Aging Concrete Tutorial ~

I thought that since our forecast was snow for tomorrow that I'd have a little pre-gardening, pre-spring tutorial!

Cindy and I purchased some beautiful pieces of concrete for The Plum Tree a while back and I brought this sweet piece home to age it. I wanted to show Cindy how easy it was but I'm just now getting to it!

Anyway, being a lover of all things old, distressed, aged and weathered of course I would love my concrete statuary to have a look of living in a garden for years. These are my steps in accomplishing or at least beginning the aging look and knocking off the newness.

First, I start with about three or four shades of paint. I just use the little acrylic bottles. A couple shades of green, one light, one dark . . . black and brown. Be sure not to get greens that have too much blue in them or you will not get a true representation of the mossy look we all love!

I've used disposable bowls but you can use whatever. I've put about a teaspoon of color in each bowl and added plenty of water to dilute the paint.

Here's my little statue before:

I started with the lighter green and dipped my sponge in the bowl (used a rubber glove here) and squeezed out the sponge over top of the statue to let the diluted color run down. I did this several times with this color.

Next step, I dipped my sponge into the darker green and held my hand over the statue again and squeezed. This diluted color runs down the statue in the same way rain would over the years.

Now I've moved to the black diluted paint water. Dip the sponge in the bowl or container to absorb the color and then squeeze again over top of the statue. I move around to the back and make sure it drizzles down all sides.

I had a pitcher of water outside as well to dip my sponge into just in case my colors were too strong. Remember, you can always add color but you can't really take it away! So the more it's diluted the more natural the look will be. Also remember that when the concrete is wet it will look much darker that it looks when dry. So don't be alarmed when it looks so dark and streaky.

I don't show it here but the last step I drizzled the diluted brown over top. I wanted to knock down the color of everything and dark brown was perfect for that. So squeeze this last color over the top of the piece.

Well, here it is, not quite dry in this photo but beginning to look as if it has been outside for many months now.

I hope this is a technique that you'll be able to use this spring. If you love the look of old and weathered like I do, I'm sure you'll find this is so very easy to do and it gives you instant gratification after you've brought a new piece of concrete home to your garden!

Remember ~ concrete statuary is not just beautiful in your garden but lovely inside your home as well! Try placing a statue in your foyer, master bath or even in the center of your buffet (small and of course with plenty of cloth protection underneath). When brought inside your home, these pieces can then be enjoyed all year long!