Note: If reading is not for you, and I don't blame you. Scroll to the bottom for a link to my tutorial on YouTube.
I will start this post with a confession. I am not a plant person. I have two kids and two dogs and think that is plenty to keep alive on a day-to-day basis. I realize that being a plant lady is cool and that plants are beautiful and make for lovely home décor. That said, if a plant wants to live in my house, it needs to fend for itself. I will occasionally water it, but I make no promises of consistency.
My snake plant is my lone survivor. It requires very little of me and provides my office with a welcome touch of nature. The snake plant has been alive for 4 years, having survived two moves and much neglect. In all this, it is not just surviving but thriving! It had grown over two feet tall, and I felt it was time for a trim since it was beginning to look silly in its smaller pot. I took the opportunity to trim other less lively plants around the house too. I took any spritely clippings and put them in a plastic cup of water on the counter by my kitchen sink to enjoy the greenery a moment longer.
Well, it didn't wilt. It stayed green week after week. I did change the water, but otherwise ignored it on my counter. Three or four weeks later, I thought it was finally time to toss the plastic cup of trimmings. Before I threw it out, I noticed the snake plant had grown roots! How fun is that?! I obviously needed to plant the snake plant that I had just propogated by accident.
Because I can't do anything the easy way (like just buying a pot at the store), I got it in my head that my new plant needed a snake themed pot... a hand painted snake pot, of course. So that set me off on this project. Luckily, I already had a small terracotta pot to get started (probably from a previous plant that had not fared so well).
I gave my mind time to simmer and come up with the design. Once I had it visualized, I started painting. I began by wiping off any dirt or debris from the pot. Then I used acrylic paint to draw out squiggly snake shapes. I wanted lots of rounded corners and interlocking snakes. I had thought about making colorful snakes but in the end decided that white snakes with black details would pop more against the terracotta background.
I used Sharpies to draw in details on the white snake shapes. I could have used a paintbrush and paint or even a paint pen, but I felt I had more control with a Sharpie. I have another confession... I don't like snakes. Let me clarify, I love these fun, illustrated snakes, but I don't like real snakes. I have a difficult time looking at them to get inspiration for the scale patterns and such. Luckily, this is not my first time drawing snakes, so I was able to look back at old drawings to get inspiration. I also just did some that were for fun. The black and white looked good, but it was missing a little flair... gold! My favorite gold paint pen worked quickly to take it to the next level.
I was so excited to see my snake pot come to life, and I couldn't wait to plant my snake plant in it. Before I did, I wanted to seal it... nothing was going to ruin my fabulous design. Terracotta absorbs moisture which can make the paint of the design bubble up. So sealing was critical. I used outdoor modge podge just to be on the safe side and gave the pot two coats inside and out. I let it dry for two or three days, but the outdoor modge podge was still a little tacky. Full disclosure it did say to wait like 4 weeks for it to cure, but I don't have that type of patience. So I gave the pot a quick clear coat of spray paint. The tackiness was gone, and it was ready to be planted. I planted my snake plant in the pot, and it looks so cute! I'm obsessed with this little pot!
Check out my YouTube tutorial for more pictures and videos of my process. Link
Supplies used (Disclaimer: I may receive a small commission on the links below at no cost to you.)
And one more thing (because that's how my brain works), I loved the snake pot so much that I used it as inspiration for another repeating pattern. It's available on fabric, wallpaper, and home decor items on my Spoonflower shop such as the throw pillow below.
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