How To Spray Paint Glass Vases Quick & Easy

3 Materials
$2
1 Hour
Easy

Sometimes we luck out and we find exactly what we need when we need it. It doesn’t often happen that way. Actually it usually doesn’t happen that way.

When I decided that I wanted to spray paint glass vases as accessories in my kitchen I thought I’d try to shop my stash first.

This collection of 20 small milk glass vases. Great score! And in my own storage. Who knew? Apparently, not me. lol. I’ve had these for years and completely forgot about them.


One vase didn’t make it into this pic because I gave it its makeover before I remembered to take the before photo. Sometimes my excitement gets the better of me.


Can you believe I got the whole lot in this basket for just $2? It’s totally true!


It was years ago, and I totally forgot I even had them.


I just plunked the whole kid and kaboodle on a shelf for a some day project and some day never came. Until now that is.


Some are marked Randell, & E.O. Brody Co, but most are unmarked.

Here’s that vase that was so anxious to get its makeover. I had twelve of this one design, which is unmarked, and I only needed eight for this project.


Because there’s a lot going on in my kitchen, decoratively speaking, I decided to keep it simple and use all the same vase design. I could easily have mixed it up but that’s just not the look I was going for.


Also, I would have preferred to use matching clear vases for this project, but I use what I have when I have it. Since I got these vases for such a great price, and they aren’t rare by any means (they can be found for sale all over etsy), it’s all good.


Following the instructions on the can I gave it a two light coats of Rustoleum Sun Yellow. I already had the spray paint leftover from other projects.


I’m excited to be introducing a third colour into my aqua and red kitchen redo, and that colour is a happy sunny yellow.


A third colour that’s just sprinkled here and there seems to give a room more interest, another dimension… in this case a third dimension.


You can spray paint your vases one at a time...

…or space them apart on a lazy suzan covered with paper and paint them all at the same time.

Just spin and spray.

Until they’re done. Easy peasy.

Here they are on my decoupaged kitchen counter waiting to be filled with something awesome.

Like this $1 wooden tulips bunch that I shared in a finds post a while back.

They were all various lengths so I used my mitre saw and box to trim them, using one as a guide.


I wanted them to be all the same height when sitting in the vases.

To give them all some red spray paint love I poked holes into a cardboard box and pushed them through, including the red ones because I wanted them all to be the same red.


This way the green stems would be protected without having to tape them.

Except for the dark blue one, which needed 3 coats, I gave them all two light coats of Rustoleum Apple Red.

And here they are… my indoor garden of wooden red tulips.

This was such a fun project. It’s so easy to spray paint glass vases, and you can make them any colour that suits your own decor.


For me the red tulips with the yellow vases is such a happy cheerful combo.

Here they are in my kitchen. This is the area above the sink and those shelves have always been kinda useless and just attracted clutter and odds and ends.


I’m a symmetry-loving gal and repeating the same look on each of the shelves keeps it looking neat and tidy, but fun at the same time. Having different things on each shelf would make them look too busy for my liking.


Now they make me smile every time I do the dishes. No dishwasher here. So I definitely needs things to make me smile. lol.


Yellow is such a fun colour to work with, and I’m planning to sprinkle a few more yellow projects around the room to give it a cohesive look.


You can find more spray painting projects on my blog here.

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Tuula - Color Me Thrifty
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  3 questions
  • Mose Mose on Mar 25, 2021

    Too cute!! This is just my opinion but I would have used the different designs because they are all so cool looking but still the same height and basic size! How did you get the very base part of the tulips that was in contact with the box painted? Wouldn't it need a small bit of tape on the stems to get that section done? Do you think it would work for living plants that require water?? Thanks!!

  • Kim Sobaszek Kim Sobaszek on Mar 26, 2021

    love this, but love those curtains - did you m anew them and if so is there a tutorial?

  • Karen Karen on Mar 31, 2021

    How did you keep the tulips standing up straight?

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5 of 22 comments
  • Mary McDonald Mary McDonald on Apr 03, 2021

    From what I can see in your final pic, it looks soo mid century. The bright tile, the red, all of it! So nice to see someone not afraid to take chances!

    • Tuula - Color Me Thrifty Tuula - Color Me Thrifty on Apr 03, 2021

      Thanks so much Mary! I just do what I love, and I hope that I can inspire others to do whatever they love in their home decor.

  • Mar66401112 Mar66401112 on Mar 20, 2024

    You just ruined white milk glass. Tulips would have looked better in white vases anyway. Do this to cheap dollar store vases and you got a thing.

    • See 1 previous
    • Sue Sue on Mar 20, 2024

      No, they weren't REAL milk glass... perhaps the ones that had a marking, but not the rest. Back in the late 1980's or 1990's these vases were made as a reproduction of "milk glass", but they were a cheap imitation. You can easily distinguish it from the real 1950's era milk glass.

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