How to Paint a Glass Bottle: Tips & Tricks

We’re all about upcycling glass in this house, especially when you can use it for craft projects! In this post, you’ll learn all about glass bottle painting for seasonal decor.

So get your glass bottles ready, and let’s get started!

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Easy DIY Glass Bottle Painting

For this project, I decided to use beer bottles to make a trio of vases. You can display the bottles together or separately, with or without flowers. They’d make a great accent for bookshelves or window sills, too.

Supplies

• Chalk paint (ultra matte acrylic paint)
• Paint brushes
• Matte acrylic sealer (optional)
• Real or faux flowers

Obviously, you’ll need to get your hands on a few empty bottles to get started. (Maybe that’s part of the fun for this project?)

Any type of bottle will do. Feel free to mix up the bottle shapes if that strikes your fancy!

Step 1: Wash bottles and remove labels

I soak my bottles in sudsy water to help remove labels. You can also use Goo Gone or another similar liquid if you find yourself struggling to get rid of all the stickiness.

Step 2: Paint 2-3 coats of chalk paint

Using a good acrylic paint brush, apply 2-3 coats of chalk paint to your bottle. Start at the base and work your way up to the neck.

This chalk paint dries fairly quickly, so you’ll want to apply the coats quickly, too. You may also want to paint the inside of the bottle neck just enough to hide the amber-colored glass.

I painted the bottom of my bottles after finishing all of my coats. No one will see that part much anyway.

Step 3: Allow the bottles to dry 2 hours after each coat

While one bottle is drying, rinse your brush and start on another bottle. Dry. Rinse. Repeat!

Make sure you allow the bottles to dry fully before applying more coats of paint. If the paint is still tacky, you’ll find that the brush strokes will actually remove the layers of paint underneath.

Step 4: Apply acrylic sealer (optional)

After the bottles are completely dry, you can use sandpaper to strip away some paint and create a more vintage effect, or you can go straight to applying a spray sealer.

I chose a matte spray sealer for this project. It helps protect the paint from peeling or getting damaged.

If you’ve seen my decoupage wooden tissue box or my decoupage wooden spoons, you’ll notice I used a different “high shine” sealer for those projects.

This would’ve given my bottle vases a polished look, but I was going for more of a rustic vibe in this tutorial.

Step 5: Add flowers, and enjoy!

I added some simple faux floral stems from Dollar Tree to complete my look.

Since you’re not painting the inside of the beer vases, you can also use fresh flowers. Just don’t let the outside paint get too wet.

Care Instructions for Painted Glass Bottles

While you can rinse out the inside of your painted bottles, don’t submerge the bottles in water once they’re painted. Use a soft cloth to wipe down the outside if necessary.

I used my painted glass bottles as part of my Easter tablescape. You would never notice these are beer bottles unless you looked closely.

Other Ideas for Bottle Painting

There are so many possibilities for painting glass bottles for any occasion. You could go more modern, add stencils or apply hand-painted details.

I also now have a faux mercury glass technique you can try!

You can also experiment with color blocking or mosaic patterns. Don’t stop with bottles, either! I’ve made painted terracotta pots and painted Dollar Tree pumpkins with similar materials.

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