blogging mom – Page 4 – SunnyMommy Creations

Posted on July 18, 2024July 18, 2024 by Sunshine — Leave a comment

Building a Raised Bed (or Sunken Ship) with Storage (or a Below-Deck Fort)

It’s become a problem that my daughters think I can make pretty much anything. And the problem doesn’t lie so much with them as with me, because almost always I think of a way to make it happen and then create a whole bunch of work for myself.

Enter: Sunken pirate ship bed.

“Oh, Alice, I don’t think I could possibly make… Ok, yeah. I’ve got an idea.” 🤦‍♀️

Honestly, I figured this one out as I went and ended up making the bed high enough to create a play space underneath. I mostly did this for cubby storage, but after throwing on a “secret door,” the space worked perfectly as a below-deck level to the ship/bed.

With a very vague plan, I ran to Lowe’s and bought a bunch of wood.

Supplies:

(As an advertising affiliate and Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. But it doesn’t cost you anything extra and helps me keep up my site!)

2x4x8 wood – 10 boards
1x4x8 wood – 20 boards
2x2x8 wood – 5 boards
1x12x6 wood – 2 boards
3-inch wood screws
brad gun and nails
Charred wood accelerator
old curtains
old basket
decorative rope
cubby boxes
2 door hinges
1 door catch and hook

Step 1: Measure what you need. Working with a full mattress, I needed my bed frame to be at least 76×54. Also, I decided that I wanted 5 cubbies on each side of the bed, so I needed to make 5 openings that were wide enough apart and high enough to fit my 12×12 cubby boxes. Other than that, I had a lot of freedom for how to build this thing.

It was also now that I decided/realized that I would have to build this bed in place, because I’d never fit it through our hall and doorway. And I really didn’t want to carry big sections up the stairs either.

Step 2: Create 2 sides. Again, my main objective was to make spaces for cubbies to slide under the bed and line each side. Wanting 5 sections on each side, I knew I needed 6 divider pieces spaced evenly between the top and bottom pieces of each side. These top and bottom pieces needed to be 76 inches long (to fit the mattress and give a little wiggle room), so I cut four 2x4s to 76 inches.

Next, I cut twelve 2×4 pieces (6 for each side) to 20 inches. I tested out my placement while I still had the boards in the garage just to get a look.

Satisfied, I took the pieces up to the bedroom and began to screw the 12 divider pieces onto the sides’ tops and bottoms. I used a pencil to mark every 15 inches (ish) and then set the dividers in place on the floor with the top pieces and bottom pieces against the ends of the dividers.

Using 3-inch screws, I first screwed the end dividers into the top and bottom of the first side to make big rectangles. These were easiest to line up and make sure they were square, and that helped the inner dividers to be right too.

I next took my interior dividers and centered them on the 15-inch marks I’d made. I used a kids hardcover book to make sure they were square – a very professional tool, sure, but it works. I ended up using 2 screws at each end to be really sure they were on solid.

Once both sides were assembled, I stood them up and spaced them like the sides of a bed – at 48 inches apart so that from far side to far side was 54 inches.

Step 3: Create 2 ends. This might’ve been over-building a bit, but I wanted to be sure the bed was sturdy and solid. Since my sides were 48 inches apart, I needed end pieces that were 48 inches long. So, I went back out to the garage and cut 4 more 2x4s for tops and bottoms, this time at 48 inches long. I also cut 4 more 20-inch divider pieces, 2 for each end.

Taking these back up to the room, I decided to bring the dividers about 12 inches in from each end. I wanted a big space in the middle because, by this point, I was getting the idea for the door leading under the bed.

While attaching the dividers, I used the kids book again to keep them square as I positioned the dividers and screwed them onto the top and bottom of each end piece.

Sitting the end pieces up, I positioned them in place and then used pocket screws to attach the tops and bottoms onto the ends of the side pieces.

Step 4: Create the top. First, I cut 4 long 2x2s down to 76 inches to run the length of the bed. I wanted these for supports to hold the crosspieces that the mattress would rest on. I could have put the crosspieces straight onto the 2×4 top pieces, but I knew from my daughter’s old bed that this way there would be more give to the crosspieces and make the bed more comfortable. 🤷‍♀️ I can’t really explain why, but the added bit of flexing really is nice.

