or river pebbles embody this aesthetic perfectly. A 2.4-pound bag of CJGQ 1-Inch Mexican Beach Pebbles in Stone Grey costs about $12.

Fill the planter mold — that is, the bucket or plant pot — with tightly packed wet sand. Upend it onto a workspace you've lined with plastic for protection, much like making a sandcastle at the beach. Smooth out any lumps in the sand form, then pour and trowel the cement onto it gently and evenly. Working quickly, cover the form with beach pebbles. If you decide to use Quikrete over your own cement mix, note that it will start to set in about 30 minutes. A bespoke cement mix may take a bit longer to set, but don't let it harden so much that nothing will stick to it.

Once you've completely covered your planter with decorative elements, set it aside and move onto the base. Soak a clean rag in cement and lay it over an upturned plastic bowl mold. Cover the bowl in concrete and pebbles using the same techniques you used for the planter body. Once both the foot and body of your planter have set, connect them together, base to base, with a dollop of cement. You'll need to wait for the cement on the planter to cure completely before spraying it with a few protective coats of varnish and filling it with soil and greenery. This could take anywhere between three and seven days, depending on how humid and cold the weather is at the time.

Beach stones aren't the only adornments you should consider for this coastal-inspired DIY project. Alternative (or complimentary) options include seashells, aquarium pebbles, sand dollars, glass pebbles or mulch in blue and green, sea glass, and small bits of driftwood. Alternate different additions — shells and aquarium pebbles or beach glass and driftwood, for example — to create patterns across the outside of your planter or fill the gaps that will inevitably form between larger stones. You can even press sand into these blank spots. If you have leftover concrete, use a long, thin mold to make ridges around the pot, filling the gaps between them with the decorative elements.

If you want to get really creative, soak an oversized rag in concrete and wrinkle it as you put it on the bowl mold to create a shell-like look to your base. Just be sure to keep the rim as flat and even as possible; this will become the base of your planter, and you don't want the entire structure tilting to one side when it's filled with plants. If you don't want your outdoor planter to get waterlogged, add a drainage hole in the middle of the base of both planter and stand by sticking short pieces of plastic drinking straw onto the bottom with wall tack before you start troweling on the concrete at the creation stage. If you add drainage holes, make sure they line up when adhering the planter to its base, too.