How To Paint Mason Jars With Chalk Paint (And How To Distress Them Too!)

Learning how to paint mason jars is a lot easier than it looks.

It might look intimidating at first because they look absolutely amazing once you’re finished. But once you get a few basics down, that’s all you’ll need to turn into a mason jar queen.

All you’ll need are a few materials and your favorite colors. Today you’ll learn how to paint mason jars with chalk paint.

Table of Contents

How to paint mason jars with chalk paint

[ingredients title=”Supplies”]

Rubbing alcohol (any percentage strength will do
A cotton swab or too
Paint brush or painting sponge (I prefer a paint brush)
80 Grit sandpaper (or something near that)
Your favorite mason jars
Chalk paint in your preferred color

[/ingredients]

[directions title=”Directions”]

Make sure your jars are clean by rubbing them in and out with rubbing alcohol
Once they’re dry, you’re ready to start painting them with your chalk paint
Use a small bowl or cup to pour your paint in and start painting your jars in vertical motions with your paintbrush (I prefer the look of a paint brush to a painting sponge)
Then let sit and dry from anywhere to 30 mins to one hour (I waited about one hour while I went about doing other things)
Now, take your sandpaper and start sweeping it gently in vertical strokes all around your jar
Do this slowly and with more force until you get the desired ‘distressed’ effect
Blow off any extra dust from the paint and you’re all done
Now it’s time to enjoy your distressed jars!

[/directions]

How to distress your mason jars

You really want to make sure you run your sand paper in sweeping up and down motions against the paint. Do it slowly so you’re seeing the results and you can stop when you get the look you want.

Since I’ve done this a few times already, I felt like I really wanted to go in with the sandpaper. So I distressed it a bit more than I normally would.

I must say I really liked the results. It added a unique touch to the whole look.

Usually, when you see distressed mason jars, you’ll see the paint distressed around the neck grooves and the name etched on the jar. If that’s the look you’re going for, distress your jars slowly and focus your pressure on the raised edges and grooves of your jar.

There’s really no real right or wrong way to go about this. There are only general rules for best results! 🙂

The chalk paint results

You can see this is how my vases turned out! Aren’t they gorgeous?

The baby pink color really goes with the edges if the roses and they come together pretty nicely. It’s the perfect arrangement for a particularly girly room (I prefer blue hues, but going pink once in a while can’t hurt!)

When I made the mason jars I didn’t really want to make a drive to the store for some natural flowers so I walked down to my local park and grabbed a few.

Once I saw them I knew they’d look perfect with the distressed pink color and in the end they definitely made a nice pairing.

Did you try this mason jar project? Let me know in the comments.