DIY Pottery Barn Inspired Earthenware Vase

7 Materials
$10
1 Day
Easy

Do you love all those gorgeous stoneware vases popping up in all your favorite stores, but not the high prices? Me too. So I decided to create my own using a Dollar Store vase, drywall compound and paint!

Pottery Barn is one of my go-to stores for home decor and inspiration. But sometimes those items I really adore are a bit out of my budget! Like these gorgeous vases I recently found! Earthenware has become so popular lately and there are DIY replica's all over Pinterest! Unfortunately, most of them use items I don't always have on hand! Like Plaster of Paris. Several even called for dirt! Which for some reason I just can't picture using in my home decor.

But as a DIY'er whose always remodeling one room or another in her 100 year old home, I always have drywall compound on hand! So I decided to experiment with it and this Dollar Tree vase I picked up months ago.

To start, I gave the vase a good cleaning with a vinegar+water solution. Then I used a primer and gave it one light coat. I did this because just like paint, I assumed that the drywall would adhere better. (FYI, it did).

Once the primer dried, (about 30 minutes), I applied the drywall compound. I used the best tools I had. My hands. Yes, it's a bit messy but it allows you to control the compound easier. I used about a 2/3 cup or so on this size of vase. I wanted the look of texture in some spots and smooth in others. Thankfully, drywall takes a bit to dry so it gave me time to experiment.

Drywall compound normally takes 24 hours to dry completely before painting over. But that is what is recommended for actual drywalling. I gave mine about 1 hour and it was dry to the touch. Perfect for painting. For the base coat I dry brushed a light coat of beige (Warm Buff) over the drywall compound. I let that dry for about 20 minutes and then I used the same brush and tapped it over certain sections of the vase with a light grey.

Without letting the grey dry, I continued by tapping my brush over other smaller sections with black paint. And then finally, a few sections with white paint.

I then allowed this to dry for about 30 minutes. When dry, I took another paint brush and dry brushed on some more beige to blend it all together. Then I let it sit overnight to dry completely. I know Drywall compound lightens as it dries on walls, but remarkably, even though it was covered in paint on my vase, by morning it too was quite a bit lighter. Which was actually the look I had hoped for!

The last thing I did was give the vase two light coats fo Clear Coat.

I'm really quite satisfied with how my experiment turned out, and because I had all the materials the cost was $0 compared to the $80 for the inspiration vase! You can find the full tutorial and material list in the link below for my blog!

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  • Chris McRae Chris McRae on Aug 24, 2020

    How do you keep something like that clean?

  • Sbu5599 Sbu5599 on Aug 24, 2020

    Can you use both real and artificial flowers and plants in the vase? With water?

  • Katen Katen on Aug 22, 2022

    I have many of these vases. This is great idea and anxious to try. Wondering tho if you use for fresh flower arrangements water will be used. Your thoughts on clear coating for water resistance?

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