The Decor Mama

A DIY loving, decorating obsessed, mama of three

How to Chalk Paint & Distress Your Mason Jars

| DIY

Hi everyone, and welcome back (hopefully!😉) This week I’m showing you how I chalk painted and distressed my mason jars.  

Now that I’ve done this, I can’t believe I didn’t do it sooner!  My mind automatically went to so many different places of where and how I could have used my cute new (actually old) mason jars.

 They make the cutest flower or plant holders, or I put mine by my sink and used them to store all of my cotton products that I use on the daily!  By the way, I never realized how many cotton products I used until now!  Super random, but I never realized I needed a cue tip, cotton pad, and cotton ball holder until this project.🤷‍♀️  I think that may be the aesthetician in me coming out, but maybe you’re like me too with all your cotton products!…No, okay, I’m used to being the weird one anyways.😉  Now I can’t believe I had them all shoved into one drawer this whole time.  I can’t believe how much easier it’s been to have them out in their cute holders waiting for me to use.  I know some of my friends are thinking, I can!  (Organization is not my strong suit and I’ll admit that, but I’m sloowwwlllyyyyy getting better!)

Enough about me, and all my cotton products; let’s get this project started!!

Materials:

(This post contains affiliate links, which means if you purchase anything from my site, I receive a small portion of the sale at no extra cost to you.  I only list what I’ve used and love!  Thanks so much!!)

  • Mason Jars (I think you guys already knew that one though, BUT there are two brands to choose from, and after doing this project using both brands I realized I like the Ball brand better when it comes to painting and distressing them.  I happened to have more of the Kerr brand on hand so that’s what I used for my bathroom and they still turned out great, I just liked the extra details that the Ball brand mason jar has.)  After saying all that, I would recommend these mason jars if you don’t already have any.  If you are painting these to use as a vase, I recommend the 32 oz. size mason jar, which can be found here.  Both below are 32 oz.
  • Chalk paint color of your choice.  I used this color and brand here.
  • Sand Paper.  This kind works great! 
  • Clear coat gloss finish to help the paint become more durable.  This is what I use.
  • Paint brush.  This is the exact one I use.
  • Something to work on so you don’t get paint or gloss on anything important to you!  I use a tablecloth I got from the dollar store for every craft project I do as you’ll see in the below pictures!

Directions:

  1.  Gather all materials listed above.  Like above picture.
  2. Make sure your mason jars are completely clean if they’re not new.  You can take alcohol and wipe them down if you really want to start with a nice, clean jar.
  3. Grab your paintbrush and start going to town on your jar like so.
  4. Let it dry completely.  I’d say wait about 30 minutes to an hour.
  5. Now paint your second coat!  You’re almost done!
  6. Let it dry completely again, and then paint the bottom of the jar.  Let it dry on the mouth of the jar.  If you want to do a second coat of the bottom that’s up to you.  I only did one.
  7. Now that it’s all dry, it time to sand that baby down!  I like to do all the ridges on the top, all the words, and then some random spots around the jar.  See the picture below to see everywhere I distressed.  I will say that the beauty of distressing is that you can pretty much sand it anywhere that you like, and it will probably look good.  If you don’t like an area you distressed, paint that spot back up and start again. I did that for one jar.  I would also be very careful when you’re distressing the main word, you want to try and not sand around it off.  
  8. Now spray the finished jar, and let it dry!
  9. You’re done!!!  

Now put in all your cotton products like I did, because I know I’m totally normal!😜😉

***I wouldn’t put these in the dishwasher, as the clear coat spray makes them more durable, but they’re still not considered completely durable.  

Thanks so much for coming, and I hope you love your “new” mason jars!  I love how it’s such a cheap and easy way to add character to your house.  See you guys again soon!

XOXO,

Lauren

The Decor Mama

DIY Corrugated Metal Raised Garden Bed

| DIY

 

Hi everyone!  My husband and I have been making a lot of changes in our backyard lately, and we can’t wait to share them all with you! My in-laws are in town and they love to have projects while they’re here. Perfect!!!   His dad can’t sit still and is a total workhorse!  So naturally, being the good hosts that we are, we gave him about 100 jobs to do if he ever got “bored”.😄  One of those jobs was this corrugated metal raised garden bed that he and my husband built together.  

We all love how it turned out!  My husband and I were just saying out of all our backyard projects we’ve done lately, this is our favorite!  So if you’ve ever wanted a garden, I highly recommend using the corrugated metal!  It looks awesome!!!

