How To Decorate Terracotta Pots With Netting

In this tutorial, we show you a fun way to use the netting bags that onions come in to decorate terracotta pots.

I’ve had these onion nets saved for quite some time now, working on the theory that I’ll find a use for them eventually. We try to buy produce without packaging as much as possible, but I still pick up packaged things occasionally if I know I can make use of it.

In this tutorial, we show you a fun way to use the netting bags that onions come in to decorate terracotta pots.

I recently shared my How to Upcycle Wire Lampshade Frames into Plant Stands with you. One of the stands holds a terracotta pot, and I came up with the idea of adding a little diamond pattern using the netting as a screen.

What we used to decorate our terracotta pots.

Terracotta pots
Spray paint (I used chalkboard spray paint that I picked up cheap in Lidls)
Fine netting. This one is the packaging onions often come in.

Top Tip: I’ve started using a rotating cake stand (Amazon Affiliate link) protected with a plastic bag when spray painting my crafts. It allows you to spin the object as you spray it rather than trying to move around the object. It does make the whole process much more comfortable, so I highly recommend it if you do have a cake turntable to hand.

In this tutorial, we show you a fun way to use the netting bags that onions come in to decorate terracotta pots.

How to decorate terracotta pots with netting and spray paint

Start by slipping the netting over the terracotta pot.

In this tutorial, we show you a fun way to use the netting bags that onions come in to decorate terracotta pots.

If you only want to decorate part of the terracotta pot, use masking tape to blank out the rest.

I sprayed two pots, one completely and the other I masked off the rim.

In this tutorial, we show you a fun way to use the netting bags that onions come in to decorate terracotta pots.

It is best to spray paint outdoors or an extremely well-ventilated area. On this occasion, I did spray indoors due to it being too cold outside, so made sure I covered everything well to protect it.

In this tutorial, we show you a fun way to use the netting bags that onions come in to decorate terracotta pots.

I gave each of my terracotta pots one coat of the chalkboard spray paint.

I then left the pots to dry. Since terracotta is porous, this didn’t take long at all.

In this tutorial, we show you a fun way to use the netting bags that onions come in to decorate terracotta pots.

Once the paint was completely dry, I lifted the netting to reveal the decorated terracotta beneath.

In this tutorial, we show you a fun way to use the netting bags that onions come in to decorate terracotta pots.

And here is my finished decorated terracotta pot.

In this tutorial, we show you a fun way to use the netting bags that onions come in to decorate terracotta pots.

I love the pattern the netting has created.

In this tutorial, we show you a fun way to use the netting bags that onions come in to decorate terracotta pots.

While I was preparing the pots for spraying it did occur to me that sticking the net to them would also look fab. Perhaps that’s something I’ll try out in a future make.

If you have enjoyed this recycling tutorial, why not check out some of our other quirky projects using recycled materials. You can find a list of our favourites below.