DIY Textured Vases: Transforming Glass into Faux Pottery

This post contains affiliate links.

There is a specific technique that has taken over the blogosphere in recent months and that is transforming glass vessels into faux pottery. By mixing in various ingredients into the paint, you can add texture and an opaque color to your glass vase. This gives it the appearance of ceramic or hand-crafted pottery.

If you browse any of the high-end home decor websites like Restoration Hardware or CB2, you’ll see plenty of these textured vases and vessels gracing their catalogs. The cost of these pieces often runs around $100 or more. Check out this screenshot below and pay attention to the prices!

So I went on a mission to my local thrift store. I love browsing the shelves there, looking for unique treasures that I can make over. I came home with a set of glass vases. I love the various shapes and sizes and textures. Here is what I came home with!

I used these flat paints here from Home Depot. I talked about these paints more in this recent post but these are sample-sized paints from Home Depot. They were under a dollar for high-quality paint in any color of your choosing. 

I started by smearing on some spackling onto a few vases: a light application on one and a heavy application on the other.

For the next vase, I mixed baking soda and flat paint in an equal ratio. This create the following super-textured vase. 

For one of the others (the middle one in the picture below), I just used the flat paint directly on the glass. For the right-most vase in the picture below, I first applied caulk to the vase, let it dry fully and then paint. 

I absolutely love the final results. I love that they are all in the same color family but with slightly different shades. I love that they are all matte and all so beautifully textured.

Here is a detailed breakdown of how I treated the vases:

• Thick Spackling: This is also known as joint compound and is typically used to seal tiny nail holes in the wall. I put a generous amount on the vase. The final result is a super-highly-textured surface. For this method, I waited until the spackling was dry and then painted the surface with a flat paint. 
• Thin Spackling: For my next vase, I used spackling again but this time, I used a much lighter application. I wanted a bit of texture but nothing too extreme. Again, for this method, I waited until the spackling was dry and then painted the surface with a flat paint. 
• Baking Soda + Paint: For this technique, I mixed baking soda and flat paint in a 1:1 ratio. I then applied this directly to the glass vase, paying attention to get good coverage.
• Caulk: I smeared some caulk onto the glass vase. Once that was dry, I painted over the surface with a flat paint.

I’m really happy with the finished product here. I would totally do this project again! 

Overall Impressions:

I enjoyed this process. It was somewhat fun to radically transform all these glass vases. I do love the final look of them on my dining table – nice and opaque and textured. They definitely are a statement piece, especially as I’ve grouped them altogether. 

As far as which method produced the best / easiest results, I found the spackling much easier to work with than the caulk. The caulk seemed to slide down the glass if there was too much on the surface, while the spackling tended to stay in place more easily. I wouldn’t choose to use the caulk for a project like this again.

With the spackling, you have full control over the final look. You could add a lot and really customize the texture.. or you could just add a bit for a touch of texture. It’s really up to you. 

The baking soda (mixed into the paint) also worked well. Depending on how much baking soda you add in to your paint will determine how thick and textured is the final finish on the vase. I added a lot of baking soda and my vase had a very 3-dimensional surface! 

I hope you enjoyed this overview of ways to texturize glass vases. Have you tried this technique on any glass vases?

Ever wanted to learn Arabic online? Check out Arabic Road & learn Arabic on your own terms.

Disclosure: Engineer Mommy is a participant in the Amazon Services, LLC Associates Program, which is an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. For additional details, please see our full Disclosure Policy. Any link may be an affiliate link. All opinions are exclusively my own.