Baking Soda Paint Christmas Trees

I wanted to give baking soda paint a try. I was intrigued by it’s matte finish and terra cotta look. If you haven’t heard of baking soda paint, it’s when baking soda is mixed with craft paint with a 50/50  or 60/50 ratio depending on how thick or thin the paint is to start with. The paint should have an almost creamy, toothpaste-like texture. Since it’s the holidays, instead of thrift store vases, I decided to give it a try on ceramic Christmas trees. In creating my baking soda paint Christmas trees, I had 6 trees, so I picked 6 different coordinating colors to have a pretty muted, rainbow effect.

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This is not a sponsored post, but these are the colors I used to paint the trees. I found inexpensive ceramic trees to paint. This would also work on wood, or for an upcycle for those ceramic houses that seem to be everywhere at thrift stores.

After mixing my paint and baking soda in disposable cups, I started painting the mixture on my trees with a very soft brush. I struggled a bit getting all of the sides and getting underneath. After painting a few of the trees, I pulled out my painting turn table, and then wondered why I didn’t use it in the first place. It made it so much easier!

Making sure the the mixture is the right consistency is important. Most of the trees only needed one coat of the baking soda paint, but some of the colors that I had mixed a little too loosely, needed a second coat.

 I added too much baking soda to the white paint, and it ended up slightly clumpy and crumbly, though it did make it look a lot more like terra cotta or clay, and not so perfect.

I let them dry completely and then styled them on my mantel with wood beads. I love the color combination and the matte look. I’ll be curious to see how resilient the paint is over time. I did give it a scratch test with my fingernail when it was dry and it didn’t scratch right off, so that’s something.

Have you tried baking soda paint yet? If you have, what was your experience?