Laying 2 of these support pieces on the far sides of the side 2×4 top pieces, I screwed them on at each end and once in the middle. For the 2 other supports, I spaced them evenly across the center of the bed and screwed them onto the ends.

(I ended up adding little legs under these middle supports, so you might as well do that now too. My legs needed to be about 22 inches. I used one screw for each to hold them on.)

For the crosspieces to hold the mattress, I had a bunch of 1x4s from my daughter’s prior bed frame. That bed’s specs had been a little wide for the mattress, so I cut the 1x4s down a little bit to be the right 54 inches to go across from side to side. I cut 13, purely because that looked like enough and worked for my spacing.

I positioned these 1x4s across the top supports, then screwed them on with shorter screws.

Step 5: Cover the ends. To hide the crosspiece ends and also make a little lip that would hold the mattress, I cut 2 more 1x4s to 76 inches. These I held along the side 2x2s so that they covered the gap between each side’s 2×2 and the lower 2×4 while also sticking up just a bit above the crosspiece ends. I checked with a level to make sure they were right, and then I used my brad gun to nail these cover pieces onto the 2×2 and 2×4 along each side.

I didn’t bother with covering the end against the wall, but I cut another 1×4 for the foot of the bed. I made this board 55 inches long to cover the gap exposing the ends of the 2×2 supports.

Step 6: (optional) Add steps and a door. If you’re building this for a little person too short to climb into the bed, it’s a good idea to add steps to give them a boost. I took scrap 2×3 pieces and cut two 10-inch braces, and I used scrap 2x4s to cut one 15-inch step.

Holding the 2×3 braces against the divider pieces of the section my daughter chose for her step, I screwed them into the 2×4 dividers. Then, I held the step in place and screwed that onto the tops of the braces. Easy.

I created 2 more steps for either side of the big opening at the end of the bed. These were slightly narrower steps, but it was the same process.

Next came the “hidden” door over that big opening at the end of the bed. I had some spare hinges, so I screwed on 2 near the top and bottom of the divider where I’d be attaching the door. (See above picture.)

I had a lot of extra 1×4 scraps, so I cut 2 at 19 inches for the sides and 2 at 18 inches for the top and bottom.

First, I screwed on the side that attached to the hinges. I made sure to hold the board up a little bit so it wouldn’t scrape against the bottom 2×4 at the end of the bed.

Next, I took the top door piece and used my nail gun to attach it to the backside of the hinge-side piece. I thought about using a level, but since my cut was straight for the hinge-side piece, I just lined up the top of the top piece with that. I also made sure to use a little screw to secure them more than just the brad nails, since I’m sure this door will be yanked on a lot.

Once this top piece was secured, I did the same at the bottom.

For the far side piece, I made sure that the door would shut as I held the wood where I wanted it in front of the top and bottom pieces. Then I nailed this on too, and also used a single screw at the top and bottom.

Once the surrounding sides of the door were done, I took some little 1x2s and cut them to about 18 inches. These I spaced across the front of the door like bars, and I nailed them on with two brad nails at either end.

Step 7: Create headboard and/or ship’s mast. I cut four 1x4s to about 53 inches and positioned them vertically against the head-end of the bed, spacing them the same as the 2×4 ends of either side and the 2 head-end dividers below. These 1x4s I screwed onto those 2x4s below so that they stuck up and would support the headboard crosspieces.

As for the mast at the headboard end, I took a long 2×2 and positioned it to be centered across the headboard. This I screwed into the top 2×4 at that end. (If you don’t want a mast, just skip this.)

After these supports, I cut four more 1x4s to run the whole 56 inches across the head of the bed.

You could go all the way up like this, but for my sunken ship purposes, I wanted a gap in the middle the rest of the way up so that the mast would stand out. So, I cut six 1x4s to run only across the end sections, about 19 inches, for the remaining way up the supports.

I considered spacing these headboard crosspieces, and that would look nice too, but my daughter liked it better solid. That’s probably widest, considering stuff can fall through less gaps this way.

