When it comes to decorating I’m always on a look out for new accessories I can make or bring back home. One of the recent interior trends involves finding beauty in the imperfections and styling your space with raw, unfinished or used items. Think of aged wood, cracking paint, fryed edges, broken plates . It’s about celebrating the process of creation, aging and traits it leaves. The best place to shop for this kind of items is of course flea market, filled with second-hand, often very ‘imperfect’ objects, however if you wish to experiment a little bit and create your own piece at home – I have a great tutorial to help you with that. Today we will be making a DIY peeling paint vase.

As the whole project is aiming for imperfection, there are no set rules, so just try to have fun and make it look authentic. Follow the instructions below to see how I achieved this kind of effect on my terracottavase:

You will need:

terracota vasewhite painttissue papersandpaper (optional)

spay glaze (optional)

Instructions:

1. Before starting this project, make sure to clean the terracota vase well from the dust it might have. Then spray paint the entire vase in your chosen color. I have used white, as I really like the look of white on terracota (especially when it’s peeling!)

2. You have to be quick here. Take a tissue paper in your hand and before the paint dries completely, wrap it around the terracota vase, pressing it well to the surface. Leave it for about 1 minute so that the tissue absorbs a little bit of paint.

3. Gently remove the tissue paper from the surface of the paint. While tearing it away, you should notice – the ‘peeling paint’ effect it leaves on the vase. Continue removing the tissue paper until it’s completely gone.

4. At this point, the vase might already look how you desire. I like it, with a delicate traits of peeling paint. However if you are going for a more rough look, use sandpaper to make more marks.

5. At the end you can keep it row as it is (that’s what I did) or add a layer of glaze to make sure the look you created is permanent.

Are you happy with the final result? This kind of ‘imperfect’ vases fit very well, white Scandinavian interiors, adding a bit of texture and character. I’m loving it on my studio shelf.