Antique found pot look DIY with baking soda, chalk, and more

Antique found pot look DIY with baking soda, chalk, and more

• 11.05.2020

The "found pot" DIY has been very popular on Instagram since @jaci.daily came up with it earlier this year (see this highlight). Spray paint a thrifted pot, vase, or lamp, then rub mud onto it and wipe it off. It's a super easy DIY project and gives a cool vintage look. 

There are a couple other vase/pot/lamp DIYs I've seen--#trashtoterracotta mixes baking soda with terra cotta-colored paint, and I've also seen a paint/chalk method. Well, I played around and combined them all, and Instagram has loved it! So I'm sharing the full method/tutorial here as well!

Antique "found" pot tutorial

You will need:

• Vase, plant pot, lamp, or other ceramic object (mine was a vase from Goodwill--sticker on the bottom said Target's 2007 Global Bazar collection, ha!)
• Sandpaper
• Paint (I mixed two colors of furniture paint) 
• Paintbrush
• Baking soda
• Dirt from the garden
• Gloves
• Chalk (I found mine for $0.99 at Target)

Helpful toddler not required

Instructions:

1. Sand shiny finish off pot. Paint doesn't stick that well to shiny ceramic glaze, so I really recommend this step.

2. Mix paint and baking soda. Paint pot. I did 3 coats! It's very lumpy with the baking soda in there. Be very careful handling it around the lip to keep the paint from peeling. The clumps/texture give it a lot of character!

3. Make some mud, rub it on. Pretty straightforward. ;P

Then rub it off with a wet rag. You really want to remove almost all of it, but it'll stay in the crevices and will give it a more authentic color.

4. Cover in chalk. I mostly did this with the side of the piece of chalk, but Otto helped with and added some lines. 

Rub the chalk entirely with your hand to blend it all in. 

That's it!

It is a little chalky to the touch but it isn't shedding on the table or anything. You could try adding a clear matte spray paint to protect it, might work. 

I love it styled on this console table with a few other pieces adding warmth and more texture. It's a silly little project but I love how this one turned out!

8.5.2