Step 8: Insert shelves for cubbies. I wanted the cubbies to sit flat rather than tip on the 2x4s at the bottom of the bed, so I took 2 long 1x12s and cut them to 67 inches long. Then I cut them on my table saw to be 7 inches wide. This left me with about 5-inch strips too. I took all of these 67-inch long boards up to the bedroom and slid them under the bed along each side.

With the 7-inch board sitting on top of the 5-inch board, that brought my long shelf boards up so that they were level with the bottom 2x4s. I used little brad nails to secure the 7-inch board on top of the 5-inch board. This meant no more tipping cubbies, plus I had nice, long shelves along the floor just under each side of the bed. If my daughter doesn’t want cubby boxes in all the sections, there’s a shelf to hold books or something down there.

Step 9: Sand and stain/paint. It made the most sense to wait until the bed was assembled before sanding my edges, since this way I’d know what would be exposed and what wouldn’t. Taking my small hand sander, I went over all the corners, ends, and edges to smooth down any sharp points.

Once that was done, I decided to use charred wood accelerator on the wood rather than normal stain or paint. Since we were going for a “sunken ship” look, I wanted to age the look of the wood and get it nice and dark. If you’ve never used this stuff before, it is SO cool. I’ll put up the video on my Instagram soon to show how it looks as it goes on, but basically you brush it on and it makes the wood…age and look charred. It also dries pretty quickly, which was good for impatient children waiting to play under the bed. 😆

Step 10: Finishing sunken ship touches. I tinkered around with ideas on how to make the rest of the mast support a “sail,” and I ended up securing a tension rod to the wall high over the top of the mast. At the top of the mast, I took a little basket and screwed it onto the top for a lookout. Taking old curtains, I put them on the tension rod and slid one to each side of the mast, then used some decorative rope to tie the curtains onto the lower part of the mast. Tugging the curtains a bit, I pulled them out to “billow” a little bit, the tucked the ends behind the lower center section of the headboard.

Next, I made the bed and tucked the cubby boxes into the open spaces around the sides.

The final touch? Sitting Captain Snoopy in the lookout. 😆

Considering I had no real plan when I started, I’m pretty happy with how this project came together without too much trouble. There’s storage. There’s a play area. And now I’m one step closer to finishing my kid’s “Under the Sea” bedroom makeover!

DIY Must-Have Lists

Posted on June 29, 2024June 29, 2024 by Sunshine — Leave a comment

Bifolds – “Under the Sea” Theme

While struggling over how to make a cave (??!!) for my daughter’s “Under the Sea” themed bedroom makeover, I found another easy project to follow up the mermaid dresser I did last week. Her room needed a mirror, and I needed an excuse to take down the gazillion (approximately) pictures taped to her closet’s bifold doors. I also had a bunch of old shells that I’ve kept in a bowl for years, and I wanted to incorporate them into our design. Plus, I wanted to try a cute craft I’d done many times as a kid, and I had a feeling I’d need it for this project…

Supplies:

(As an advertising affiliate and Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. But it doesn’t cost you anything extra and helps me keep up my site!)

Self-adhesive mirror tiles (12×12)
Hot glue and glue gun
Shells
Optional: Cornstarch, baking soda, watercolor paints

Step 1: Plan spacing of mirrors. Since 12 mirrors came in the pack that I’d purchased and I had 4 bifold door panels, that pretty clearly meant I had 3 mirrors for each door panel. Testing on a door, I held one square mirror (mine are 12×12) and moved it up and down to eyeball how the mirrors would look before committing to their placement. I decided that I wanted to cover the top portions of the bifold doors, hiding the decoratively indented portions. This would leave the bottoms of the doors with the knobs exposed and the lower sections still showing the decorative indentations.

I decided on 2-inch gaps between each mirror, running vertically. As far as centering the mirrors from the sides, I brought each mirror 1 inch in from the center/hinged side of the door panels. That meant I had a 2-inch gap again between the mirrors on each pair of door panels.

