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:
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- 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!
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