DIY Pottery Barn Inspired Beachy Beads!

DIY Pottery Barn Inspired Beachy Beads!

create that beachy vibe trending for summer with this easy hack!

Hello, friends!

As I mentioned in my previous post, things have been a bit crazy busy around here. So, unfortunately, I haven’t spent much time here with the blog.

Because of that, I missed out on a fun challenge with some of my blogger friends last week. I love those challenges, but I especially LOVED that one because it was creating a knockoff of a high-end decor piece!

If you’ve been around here for even five seconds, you’ll know I absolutely ADORE re-creating high-end pieces for little or no money!

And one of my favorite places to be inspired is usually Pottery Barn. Because…well, they have AMAZING stuff!

Recently I was over on their site ordering up a few things and I noticed that they had a LOT of ‘beachy’ decor items.

I’m not much on following trends, but friends…I REALLY do love the beachy vibes of summer, so I was drooling over everything they had.

Including these pretty glass beads! That soft blue just screams beachy, doesn’t it?

So…being me instead of grabbing them up I decided maybe I would try to make some of my own.

As I pondered how a thought came to me that I could spray paint some beads with some of this Sea Glass Paint.

But it wasn’t the exact color (in fact reviews said it was super dark) and the aqua was just a bit too green. Besides…using that spray was just TOO easy.

With that idea blown, I decided to get a bit more creative and create ‘my’ version of these beads using items I already had on hand.

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what you’ll need to create beachy beads:

• Beads ( I had some leftovers from when I made those napkin rings and the hanger for my spring wreath this year.) Mine are small, but you could use whatever size.
• Paint ( I used a combination of white chalk paint and coastal blue.)
• Looking glass paint
• Clear Glossy Enamel Paint
• White string
• dowels
• Styrofoam

how to create beachy beads

Mix your paint.

Since I wasn’t going to get the ‘frosty’ look that the inspiration piece had I chose to just go with a soft blue. I used 2 parts white to 1 part blue to achieve this color.

 

Paint the beads

To do this I stuck a dowel through each hole in the beads. Then I dipped the beads into the paint and swirled them around until the beads were covered. Then I stuck each dowel into a piece of thick styrofoam and let them dry. (Sorry didn’t get a photo of this step.)

 

spray with looking glass spray

This step is totally optional. But I wanted more of an ‘aged’ beachy look. Like the beads were a bit weathered. So I gave each of the beads (while they were still on the dowels) a spritz of the looking glass paint. I didn’t want to cover the entire bead. Just a little bit to add a bit of texture. I let that dry for another 20 minutes.

dip the beads back into the blue paint and then dab with a paper towel.

Once the looking glass paint dried, I dipped each of the beads back into the blue paint. I laid each of them out on a piece of paper towel. Then I dabbed each one with another piece of paper towel until they had that ‘mottled’ weather look I wanted.

spray the beads with a clear gloss

When the beads were the color and look I wanted I sprayed them with two coats (drying time in between) of a clear coat in gloss. This gave them a shiny (almost glass-like appearance) that I was looking for.

String the beads onto the white string-tying a knot at each end to secure.

I absolutely LOVE how my beads turned out! So much so that I was actually disappointed I only had 19 beads left in my stash! I really need to get more!!

But for now, I couldn’t help but pull out some of my ‘beachy’ decor and dream of warmer days. (It’s been in the ’30s here all week!)

What do you think? Yay or Nay on beachy decor?

 

I hope you enjoyed today’s knock-off and are inspired to create your own beachy beads to decorate for summer!

Looking for more Pottery Barn-inspired DIY?

Thank you so much for stopping by!

XOXO