To mark where I would place the mirrors, I made lines at the 1-inch point in from the hinged side of the door. I made sure I had 2 inches between these marks, and then I held the mirrors level on these marks. Next, I traced the corners of each mirror as I held them in place.

Step 2: Attach the mirrors. The mirror pack I purchased came with plenty of little adhesive squares to put on each corner of each mirror. I found it worked best to put the squares directly on the door to be sure they’d be within my markings.

Because of my door’s indented sections, I cut a few of the adhesive squares a bit smaller where they wouldn’t connect with the indentations along the back of the mirror anyway. For the mirrors covering these indentations, I made sure to also place an adhesive square in the center where the mirror’s back would touch the door again.

Once I had the adhesive squares on the door, I lined up each mirror with my marked corners and pressed the mirrors gently so the adhesive stuck.

Before you start decorating around the mirrors, be sure to remove any film protecting the mirrors. You don’t want that to get stuck under the decorations!

Step 3: Add shells. You could put SO MANY different decorative things around your mirrors. Fake flowers would be pretty. Decorative rope would work. Different wood molding would look very nice too. Because of our theme, I went with shells.

First, I used my hot glue gun and attached as many shells as I could fit over the doors’ exposed indented areas. These were exposed in the 2-inch gap between my middle and lowest mirror.

Once I had those funky gaps filled and it looked good, I sighed in relief. Next, I did the easier, solid 2-inch gaps between the vertically spaced mirrors.

Gluing on the shells was very time-consuming, but it was kind of like a fun puzzle where I got to decide which shells looked best together.

However, I ran out of shells. 😜

Optional step: Sculpt shells. I didn’t want to buy even more shells, and I only needed enough for the tops of the mirrors, anyway. So, remembering a craft I often enjoyed as a kid, I asked my mom for the recipe she’d used whenever I wanted to sculpt little figurines or make beads.

Recipe: 1 cup cornstarch, 2 cups baking soda, and 1-1/4 cup cold water. Pouring all ingredients into a medium-sized pan, I stirred it up and cooked on medium heat until it looked like mashed potatoes. Then, I took it over to our counter and scooped it out onto some wax paper.

Once it had cooled enough to handle (it didn’t take long), my girls and I grabbed small globs at a time and sculpted our own shells. I started by rolling a clump into a little ball, next using my palm to flatted the ball. Then I squeezed together a little bit at the bottom to make the bottom of the shell. Taking a toothpick, I softly pressed it to make lines in the shell. Very easy!

We made a few starfish for variety, and a few of my rolled balls I flattened and used a toothpick to make sand dollars too.

When done, I carefully took our creations and placed them on a baking sheet. Heating the oven to 200 degrees, I baked the shells for a few hours until they were no longer damp to the touch. They might crack a tiny bit on the surface as they dry, but they’re still strong and hold together. You can air dry, but it takes much longer.

Keep it mind that the bigger and thicker you make your shells (or beads or flowers or whatever), the longer it takes for them to dry. We made a range of sizes, and the starfish in particular took a while to dry because they were about a half-inch thick.

Once dry and cool, the shells were ready for paint! We used a set of watercolors, and this makes pretty and soft colors on the shells – the watercolors soak in better than normal paint and look more natural without the color being overpowering.

These dried quickly, and within an hour these “shells” were glued onto the door just like the real thing!

That was it!

I considered putting shells all the way around the mirrors, but that might’ve been too much. I also wanted to avoid breaking any when the doors opened and closed against the doorframe on the sides, so leaving the sides empty saves me from that trouble.

Most importantly, the 5-year-old is happy! Now her doors have mirrors she can “check her makeup in,” and she can admire all her favorite shells, especially the ones she created herself. 😃

DIY Must-Have Lists

Posted on June 21, 2024June 21, 2024 by Sunshine — Leave a comment

Mermaid Dresser

Much to my surprise, my five-year-old held up her part of our deal to clean up after herself for over a month, and now she’s earned a room makeover. Her theme? “Under the Sea.” We have spent a good deal of time looking up very elaborate options, but my first project was easy enough to tackle before really diving in deep.

When she was a baby, we bought a few dressers from IKEA and stained them… By that, I mean my husband and father-in-law stained them without supervision, and now they are grey instead of white. Now, finally it was time to fix them up so they’re more little girl-friendly!

