Large wall with many plants

Beyond Terracotta: Pots That Even Design Snobs Will Love

Move beyond the plain-old with these pots that’ll take your plants to the next level

By: Deanna Kizis

No offense to terracotta pots: They can be gorgeous, with their rich sienna hue. They’re also inexpensive, available, reliable...but they’re also a little, well, basic. What if you’re in the mood for something spicier? 

Consider me — a garden and design editor — your new matchmaker, because there are loads of unique planters that aren’t giving Tuscany. You — and your plants — deserve to have some fun and show off your great taste. Here, I’m highlighting a few unexpected treasures to elevate even the lowliest houseplant into something special. Spoiler alert: Some are investment pieces. If beyond your budget, let them inspire you to search for similar looks at a sweeter price.

Into the Woods

Faux bois, or “fake wood” in French, was created by master gardener Joseph Monier in the mid-1800s. Looking for an outdoor pot that wouldn’t rot like wood or crack like ceramic, he created this artfully sculpted look out of iron mesh and concrete. The style took off and was soon found all over France and Belgium, then came to the United States. This example isn’t artisanal, of course, but it’s surprisingly affordable at $22 and can bring a bit of fairytale charm indoors.

Pot with a plant

Curves Ahead

Taken from the French word for female gardener, jardinière ornamental pots grew in popularity during the Victorian era, a time when women were encouraged to grow flowers for their parlors. Known in France as cachepots, this design typically has a plump, curvaceous shape and features detailed illustrations of flowers, insects, vegetables, and animals in rich, saturated colors that make even the plainest greenery look amazing. An antique majolica example at $1,000-plus (which would buy a ton of terracotta) could give you sticker shock, but there are plenty of cachepots to be found on Etsy and Wayfair (such as this sweet one, adorned with fruit and flowers) for a fraction of that price. 

Colorful pot with a plant

Make It Metallic

I’m a big fan of how ivy (basic English, grape, or the you-can’t-kill-me pothos) looks spilling out a brass planter, and I found one with so many details to love.  Reminiscent of a traditional Indian cooking pot, its graceful fluted design has a hammered and antiqued surface, plus handles that make it easy to move about. Try it as a centerpiece on your dining table; it gives off warm glow when near candlelight. 


The Classics

I cannot resist the gorgeous contours of an urn, but I’m not about to bring one of the weighty, cast-iron ones into my home. Which is why this beauty from Terrain calls my name. Made of reconstituted stone (bits of rock in a binding resin), it comes in a perfect shade of fresh green that’s not only unexpected, it’s downright cheerful. I love the idea of putting this in the kitchen or as the centerpiece of a round dining table.

Two Statement Planters

Looking Up

A hanging woven planter is nothing new, but in this case, the rattan has some heft while the scale — the planter comes either 23 or 35 inches wide — is impressive. Shaped like a bird’s nest, it looks great in an indoor corner (think how Zoom-worthy it could be in a home office), where flourishing greenery can attest to your plant-parenting skills. 


Living Large

Mid-century design fans, this one’s for you: A generously sized (15.75” diameter) modernist planter that resembles Heath tiles — a California design icon — in the best possible way. Look at that delicious, dark-green glaze. Made by Ferm living, which was founded in Denmark, this pillar-style pot is perfect for that indoor fiddle-leaf fig tree you’ve been pining for, or, if you want to up the originality, a Dracaena Warneckii ‘Lemon Lime’ Cane.

Palm tree in a big green pott

Plain and Simple

Reminiscent of wine barrels, these casks are harvested from black locust trees. Why that matters: The wood is sustainable and rot-resistant. The galvanized handles add to the rustic look. How good would a ZZ plant, dracaena, jester crown fern, or ficus look in it? Very.

Locust wood cast planter

In Good Form

Akin to a Rorschach test, these Evoke planters resemble a futuristic figural bust to some, an ancient cup to others, but they always encourage a lingering look. Made from glass fibers, they’re lightweight, which I love. Plants don’t always want to stay in one place as the light changes with the seasons, and my upper body strength is anything but herculean. The warm sandy color is a fresh, neutral departure from the stark white glazes one often finds in a big-box store.


For the Forgetful

Those with an elevated sense of design are just as likely to skip plant watering as the rest of the world. Fortunately, an industrial designer and a rare-plant collector from San Francisco joined forces to create the original VerdiPot, with a wick that carries water from a lower chamber to the topsoil, so you don’t have to water as often. Made to order from renewable resources via 3D-printing, these pots have a great architectural shape, a fitting foil for a Pilea peperomioides, with its round, “UFO-shaped” leaves.

Living room with nice furniture and plants

About the Writer

Deanna Kizis is a Los Angeles freelance journalist and author whose work has appeared in Vanity Fair, Elle, and Harper’s Bazaar. The former gardening editor of Sunset, she has a California native garden that grows a ridiculous amount of Meyer lemons, figs, nectarines, oranges, and shishito peppers. Her raspberries do have spider mites, and she’d kind of freaking out about it, but she encourages herself — and you — to remember that plants are living things. Perfection is not achievable, but joy is.