I’m coming off a whirlwind five days at my second Haven Conference in Atlanta and am still dragging and in a daze. My mind is sooooo full of awesome information and inspiration and is swimming with all the memories of fun and quality time with old and new blogger friends alike. This virtual space is so amazing, both for bringing me you sweet readers as well as bringing some of the absolute closest and best friends I have. We only see each other once a year but we waste no time catching up and gabbing till the wee hours of the morning. It’s crazy how a simple conference can be so energizing yet tiring at the same time :)
**this challenge was sponsored by Homeright and affiliate links have been included for your convenience. Click here for my full disclosure policy
For this month, we decided to make use of some items we already had by giving them an update. Homeright graciously sponsored this month’s challenge and we all used one of their convenient spray shelters to help with our updates! I have accumulated a ton of mason jars (thanks to my canning pro aunt!) and wanted to put them to use so I decided to give them a beautiful sea glass makeover and use them as storage containers in our guest bathroom.
Supplies for Sea Glass Mason Jar Storage
- clean, label-free mason jars in various sizes
- clean and dry seashells/coral/beach treasures (please collect your own and don’t buy!)
- sea glass spray paint
- metallic spray paint
- glass etching cream
- hot glue or all-purpose Bondo (I ended up using hot glue so no fumes)
- acrylic paint (I used black, dark gray, and a pearl)
- small paintbrush
- foam brush
- HomeRight spray shelter (large or tabletop!)
A friend of mine did a similar technique with some small apothecary jars and used Bondo to attach the coral/shell to hers, however, I decided to go with regular hot glue instead since the Bondo has fumes and really didn’t want to sit outside on our 110 heat index patio to do these.
How to Make Sea Glass Mason Jar Storage
At the risk of being kicked out of DIY blogger-dom, I will say that I am NOT a fan of spraypaint, at.all. The mess, the fumes, the inconsistency, the overspray which I always get in trouble for… it’s just not my cup of tea. Give me a brush and a can any day. But sometimes there’s finishes you just can’t get in anything else and I have to do it. When I do though, the first thing I reach for is my Homeright Spray Shelter. I no longer have to worry about overspray or concocting some contraption to hold or contain whatever I’m painting, I just pop it up and spray away either with my FinishMax sprayer or with spraypaint.
The shelters come in a super small and convenient bag and are easy to put together. The large shelter can be a bit cumbersome if you’re flying solo, so get some assistance if you can to help hold it till you wrangle it down, trust me. They also just released the Tabletop Shelter which is PERFECT for smaller projects! The directions are located inside the bag and it comes with poles and stakes just like a normal camping tent.
To keep from having to bend over, I threw a board on some sawhorses to set my items on. My jars would have been perfect for the tabletop tent but I actually also like being able to walk around and get all sides with the large one, so just use whichever you prefer.
To give the lids a more antique-y look, I sprayed them with my favorite metallic spraypaint in hammered pewter.
I’ve been DYING to use this new seaglass spraypaint since I first saw Sadie Seasongoods use it and I knew this would be the perfect project! I got both the green and blue, although the blue was just a bit too bright for my taste. (*note to others, don’t take out the teensy tiny little white triangle thing in the nozzle and drop it in the grass, it’s what makes the spray super fine…)
To recreate a clear sea glass finish, I used glass etching cream. This was my first time to use this stuff and I gotta say, not a fan. It took three coats/tries to get a relatively overall finish. Maybe it was the heat or my application technique or something, but I struggled with it. The sea glass spray paint also comes in a light gray so I may try that next time instead.
To glue the shells on, I found it was more effective to put the glue on the piece first and then stick it on the lid. Once that was stuck, I just filled in around it with more hot glue, giving it a molten/drippy look. Also, if you have large shells/coral be sure to put the ring on BEFORE you glue them on (unlike I show here)!! I didn’t and the ring wouldn’t slip over the oyster shell one so I had to take it off and start over.
To make the glue look like metal, I mixed black, dark gray, and pearl acrylic paints until it gave me the color I wanted. Then I just painted over the glue with a little paintbrush (sorry for the crappy iPhone pic, it was late night).
Now our beachy guest bathroom has some beautiful accessories to bring a little touch of color to the space! The sea glass spraypaint is gorgeous and I can’t wait to use it again, especially in my brand spanking new tabletop shelter.
acrylic paint
Spray Shelter
metallic spraypaint
cordless hot glue gun
sea glass spray paint
foam brush
glass etching cream
Fixer Upper-Inspired Crate
Stenciled Patio Cushion
Distressed Nailhead Leather Monogram
These are beautiful, Emily! The seashells really up the authenticity of the sea glass look! They look like something you’d find in a boutique!
Aw, thanks so much Bre!!
Paint a coffee table
LOVE the sea glass look and SO creative to add the shells on top! They’re gorgeous Emily!!!
Thank you Kristi! Any excuse to glue shells to stuff ;)
These are beautiful, Emily! Love the color and the shells on top are perfect! We love collecting shells from trips and this is an awesome way to display them!
That’s a great idea Kendra!
The Sea Glass Mason Jars are simply beautiful! So creative and it adds such an outstanding touch to any room, and they look like you spent a lot of money on them! ? Such a great idea!
Thank you so much Jessica!
LOVE the look of these jars! They absolutely look like pretty sea glass. And I know you hated working with the etching cream, but the clear ones really turned out beautiful too! Love the colors and the seashells you went with. Totally Table + Hearth! :)
Ugh, it was the worst!! But I was glad they got alot better after the second coat :) Always an adventure working with new products!!
These turned out SO good!! That seaglass spray paint is perfect for you and they totally look like you bought them in the store!
Thanks Bre!! I can’t wait to play with it some more!
These are beautiful! I’d love to have one of those handy pop-up tents to refinish a china cabinet I want to tackle..
My project is a little night stand table that I want to paint.
Angela….I’ve never used Sea Glass spray paint and the etching product. How will you use these products on a night stand table? I learn something new every day!
love this project. Can’t wait to try it myself. These are gorgeous.
Thanks Melissa!! That spraypaint is so.much.fun to use :)
Your storage jars turned out beautiful! I’m not sure if you know, but Krylon makes a frosted glass spray paint. It would certainly be easier and cheaper than using etching cream to frost the jars, and you can use it over other colors (like maybe that blue of yours that was too bright).
Oh cool! I saw the gray seaglass paint but I haven’t seen their frosted glass one so I’ll definitely look for that instead next time. I was NOT a fan of the etching cream :) Thanks so much for the tip Kathleen!!
I am a beginner, total novice crafter so my question might seem quite ignorant, BUT — if using Krylon frosted glass spray paint, would it achieve much the same look as the glass etching cream? Also, I am presuming the sea grass spray paint is automatically frosted, not glossy? AND, I’ve seen postings of mixing Elmer’s Glue with food coloring for an opaque look … how do these two methods compare? What are the advantages or disadvantages of each method? Thank you for your patience with my learning curve. :-)
I have had others tell me that the frosted glass spraypaint does look like clear seaglass so it’s worth a try for sure. And no, the sea glass spraypaint I used is not glossy, it has a slightly rough feel just like real seaglass. I’ve only ever worked with the spraypaint so I can’t compare it versus the Elmer’s Glue method but again, always worth a try. I’ve learned that 80% of “crafting” is just trying things out to see if they actually work or not :) Have fun!
Hi! These are so cut but what does the etching cream for? I dont quite understand.
The etching cream is used to make the clear sea glass look because I couldn’t find clear/white seaglass spray paint.