Easy Vase Painting Idea For A Handmade Flower Vase Upgrade

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Looking for an easy vase painting idea? Transform a plain pitcher with stripes and a vintage touch for a stunning hand painted vase.

How I Transformed a Boring Pitcher Into the Prettiest Painted Vase

I have had this white pitcher forever. Did I find it at the thrift store, or did I buy it myself at Ikea? Honestly, I can’t remember. I just know that it is pretty old.

I was never a big fan of this jug. It always felt boring, so very plain and white. It has no personality. But I never threw it away because it had one redeeming quality: It is huge and heavy and can easily hold a big, hefty bouquet of flowers. Like sunflowers. It is perfect for showing off a large bunch of sunflowers. 

So I decided to give it a little love. 

A little paint.

 A little personality. 

A bit of oomph and oh lala.

Because it wasn’t the pitcher’s fault that it was made plain and dull, and it definitely had a lot of life and use left in it…

… if I just could make it look nice and inviting to use.

Want to see how I made my vase go from boring and bland to farmhouse style with a french twist? Read on!

And if you are in the mood for a good upcycle project, you are lucky today. My French Farmhouse Vase Makeover is my entry for the monthly Wednesday Thrift Store Decor Tour. At this second Wednesday of the month a little online crafting get-together is happening, where my friends in blogging and thrifting, share their latest makeover projects. You can find all the amazing thrift store projects for this month at the bottom of this post.

The Hand Painted Vase Makeover That Almost Wasn’t

I had big plans for this pitcher. Big, striped plans. I was going to do it the proper way with painter’s tape, alternating stripes, the whole nine yards. I taped. I painted. I peeled.

Oh, no!!!

Big project failure.

Massive project failure!

Most of the paint came off with the tape. It was a disaster! (sorry for not taking a picture of my total mess-up).

Turns out, skipping steps is not my superpower. Maybe a bonding agent would have helped. Or primer. Or patience. But I had none of those that day.

Use a bonding agent with your paint and carefully paint between the taped lines. Give the paint sufficient time to dry and adhere before carefully removing the tape.

So do as I say and not as I did. Follow the proper steps with taping and painting and having patience and you will have nice, straight and beautiful stripes.

I washed my failed attempt at painting stripes off and started over. This time, I grabbed a flat foam brush and painted the stripes freehand.

Not perfect. Not even close. But you know what? It worked. And it looked a thousand times better than that sad, plain pitcher.

Adding the Perfect Finishing Touch to my Painted Vase Makeover

I added a vintage French café rub-on transfer. It was the cherry on top. I really feel that this little detail has made all the difference. It nicely distracts from my wobbly, imperfect stripes and it give it a bit of french farmhouse charm.

(It was my first time using a transfer, and I loved the quick result. I have a creeping suspicion that I will be adding transfers to everything soon.)

The transfer I used came from a set with all classic vintage labels. They are from a company called re-design.

And voila! My boring pitcher wasn’t boring anymore. It was a hand painted vase with character. A painted flower vase that could hold a bouquet big enough to make a statement.

The Bouquet That Inspired It All

I found free sunflowers at the edge of a cornfield. And wildflowers. Lots of them. I only needed one cheap grocery store bouquet to fill in the gaps.

And just like that, my sturdy, heavy-duty painted vase was holding a late-summer masterpiece.

It even inspired me to paint a little sunflower card to hang nearby. Because when one easy vase painting idea works, it’s hard to stop.

So What Do You Think?

Could you live with a vase with perfectly imperfect stripes? Do you dig the French Farmhouse vibe of my plain jane Ikea pitcher? Do you have a thrift store find just waiting for this striped painted vase makeover?

I’d love to hear about it. And if you try this, don’t forget to save it, share it, and let me know how it turns out.

Save this vase painting idea for your next craft day!

And here are the enticing before pictures of all the thrift store makeover projects me and my pals from the Thrift Store Decor Group did this month. Click the links below the images to see how they turned these not so fab finds into thrift store treasures.

That’s it for today, friends.

Hope to see you soon, and leave me a comment to let me know what you think of my vase makeover.

Happy DIY decorating!

Thank you for sharing my content!