DIY Baking Soda Painted Vase

Have you guys seen the trend where people are taking sad old vases and repainting them? You just add baking soda to any water based paint to get a textured clay look. Or a terra cotta finish. It’s really pretty! So I decided to try it with my own look while replicating an expensive Anthropologie vase. Here’s my DIY baking soda painted vase. 

DIY Baking Soda Painted Vase

Here’s the truth, I saw tons of bloggers try this and thought “it’s been done!” Then someone asked me to try it and I got excited- lol! I LIKE trying new things. I like taking a thrifted item and making it over. This is the perfect project to take a thrifted vase and upcycle it. So I’m putting my own spin on it.

I thought I’d combine the baking soda trend with a thrift flip AND an Anthropologie dup to make over two thrifted vases. The Anthro vases cost $86 for both and I spent $2 in supplies since I had the paint on hand. If I were to buy craft paint for this, it still would have been under $15. Not too shabby!

Carmo Vase

SUPPLIES

• Baking Soda
• Water Based Paint. I used Ultra Pure White, Shy Smile, Coral Fountain, Lamplit, Mirador, and Balboa. I used sample pots in an eggshell finish
• Thrifted Vase
• Paint Brushes

step 1

Start by cleaning the vase well inside and out. 

The white paint I used was just latex paint in a satin finish. It worked great! Craft paints would be perfect for this as well. Use 1 Tablespoon of baking soda for 1 cup of paint. Start by mixing that well. FYI- 1 cup of paint was way too much for two vases. 1/4 cup would have been better.

Paint the mixture of paint and baking soda on the vases. At first I only used 1 teaspoon of baking soda and it wasn’t enough. Honestly, more baking soda is better because it puffs up and gives a really nice textured look.

You’ll know you have the right combination if you can see a thick texture where the brush strokes show and bubbles begin to form.

step 2

Next, give the vase a second coat of paint. As an FYI, this paint is SLOW to dry. It took an hour between coats. Putting it under a fan helped greatly. Even after two coats, there were still some thin spots. Since I added flowers, I wasn’t worried. But to get the matte terra cotta textured look, you might need 3-4 coats.

Another thing to know is that because the paint is so thick, it’s prone to drips. So watch for those and clean them up if a run happens in the paint.

FYI- you can be done with this step. The vase on it’s own is beautiful! And you can do them in any color you want. A whole rainbow of these would be beautiful in my humble opinion.

step 3

While I was waiting for the paint to dry, I mixed up 6 paints with baking soda on a plastic plate (so I could dispose of it). I used Shy Smile, Coral Fountain, Lamplit, Mirador, and Balboa.

I pulled up the picture of the vase on my computer and had a really good time painting my vases to loosely look like the Anthro ones. Since I’m not selling these, I feel fine making a dupe. Plus since they’re hand painted, they definitely don’t look the same as the store bought ones. 

Let the vase dry completely.

after

And here’s my pretty little ladies! Aren’t they fun?! My husband says it looks like a kid made them- lol. But I like them!

Here I am in my paint pants because I’ve been grouting my bathroom like crazy. When it’s done, these will look SO pretty in the window!

The texture really is good on these! I personally really love that I can use paints that match the rest of the rainbow colors in my house so they coordinate without being too matchy matchy. Anyway, I’m obviously a fan. Do you like them? Would you try adding baking soda to paint?

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