Recycled Concrete Mosaic Planter

A friend recently moved into a new house and inherited a lot of the former occupant’s rubbish. One of the pieces ready for throwing out was a worn slab of concrete with eight hollow sections. Instead, to become an ideal planter, it just needed tidying up—and mosaic was the perfect medium. Keep a sharp eye out for other bases for mosaics—what is deemed one person’s rubbish can definitely become another’s treasure.

Project excerpted from Becky Paton's Garden Mosaics: 25 Step-by-Step Projects for our Outdoor Room.

Materials:

• Concrete slab
• 100 glass brown or gold tiles
• 200 assorted beige and pale pink ceramic tiles
• P.V.A
• Exterior-grade wood glue
• Cement-based adhesive
• Tile nippers
• Waterproof grout

Instructions:

1. Clean off any dirt from the surface of the piece and seal with 1 part P.V.A. to 3 parts water. Allow to dry.
   
   
    
2. Cut the glass tiles into quarters, leaving 3 intact. Cut 70 ceramic tiles into quarters, 70 into 16ths and leave the rest whole.
   
   
    
3. Using an exterior-grade wood glue, stick down glass quarters around the top edge of each opening and 3 whole glass tiles equally down the center of the planter. Fix whole and quartered ceramic tiles around the edge of the whole piece.
   
   
    
4. Fill in the rest of the top with rows of ceramic 16ths. For the sides, use a cement-based adhesive as this will stop the tiles from slipping. Place a row of whole ceramic tiles around the base, followed by a row of glass quarters, and finally a row of ceramic quarters. Allow the adhesives to dry completely before using a waterproof grout in the usual way.