Supplies:

(As an advertising affiliate and Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. But it doesn’t cost you anything extra and helps me keep up my site!)

Old dresser
Spray paints (I used 2 metallic spray paints and 2 flat spray paints)
something round for tracing
paint pens

Step 1: Clean and prep. I thought I might have to sand the dressers, but they still felt like they’d take paint just fine despite the stain. I did wipe them down pretty well just to make sure I wouldn’t be painting over any dust/gunk. Depending on the finish of your dresser, you may need to sand and/or remove old paint.

Step 2: Spray paint. I wanted the mermaid scales to look a bit iridescent, so I made sure my dark blue and dark purple were metallic spray paints for a sparkly finish. I also used a pink paint and a light green paint for undertones.

I wanted the colors to flow and look right as one “painting” over the whole dresser, so I left the drawers in the dresser as I spray painted.

Starting with the undertones, I sprayed on the green paint first, making sections here and there that I could blend with the other colors.

Then I did the pink over other sections.

For the dark blue, I again sprayed it on its own sections, but I also lightly went over the green to blend the two colors.

I did the same with the purple, going over the sections that remained and then also lightly going over the pink.

I did this for the top and sides of the dresser as well as the drawer fronts. I also then pulled the drawers out a little bit to spray a little color on the drawer edges.

That done, I let the paint dry. While staring at this dresser, I decided that I wanted the other, larger dresser to kind of match this one without being too matchy-matchy. So, I hauled out the drawers and spray painted the fronts of the drawers the same way I’d done the whole other dresser.

Step 3: Trace mermaid scales. After carrying the dresser and the drawers back to my daughter’s room, I tried to decide how big I wanted the scales to be. I settled on a coaster for my template, but you could use anything round that you can trace.

Starting at the top of the top drawer, I found the middle and held the coaster so that about half of it made the rounded bottom of my first scale. First, I marked on the coaster where each side started my tracing – this helped me be sure from then on that I was making the same size scales. I then traced this bottom portion of the coaster with a blue marker – which ended up being a lucky choice that gave me a cool end result. I went all along the top of that first drawer and made evenly placed “scales” for the first row.

Moving to beneath this first row, I lined up my coaster’s lines on the sides so that this next scale was centered under where the above two scales met. (Basically, stagger the scales.) Again, I traced scales all along this second row.

I repeated this all down my dresser drawers, continuing the scales on the bottom of one drawer onto the top of the lower drawer so it all flowed together.

I then did the top because my daughter wanted “scales all over!” Next came the sides of the dresser.

Step 4: Paint over the traced lines. Honestly, just the traced marker lines looked pretty cool, though they were a little too subtle for my daughter’s taste. So, I took a paint pen and traced over all my lines.

(I let the girls do the top of the dresser, although I was twitching and grimacing the whole time. 😬)

I used a pinkish-purple paint pen, and the blue marker lines bled into the paint to give it a really cool, shifting hue as I went. This was totally by accident, but it ended up looking pretty.

The nice thing about the paint pen I used was that I could wipe it away if I messed up, though I had to be quick before it dried. For the top that the girls worked on…Well, they’ll always be able to see where they helped. 😆

Step 5: Finishing touches. You could alternate painting the lines in different colors to give a more varied look, but I liked how mine turned out. I worried that I would need to put a clear coat of polyurethane over the dresser to protect the scales from scratching off, but I’d been right that the paint adhered to the stained (or semi-stained, let’s be honest) finish on the wood. IF you need a clear coat, now’s the time.

Deciding I was done, my daughter and I put on the shiny little drawer pulls, and that was it!

For the big dresser with the painted drawer fronts, we added these same drawer pulls as well. I agreed with her that putting scales on these drawers would have been too much, but the two dressers tie together nicely without being overwhelmingly mermaid-y.

Now I just have to figure out what “Under the Sea” mural to paint on one wall. And how to build an underwater cave. And how to make a sunken pirate ship bed. Wish me luck! 😜

DIY Must-Have Lists

Posted on May 29, 2024May 29, 2024 by Sunshine — Leave a comment

From Water Table to Fairy Garden

This is a project that is great to do with kids!!

