Homemade Chalk Paint Recipe Jars - A super easy homemade chalk paint recipe. Plus, a tutorial on how to make these rustic looking glass jars by recycling glass jars and scraps of fabric.

I’ve always wanted to try a homemade chalk paint recipe and have seen a ton of them on Pinterest. Unfortunately, most of them contained crushed chalk, grout, or some other type of ingredient that I don’t normally have on hand. Then, I came across baking soda chalk paint! I can’t tell you how excited I was to find it…I actually jumped for joy a little inside.

Why would a chalk paint recipe make me so excited? Well, for starters chalk paint can be expensive at $9 for an 80z. bottle or in the double digits for some awesome Annie Sloan paint. Plus, I’ve always wanted to do a project using homemade chalk paint, but really didn’t want to spend money on buying an ingredient that I may never use again. Since I always have baking soda and paint, I knew I could do a project with this homemade paint at virtually no additional cost. That’s my kind of project!

Anyway,  after my initial excitement, I immediately ran to the garage and picked out three  glass bottles, made some chalk paint, and started painting. Guess what? I LOVED how they turned out! Not to mention, I really didn’t spend any additional money on making these jars because I already had all the supplies on hand! Can I get a woot-woot?!

Homemade Chalk Recipe Jars

Supplies

  • Baking Soda
  • Acrylic Paint
  • Paint brush
  • Fine grit sandpaper
  • glass jars
  • fabric scraps
  • glue gun

Chalk Paint Recipe

  • 1/2 cup paint
  • 1/4 cup baking soda

I did not make this entire recipe and really just eyeballed the consistency of my paint. I probably only used four tablespoons of paint and added in the baking soda until I had a creamy/gritty textured paint – the consistency of tooth paste. This worked out well, as the paint will not keep and will begin to harden – best to make in small batches.

How to Make Homemade Chalk Painted Jars

Clean jars

Step 1. Before starting, clean your jars and remove any labels or glue.

Tip: Remove as much of the label as possible and place the jars in a large Ziplock bag with a little Ammonia in it. Let it sit overnight. Take the jars out and scrub off as much of the label glue as possible and use pure acetone (nail polish remover) to remove any leftover residue. You can also just try using acetone to remove the glue by soaking cotton balls and placing them on the glue residue and scrubbing off. Mix together the chalk paint and apply to the outside of the jars. Try to keep brush strokes going in one direction. After painting, let the jars completely dry before sanding.

Paint on chalk paint
Drying jars
Sanded bottles

Step 2. I only did one coat and you can see from the pictures that it isn’t perfectly even. However, I was fine with it because I planned to distress the jars and did not need a perfect finish.  Take a small 2″x 3″ cut piece of sand paper and lightly sand the bottle. Try not to press too hard or you may remove too much paint. It’s best to do small layers at a time until you reach your desired look.

Tip: keep the sand paper as flat as possible (don’t make any bends in the paper). Any hard edge of the paper that scraps against the bottle can remove too much paint. Try to do the sanding outside or wear a mask as this does create a lot of dust. If your bottles are a completely blank, you can skip the next step and just display them. However, my jars had the brand on the bottle, so I opted to cover the top and bottom of the bottle with scraps of painter’s cloth left from a previous project.  To keep the strips manageable, cut each piece 21″ long x 7/16″ wide. You will need three strips for the top and three for the bottom = 6 strips for each bottle.

Wrapping Jars

Step 3. Start by placing a small dab of glue at the top of the bottle and press the end of the one of the strips into it. Wrap the strip around the bottle, overlapping the strips as you work your way down the bottle. Make sure to periodically glue down the strip at 1/2″ or 1″ intervals.

completed jars

Step 4. Once you have glued the strips onto your bottle, you can display them or decorate them further with jute, string, tags, and more. I added twine to the top of the bottles and you can see the completed version below. 

Jar Vignette
Fall Thanksgiving Mantle

Not too bad for a project that can be done using recycled glass jars, homemade chalk paint, and some leftover fabric. What do you think? Will you give baking soda chalk paint a try?

2014 Fall Mantel

Fall Give Thanks Chalkboard Sign

Easy Fall Pillow

Fall Pumpkin Makeover

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27 Comments

  1. This is a simple craft project that turned out looking great on your mantel! I like how the simple white chalk paint and burlap make the perfect background for the bright orange autumn leaves. Very pretty for fall!
    Carol (“Mimi”) from Home with Mimi

  2. This is such a great idea! I will definitely try it this year! Thank you for sharing. 🙂

  3. I love how they turned out. I had no idea on how to make the paint, I wonder can you wash it off, if you wanted to change it?

    Thanks ladies for stopping by to share your post this week.
    Have a great week!!!
    Karren

  4. This looks awesome. I loved how you distressed them and added the burlap. I have never tried the baking soda, just the plaster of paris. I think I need to try it.

  5. It looks like I need to eat some pasta soon so I can make this project! I would love it if you would share a post on my Meet Up Monday Blog Party!
    Jenny Marie

  6. This is such a coincidence, I have some jars on my work table that I wanted to do something like this to~I love the addition of burlap, very cute!

  7. Hey Erlene,

    Coming over from my blog since you left a comment. Nice site you have here!

    Great article and love the part where you share lots of images. Good job!

    *PS You may want to consider on the infolinks that scroll upwards. A little … ‘challenging’ to read, so to say 🙂

    Have a blessed day new friend!

  8. These are beautiful. They compliment your chalkboard sign and other decor wonderfully. I usually save my spaghetti sauce jars, too. But I use them to hold other stuff like food items, money, and other. Love how you made them pretty!