Indoor Projects

Flower Pot Mayhem

I hope everyone had a restful and relaxing Labor Day weekend like I did. A little beach time followed by massive amounts of laundry and a few small home projects is just what I love to do on 3-day weekends! Well maybe not love the laundry part, but it’s nice to get a bunch done at once!

And one of the small projects I finally completed on Monday was repairing a beloved flower pot/planter in my dining room. It was an arrangement sent to my Grandma’s funeral in July of 2012. I’ve prided myself on keeping the plant alive for over 2 years. And I loved that the pot it came in matched the vibe and decor of my house.

So I was pretty mad, sad, and more mad when I bumped into it and caused it to crash to the ground while walking through the dining room the other night. I’ll admit it’s a tight squeeze between the plant stand and the nearby chair, but the plant seemed to need a spot in front of a window!

I decided to glue the pieces back together the best I could and salvage the pot. Besides the sentimental value, a decent planter like that can run $15-20 that I didn’t feel like spending. Had there been fewer large, whole pieces and more crumbly little pieces, I wouldn’t have even considered reassembling it.

blue planter broken pieces spread out on newspaper

With all of the pieces laid out on some old newspaper, I started from the bottom and worked my way up and around with some household super glue I always have on hand. Any “super glue” will do the trick, but for this I used Loctite’s Super Glue Liquid. I also used a trick using modeling clay I’ve seen here to hold the awkward pieces in place while the glue dried.

hot pink modeling clay holding broken planter pieces

The bottom of the pot was a little uneven, so I used a small piece of Play-Doh on the back side to hold it level while I was working on the bottom.

Hot pink modeling clay propping clay pot in place

I glued a piece on, and let it dry for a half hour before attempting another piece. So it was a slow-going project I worked on over the course of the day.

pink play-doh modeling clay holding planter together on top of newspaper

After half of the side was complete, I dry fitted the remaining pieces to make sure I didn’t put one piece in that prevented me from gluing in its neighbor. And good thing, because I discovered I was missing a good-sized piece.

missing piece hole in broken planter glued back together

So I went back to the temporary pot holding the plants and got my hands dirty digging through the dirt. I found several smaller pieces not worth saving before I found the big one I was searching for!

terra cotta plastic planter holding plant on stand in yellow room

I glued it in place and slowly and delicately put in the last few pieces. It was by no means perfect. There are a few spots where the piece is clearly in the right spot, but it doesn’t touch everywhere it should. Although, if you’re not standing too close it looks pretty good.

glued blue planter on plant stand in front of window

I wasn’t concerned about it being waterproof since I already kept a plastic dish under the planter. But some of the holes were a little wider than I had hoped. And I didn’t want dirt to escape. So I set out to buy some sort of cheap pot to set inside my masterpiece to hold the dirt and the plant but still be concealed.

No luck with a pot since my planter is wide and short and most are tall and skinny. But I did use my imagination and pick up this coco liner from the garden department at the home center.

coco liner sitting on top of blue flower planter and plant stand

I got the smallest one they had, but it was still too big. So I got out my sharp scissors and cut a piece the shape of a pizza slice out.

scissors cutting triangle in coco liner planter
Coco liner with pizza slice shape missing
Then tried to form a new, smaller bowl with it, but there was still too much bunching in the middle. So I cut more out in this weird shape and it seemed to do to trick.

coco liner planter cut to fit bowl

I used a household/office stapler to hold the coco liner together along the seam.

Staples holding coco liner together at seam

Then it was ready to be set in the repaired planter.

coco liner sitting in blue flower pot planter on plant stand

The coco liner isn’t as concealed as I had originally planned. But I do like that it matches the colored accents on the bowl. And for now the whole plant stand has been relocated to the corner so no more hips bump into it. Ideally I’ll find a spot in another room where it can get more sunlight with or without the plant stand which I’d like to paint or distress.

blue planter on plant stand in yellow room with green plant

blue planter pot on plant stand burlap curtain

OK, maybe it’s time to trim the overhang…

Who else loves having live plants in their home? Did you know there’s a specific ratio of how many live plants you should have per square feet in your house? You can find out what it is here as well as which plants are good for eliminating certain pollutants.

2 Comments

  • Carol C.

    Loved your idea of using modeling clay to hold the pieces together while the glue dried. What kind of glue did you use? Glad you were able to save the vase.

    • Chelsea Lipford Wolf

      Thanks Carol! I used just a household super glue. I’m not partial to any brand but I always try to keep some on hand! I happened to use Loctite’s Super Glue Liquid for this though.

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