I have been wanting a garden for about two years now, and about a month ago my gardening dreams finally came true thanks to my husband and father-in-law!  We decided to put our trampoline at ground level, and of course, we did it ourselves (post coming soon about how to do that!:), which meant we had A LOT of dirt lying around.  That’s when my husband said, “Would you want me to build you that garden you’ve been wanting?”  Ummmmmmm, yes, a thousand times over!!  I was so excited!  

We had just recently been to Portland, and while we were walking around downtown, we saw some corrugated metal planter boxes that we both loved.  We both immediately started planning where we could build those for at our own house.  Then we came home, got busy with our kids and life, and forgot about those planter boxes!  That’s usually how those DIY projects go, right!?  Then one day, Dave, my husband, looked at that dirt from the trampoline hole we dug, and decided he should make me the garden I’ve been wanting  out of the corrugated metal.  (Yes, he’s definitely a keeper!:)  I thought it was a genius idea and I couldn’t wait!  

So, thanks to downtown Portland, my smart, handy husband, and my want for a garden, you now get to learn how to make this super cool looking garden!  You could even make those planter boxes we wanted!  The possibilities are endless.  I mean, a garden bed, planter boxes, a fence, a cute table center piece, window flower boxes, etc.! We still want to make planter boxes out of this same material, because we LOVE how our garden turned out so much!

Okay, already, enough rambling on my part.  Let’s get this project started already, right!?

This post contains affiliate links, which means a percentage of the sales of anything you purchase based off of this post would go to me at no extra cost what so ever to you.  Thanks so much if you do decide to purchase something from my links!

Here is what you’ll need before you get started:

**Your amount and sizes will vary depending on what size of garden or planter box you want. The materials listed below are for our U-shaped garden with the dimensions listed below in the picture, so please feel free to adjust accordingly.

Materials:

  • 24 x 12 ft sheet of corrugated metal or whatever size you want.  This size cost us $22 dollars.
  • 10 4 x 2’s of Pressure treated lumber.
  • 1 box of decking screws at least 2.5 or 3″ ($20) (Comes with it’s own star bit.)
  • 1 box self tapping metal screws 1.5″  We used these, and they worked great for us!
  • Counter sinking drill bit. This helps with building the frame.  This is what we used.
  • Weed blocker for the bottom.

Tools:

  • Drill  (My husband likes this drill the best if you don’t already have one.)
  • Tape measure  (Here is a good one.)
  • Grinder or Jigsaw (This is what we used.)
  • Chop Saw  (This Chop Saw is always a good choice.)
  • Pencil or pen

Now comes the fun part; getting started!

Directions:

1.)Pick the area you want to build your garden and measure it out.

(We chose the U shape so we could walk into the garden.)

2.) Now you are ready to build the frame. We wanted the garden to look as aesthetically pleasing as possible so we made the squares that face you first, so that the frame looks the best from the front view. We also made the middle piece. See the order we built the frame in the picture below.

To connect the frame we countersunk at every right angle 1 & 1/2 inches and used a 3 inch screw to ensure that it was super sturdy.  The head of the hammers below represent each spot we countersunk.

Here’s a close up of what it should look like.

3.)  Once the three facing squares were made, we started cutting the long pieces to length. We cut the back long pieces and the sides. Refer to picture again if need be.

4.) Now it’s time to join the fronts to the long edges and back as you see in the picture above.  A second person comes in handy here to help hold the frame while you screw it together. We used the longer 2.5 inch screws. 

5.) Now your frame is ready! We measured the inside to start cutting the metal. We wanted a little overlap so the soil would hold as well as possible. We then cut the metal with a jigsaw. We slid the metal into place and used the self tapping screws to join to the wood. See picture, and don’t mind our son in the background playing! (Real life pics happening here!😉)

6. Next, you’ll put some sort of weed barrier down as shown below. 

7. You’re almost done!  Now fill it with dirt and soil! I recommend at least good gardening soil on the top layer.

8. Then we ran irrigation to it, but that is up to you!

 

9. Now plant your plants and watch them grow!  Ours are growing like crazy!!  We’ve got watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberries, potatoes, tomatoes, spinach, jalapeños, sweet peppers, bell peppers, squash, basil, rosemary, cilantro, and green onion all growing in ours!!!

We hope you enjoy your new garden as much as we are!!  

XOXO,

Lauren

The Decor Mama