Painted mason jars are a great, inexpensive way to bring a bit of farmhouse style to your home. They also make great decorations for parties and holidays! Today I’m sharing my three favourite easy ways to paint mason jars.
Painted mason jars have been kind of a trendy item for a few years now, but honestly I love them and I don’t see them going away any time soon. They seem to look just right in so many different home decor setting and they’re super quick and inexpensive to make! So basically, what’s not to love? I’m using this post today as an excuse to paint up a few more mason jars, just to have to play around with in different places around the house. There are so many different variations on this theme and an almost endless number of designs that would look great in painted mason jar form, but these three that I’m sharing today are my favorites. They’re also the simplest! If you need a quick pick-me-up for a corner of your home, then this just may be the thing you need!
Paint Mason Jars with Chalky Finish Paint and Distressing
I’m pretty sure this is the style of mason jar painting that I would consider the most popular. Today I’m going to show you how to paint this jar using the same custom mixed chalky-finish paint that I used on my front door. This style is always good for adding a little texture and farmhouse charm to your home.
Start out with a clean jar and any type of chalky paint. There are so many different companies making chalky paints now and I love that you can easily and inexpensively pick up a little jar of it in so many different colors.
Place your jar down on some paper towel and start painting! I actually have a couple of non-stick cookie sheets that I like to use for little painting jobs like this, but we’ve been reorganizing our huuge supply of paint and painting supplies and I don’t exactly know where they are right now. 🙂
Any regular paint brush will work just fine for this.
Apply 2 coats, waiting about 20-30 minutes between coats. When it’s all dry, use sandpaper to lightly distress the jar for a really fun farmhouse-y look. I like to distress on the wording, around the edges, and at the top of the jar. If you’re not used to distressing things, you’re going to think you’ve completely ruined it at first, but just keep going. It’ll start to look amazing once you’ve got most of the jar well-distressed.
Paint Mason Jars to Look Like Mercury Glass
This style of jar painting is really stunning and takes almost no effort, even though the end result is super fancy looking. 🙂 Again, working with a clean jar, lightly spray the inside of your jar with Mirror Effect spray paint. I find it almost impossible to avoid drips, so instead try swirling the excess paint around the jar once you finish your full coat. It will look weird and messy at first, but once the paint sets up, it will look great. Let it dry upside down between coats to distribute all the extra paint from the bottom of the jar.
Repeat one more time and you should be all set!
High-Gloss Painted Mason Jars
I really love this style of painting jars. Just like the other two it’s super easy, maybe even the easiest, but the effect is really neat. It makes the jar look sort of glossy and modern, but also kind of vintagey at the same time and the lettering on the jar ends up looking really neat. You can do this type of jar painting with any kind of paint, but I usually just use regular latex paint. It’s neat because you can make jars to exactly match your walls if you want to! 🙂
Start out by pouring a small amount of paint into your jar. Maybe a little less than an ounce.
Swirl the paint around your jar until the inside is pretty much completely coated.
Turn the jar upside down on a few paper towels to drain out any excess paint and cover any areas of the jar that you missed.
I usually give it 15 minutes or so to drain, then I turn the jar right-side-up to finish drying so I don’t get bits of paper towel stuck to the lip of my jar.
So those are some of my favorite ways to paint jars! Of course, the options here are pretty much limitless, but if you want to give your decor a super quick and easy pick-me-up and you have a clean pasta sauce jar, these are some great choices!
Have you ever tried to paint mason jars? Which way is your favorite?
MORE IDEAS LIKE THIS
- How to Turn Any Object into a Silver Plated Work of Art!
- The 10 Minute Pillow Cover
- How to Make Your Peony Blossoms Last up to a Month
- The Paint Brush in the Fridge Trick
- Why We Chose Laminate Flooring Instead of Hardwood
- The Creek Line House Easy-Peasy Decorating Idea Archives
This post contains affiliate links.
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.