My girls outgrew their water table at Grammy’s house… And by that, I mean they’ve moved on to controlling the hose directly and making a wet mess that way.

To give the water table a new purpose, I decided to copy an idea I’d found on Pinterest, but in our own way. Most fairy gardens will have, ya know, plants. However, we didn’t want to use any dirt in ours since water would naturally pool pretty easily and we didn’t want a muddy mess. Instead, here’s what we came up with.

Usually materials that Grammy already had at her house, we rummaged through the craft room and found spray paints, white rocks, black rocks, aquarium rocks/marbles, shells, and some coco fiber liner. I also went to the garage and grabbed some extra pea gravel. Since our water table was basically one level, I also took cheap little pots and used them to make “islands” in our garden. To give all these rocks some life, we found some fake succulents and also some sticks from the yard. Add in a few spare outdoor decorations, and that was it!

Supplies:

(As an advertising affiliate and Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. But it doesn’t cost you anything extra and helps me keep up my site!)

Old water table
Spray paint
Decorative rocks
Aquarium marbles/rocks
Pots and containers
Pea gravel
Fake succulent plants and flowers
Coco coir fiber liner roll
Sticks
Sea shells

Step 1: Clean and deconstruct the water table. I took a hose to the whole water table and used a little dish soap to scrub it clean. After wiping it dry, I took out the little spinner that was in the center of our table. Then I also removed the stopper that kept water in the table – I want it to drain now!

Step 2: Spray paint the water table. To make the top of the table look like land, I sprayed the outside, top, and inside lip a brown color. For the high section in the middle and also the little “pouring” section, I used a grey color to make these look like mountains. (Depending on the dividers of your water table, you could choose different colors for different sections too – perhaps green for a lawn or blue for a section that will hold water as a lake.)

I didn’t worry about painting the bottom of the water table’s top, since this would be covered by rocks, marbles, and pots anyway.

Step 3: Add pots. First, I spray painted a bunch of cheap pots/containers so they would sparkle and stand out from all the rocks. Once these were dry, I wanted the pots in first so I could figure out how I wanted these “islands” to be arranged. I also wanted them in first to avoid having to shove the rocks around as I tried to get the pots to sit flat. Since one container was going to be a pool, I definitely wanted that one to sit flat.

Step 4: Add rocks and marbles. We started with the white rocks, then the black rocks, making different little sections for the two. (I’m told they will be for day and night lounging. 🤷‍♀️) We REALLY liked the look of the aquarium rocks, so those went around the container that would become the fairy pool.

Step 5: Add details. It might have been easier to draw on the mountain rocks before adding things into the water table, but at least this way I knew how far down to draw. Using a permanent marker, I quickly drew little boulder rocks all over the areas that I’d painted grey.

Step 6: Fill pot islands. We put one large rock in each pot to help fill them and hold them in place. Then I used pea gravel and filled them the rest of the way.

You could fill the pots with dirt and plant real flowers in them, but, again, we wanted to avoid any dirt that might cause a muddy mess.

Step 7: Make a fairy house/hut. I took a square pot/container and cut one side to make a door. Then, taking some of the coco fiber liner, we hot glued a piece on top to look like a roof. That was it – very easy.

I also cut a long section of the liner and made a little bridge going from the raised “pouring” section to the middle section where the spinner had been. Grammy was on glue-gun duty, and she glued this bridge right onto the water table.

We then glued the house onto the end of the bridge that covered the pouring section. To really help hold the house in place, I added pea gravel around the sides of the house, and we found a cool rock to place on the roof as well, which added some whimsy to the look of the house.

Step 8: Fill in with flowers/shells/sticks/decorations. First, I spray painted our collected sticks white. While these dried, we got to work sticking the fake succulents into the pea gravel of the pots. We also used one to help pin down the bridge to the center section, cutting a little hole in the liner over where the spinner had been installed.

Grammy had a few outdoor decorations that we stuck in the pea gravel too, and an old lantern turned upside down sat on the rocks to become a cool “fairy beehive,” or so I’m told.

