How to paint decorative ceramic objects, DIY makeover with spray paint tutorial

Did you know you can paint decorative ceramic items? Well, you can!

I'm one of those people that will paint pretty much anything.

I've painted shoes, metal mini blinds, Christmas stockings, couches and fabric

to name a few, so I didn't bat an eyelash over the thought of painting over 

a pair of of ceramic vases I had.

This is what I was starting with.

I love these handmade vases that I bought years ago at a fancy shop.

They are large and heavy with hand applied ceramic petal pieces.

Although beautiful, this beige color just wasn't jiving in my new home 

so I decided to change them up rather than get rid of them.

I started by spraying them with light blue satin spray paint that had

built in primer. This part can be a little scary because they 

look horrible at this point, but keep going!

Next up, I dry brushed a warmer aqua color on top.

The before is on the left, after the aqua is on the right.

***Important...You must spray with a clear satin sealer at 

this point and let dry before going to the next step.

If you haven't sealed and start applying watery paint in the

next step, you will remove your previous paint layer.

Make sure to use satin finish. If it is too glossy, the brown

wash in the next step will not adhere at all.

After they were sealed and dry, I brushed on watered down brown

acrylic paint over the petals. I turned them upside down so the

paint could seep into all the nooks and crannies.

While the paint is still wet, quickly...and patiently in this case with

all the petals!...wipe away the excess brown paint with soft rags.

"Before" the brown wash is shown on the left and "after" on the right.

The brown adds a lovely toned down look with lots of color 

variation.

Seal with several coats of Rustoleum clear laquer, it gives a great high gloss finish.

I almost exclusively use Rustoleum spray paints (unless I can't find

a certain color) because they are just wonderful... and they didn't pay me to say that.

I didn't show this step but before I sealed with the laquer, I 

dry brushed a little gold metallic paint on the edges of the petals.

Metallics are so hard for me to capture in a photo but you can see 

glimpses of it in this photo.

Dazzling metallics in glorious gold is my go-to gold paint.

The "new" vases fit much better in our color scheme.

While I was at it I had a large cut work ceramic orb in bright 

white that didn't really go with our decor either, so I applied 

the same technique.

I used the same color paints as the vases. After completing all the 

steps above, I used Rustoleum Bright Coat in gold and sprayed it very heavily at the

top of the ball until it puddled and let it drip down randomly around the ball.

I coated with with the high glass laquer for the final coat.

It looks much more shiny and metallic than this photo shows!

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