How to ‘Age’ New Garden Statues

garden statues cooroyMost people like their gardens to have that lived in look and any garden statues, pots or ornaments to look like they’ve been in situ for a while, to look aged and have a rich patina.

The easiest way to do this is probably to buy something with some age and patina already attached and we always have a selection of statuary and urns like this in the garden at The Shed @ Cooroy but sometimes, there is little option but to buy something new or even secondhand that hasn’t yet obtained the olde worlde look.

Garden statues and stone ornaments have adorned gardens around the world for hundreds of years and while we don’t see many of these original hand carved objects, we do see a lot of newer items cast in artificial stone – usually concrete, which replicate these early originals.

If you are lucky enough to have anything old that has already acquired a great look, it is probably best to leave it to nature to enhance this over the years. However, if your garden statues, ornaments or pots look a bit too bright and shiny for your liking, you can give nature a helping hand with some fairly simple ingredients.

What you’ll need is;

  • Black or dark grey acrylic (water soluble) paint.
  • A tub of natural Yoghurt.
  • A small bag of garden soil, well rotted manure or compost.
  • A small bag of garden moss
  • Largish Paintbrush
  • Gloves
  • Bucket & Water

Method:

garden statues at the shed cooroyMix a small amount of paint with water to make a very weak solution that resembles dirty water and then paint this onto the object and allow to dry. You can repeat this any number of times to darken the whole object or just apply in certain areas until you are happy with this base coat.

Next the messy bit! Mix your yoghurt in the bucket with equal amount of water and soil/manure/compost to make a thick paste. The quantities will depend on the size of your object/s.

Wearing gloves and using the paintbrush, generously coat your object with the paste. Make sure you cover the whole surface, particularly any nooks, crannies and recesses where dirt would naturally collect and mosses and lichens would naturally grow.

Take a handful of moss and rub this over the object, again ensuring attention to natural recesses, to spread the spores from the moss.

Carefully position your object away from direct sunlight to encourage the ageing process. Under trees, in bushes, in overgrown grass are all good places for moss to grow – take a look around your garden and see which other spots have moss growing in them and his will likely be a good spot for your new ‘old’ object to age.  Somewhere below where the birds perch means they can also help the process along!

Another trick to help start the process from scratch is to bury small ornaments in the ground for a while or submerge them in a muddy dam before you start the process as both of these will encourage natural ageing.

Pop in to see us at The Shed @ Cooroy, Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm and Sat 9am-1pm to see what statues and pots we have in stock for you to practice your new ageing techniques on!