Pottery painting at Centerparcs

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We recently enjoyed a family holiday to Centerparcs! We’ve got quite a few holidays booked now & we are already looking forward to going back in a few weeks time for Winter Wonderland. On our recent break we enjoyed lots of relaxing activities, including pottery painting at Centerparcs.

If you’re reading this as you’ll probably be visiting Centerparcs soon then be sure to check out what to pack for Centerparcs!

A display showing some of the items on offer to paint.

Pottery painting at Centerparcs is lovely as it is typically quite a gentle activity and if you don’t want to spend lots there are pieces starting from under £10 to paint.

The booking process for pottery painting at Centerparcs

You cannot book activities at Centerparcs until six months before the month of your visit. Note: This is subject to change. However, once activities are open for booking the price you pay upon booking will not change.

Booking in advance makes it ideal for budgeting for your holiday as you can spread out your bookings before you enjoy your holiday and you can just book one activity per week to month before you go.

This particular activity is £5 at present and this has remained unchanged for more than 3 years now. Your £5 usually gets you 1.5 hours in the pottery painting studio. This fee is the studio fee for the time there and the paints, you need to buy your item to paint while in the studio.

A sauna with ice bucket and text overlay that says Aqua Sana at Elveden Forest, Centerparcs

Once you arrive at the pottery painting studio you can make your selection and choose an item to paint. Items are priced individually and you’re left alone to make your selection.

You pay for your item when you finish. If you accidentally break something they don’t charge you in my experience! You can paint as many or as few items as you want, as long as you loosely stick to your 1.5 hour slot that you have booked.

However, I should point out that if you need to go over this isn’t usually a problem as I’ve never seen the pottery painting studio fully booked!

Can you paint one item together?

If you want to paint one item as a family then this is fine. There are plates, initials, various ornaments and lots of seasonal items. They have goodies for Halloween, Christmas and more. Lots of the items have a painted example to give you an idea of what to expect the finished result to look like. There is a HUGE array of items.

Take a look inside a Centerparcs treehouse:

What happens in the Pottery Painting Studio?

You are seated at a table and there is a large plate, with each of the paints on it. This shows you what the end result will typically be once your item has been fired in the kiln. This is fantastic as often the paints look a little different once fired than they do when you’re painting with them, so there are no surprises.

If it is your first visit to the pottery painting studio at Centerparcs then the staff will talk you through where you can find stencils, sponges, pens and much more. There are lots of items on offer to help and it is recommended that you paint three layers of each other, to give the best results from the kiln firing. It’s all really relaxed and fun. Nobody hovers over you to see how you’re getting on or anything.

We loved staying in the new waterside lodges at Centerparcs Elveden Forest. Come see what we thought! #centerparcs #staycation #ukholidays #elvedenforest

The results of our pottery painting at Centerparcs

We chose to paint a bear for our daughter Daisy, which was also a piggy bank. We gave all areas three coats and we chose to use paint that had flecks within it. When painting these looked grainy but the end result was lovely – we think so anyway!

The bear that we painted once it had been fired in the kiln

Here is a look at the back too:

The back of the bear we painted after it had been glazed in the kiln

Our experience of pottery painting at Centerparcs

We have participated in pottery painting at Centerparcs at least 3 or 4 times now. It is an activity that we love and enjoy finding something different each time. We’ve painted a gnome, flowerpot, cookie plate and more.

We find it a really relaxing start to our holiday. Visiting the studio on our last day to collect our item is fun. It is always exciting seeing just how the item has turned out and this is always a really lovely end to our holiday.

Daisy and Thomas outside the Santa's Woodland Workshop with the welcome sign

Personally I love that our home has lots of items within it that we have painted together. We are not the neatest painters, as you can see from above. Our item is unique and that is fun! I love that they have a range of seasonal items all year long. If you want to paint a Christmas item for example you don’t have to wait until December to do so!

Centerparcs Pottery Painting prices

Items start from £11. This is on top of the fee that you pay to book your pottery painting. This fee is for the studio time. Then you pay for the items you paint. You paint the items and then return the following day when they have been fired in the kiln and are ready for collection.