For around the fairy’s pool, we placed a bunch of old seashells, and these also covered the top of one of the pots because that is, of course, where beach fairies live.

When the sticks were dry, we shoved them down into the pea gravel inside two pots on either side of the garden, and these trees gave nice height to the…landscaping, I guess you’d say.

Really (as I hope is evident by our choices), you can use any decorations to make anything you want in your fairy garden!

The last detail to add was water in the pool, and then it was time to play!

I love that this was a good group project, and the kids got to use their imaginations and creativity. I like that we found a new, “big kid” use for the water table. Also, I love that we could use spare materials to make a great, low-cost, mostly natural home for fairies! 😆

DIY Must-Have Lists

Posted on May 26, 2024May 26, 2024 by Sunshine — 1 Comment

Vase Makeover

Since people enjoyed the last DIY glass vase makeover I did, here’s another way to change the look of a vase! My aunt gave me this whopper of a vase, and I immediately knew what I wanted to do with it. I’ve used this same method on smaller vases and pots before, so I can say pretty safely this works on a number of different shapes, materials, and sizes if you have a container that you want to revamp.

The best part – it’s so easy and costs under $20!

Supplies:

(As an advertising affiliate and Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. But it doesn’t cost you anything extra and helps me keep up my site!)

Old vase or pot or any container
Drywall joint compound/spackling
Paint

Step 1: Smear on spackling. I used quick-drying spackling, the kind that is pink and dries white. I like the texture of that kind because it’s not too wet or runny. You can use your bare hands or gloved hands or, like I did just for the sake of trying it, a baggie over the hand that you use to smear on the spackling.

It doesn’t matter whether you start at the top, bottom, side – wherever you want is fine. I took a handful at a time and just smeared it on and around the vase, leaving texture rather than making it too smooth. This gives a kind of pottery look and feel to the vase. You don’t even have to cover every inch of the vase if you want to make swirls, lines, or whatever look you come up with! I also considered running the spackling vertically along the bottom sections while keeping it smeared around the top, just to add some visual interest. This stuff is pretty easy to manipulate, so you could do lots of different designs.

I gave my spackling overnight to dry just to be sure, especially since it was very humid outside at the time.

Step 2: Paint. If you like the color and the look of leaving the spackling as it is once it’s dry, that’s cool too, and I’ve done that before as well. But, if you don’t use a paint or some kind of sealer, the spackling can flake off easier and is really vulnerable if it gets wet at all. If you have a container that is never going to be touched, though, the look of the naturally dried spackling is pretty.

Since my vase would be set on the floor (and because we have dogs and children), I chose to paint over my textured, covered base. This helped seal the spackling so it wasn’t as chalky feeling, and it helped me cover some areas where I’d applied the spackling too thin. I used some leftover paint that’s the same color as the top part of my dining room walls, but I’m pretty sure any paint would work fine. I’ve used those cheap little acrylic paints on this spackling before, and that works great too.

I had a helper for this painting step, but it didn’t take us too long. We only needed one snack break.😆

I used a small craft brush to really get the paint in between the grooves I’d created when wiping the spackling on with my baggie-covered fingers. The spackling really soaks in the paint and gives a kind of natural matte finish unless you paint a second coat to get more shine from your paint. The spackling also soaks in the paint so that it dries really quickly, which was nice so I could set it in place almost right away.

That was it! So easy, and the end result looks really cool.

Options: You could also paint the vase in several different colors, like an ombré effect or stripes or abstract shapes – anything goes! I wanted my vase to be simple, bright, and fairly minimalistic in color so that the texture really popped, so I went with a very light blue that’s almost white (the same color as the top part of my dining room walls).

Another thing I thought of was the option to add on beads during the process of applying the spackling. Again, I wanted to keep my base pretty simple, but it would look really cool to press a string of beads into thicker sections of spackling, then paint over the whole thing to give it more detail, similar to what I did on my bathroom walls (which I love, and I know it would look cool on a vase too.)

What other options can you think of? I’m sure I’ll do more vases like this in the future, and I’m curious to see how different options could turn out!