Tuesday, June 26, 2012

DIY Mercury Glass

Across the blogosphere and on Pinterest, I have seen several tutorials for DIY mercury glass. As a huge mercury glass fan, I thought I would give it a shot, especially since we are using mercury glass at the wedding. Here is my attempt and thoughts on DIY mercury glass:

First of all, I want to start off by sharing some gorgeous mercury glass vases with not so pretty price tags. This first one is courtesy of West Elm (love!) for $19, which is not that bad.

The next one is from Pottery Barn for $79.00...WHAT?! I'm sorry, but who has $79 to drop on a vase?? Well, probably lots of people but definitely not me!


When I decided to try this out myself, I used two mercury glass lanterns that I already owned as a visual while I followed the tutorial. You might remember these guys from this post:

I got both of them from Ross for $5.99 each!

So, I went to Hobby Lobby to buy this:
Krylon Looking Glass spray paint ($11.99 i think?)
Expensive, but the only kind that works. 

Then I followed this tutorial (minus the vinegar) and voila!

Now, in this picture, the vase that I painted (on the right) looks like plain silver
but in this picture (below), 
You can actually see the mercury glass effect. 

Here is one more with the "candlelight" setting on my camera:

While I wish mine had come out looking more like the lantern on the left, I think the overall effect is pretty good! Next time, I will definitely try to 'chip' away at the paint before it dries to give it more of the speckled glass effect. 

What do y'all think? Would you ever give DIY mercury glass a twirl? 
I will definitely be giving it another shot! 


3 comments:

  1. The vinegar might be what gives it that speckled look... if I had a house to decorate I might give it a shot. Spray painting in a condo, no thanks :-P
    ~Candice

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  2. I think Candice is right. It's still very pretty.

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  3. I agree. I don't have any white vinegar in the house so I will have to buy some when I try this again. Thanks for the tip and I miss you girls!

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