MY JOURNEY TO MAKING A SEMI-DECENT DIY CEMENT PLANTER

There is a 300% chance that I fucked this up, and that's ok.

When we moved into our century old house back in 2019, my ADHD kicked into gear. There were so many projects to do! And if you know me, you know that I love a good DIY home update.

Over the past few years we've made a pretty big dent with updating the interior, but the exterior needs some lovin'. One great thing I love about our house is that we have three porches, but that also means there's a hella lot to decorate.

My doctor always tells me to take baby steps because I think too far ahead. So I took her advice, and settled on a small DIY project for our front porches. Cement flower pots.

I've attempted to make these in the past, and while I've had some amount of luck, this was my first attempt at using a mold that didn't consist of old Tupperware and cottage cheese containers. I think it went pretty ok!

Phase 1: Finding the gusto to go outside and brave the heat after my 9-5.

Phase 2: Coming back inside for one million+ things I forgot I needed for this project.

Phase 3: Butter it up! I've seen a lot of people grease their molds on YouTube, but all we had was this off brand version of spray butter. Good enough, right?

Phase 4: Grab yourself a bucket of water, a bucket of cement mix and something to stir it with. I used this nifty drill attachment that is 100% worth the cost. I believe we bought ours at Home Depot for under ten bucks.

Phase 5: Add water to your dry cement mix. This is a tough one and definitely the reason I've put down this hobby and picked it back up again so many times. Everyone makes it look easy on TikTok, but in reality there's a ton of trial and error. Don't make these mistakes that I did:

1. Don't add too much water to the cement all at once. I poured WAY too much and ended up having to add so much extra cement that in the end, I didn't need.

2. Choose the right kind of cement. I have several bags in my garage sitting open that I can't use. CONCRETE IS NOT THE SAME AS CEMENT!

3. You're going to get messy. Stop fighting it.

Phase 6: Mix it up. Probably the most fun part. (Also, side note: If the pictures look blurry, it's not your eyes. My phone was in my bra and it was 95 degrees. Blame the boob sweat.)

Phase 7: I was trying to come up with a way to describe the consistency I went for in this first trial... all the descriptions I can think of are kind of gross though. Like when you get your foot stuck in mud at the bottom of a lake, but more like the harder stuff at the bottom. Squishy yet firm.

Phase 8: Stuff it into the mold. Really get your fingers down in there. Then drop it on the ground a few times to get the air bubbles out. This mold consists of two plastic trays that help the cement keep its shape and a silicone insert. You can buy one on Amazon here: (https://www.amazon.com/Silicone-Planter-Square-Concrete-Succulent/dp/B092S1PGHN/ref=psdc_553798_t1_B093K5Z25W)

We'll give it a couple days to dry and then I'll update you guys on how it turned out. (Who am I kidding, you know I don't have that kind of patience. I'm definitely de-molding it tonight.)

Cheers!

-Lo