This post is about making a vintage tealight holder using a Dollar Tree vase, gold spray paint, and vinegar. It’s easy to make and a great addition to your holiday decor.

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This holiday season, I’ve been creating easy, but beautiful decor. I did not want to splurge on decor, but I also didn’t want my home looking bare for the holidays.

During Diwali, I made floral diya hoops which were a hit. Continuing with that euphoric feeling, I made a couple of vintage tea light holders using just a few simple items such as Dollar Tree vases, gold spray paint, and vinegar. Yes, you heard me right, it’s vinegar!

It’s so simple to make, but the end result is gorgeous. I’m sure you’ll want to make a few too. C’mon, let me walk you through the steps. There aren’t many, but here they are.

Materials need to make a vintage tealight holder

I know I said steps, but it feels right to give you the list of items needed first. Here are all the materials you’ll need for this project.

• Glass Vases – I bought mine from Dollar Tree
• Spray Bottle – Also from Dollar Tree
• Mirror effect Gold Spray Paint
• Paper towels – the same ones I use in the kitchen
• Vinegar – Simple white vinegar will do
• Water
• Tealights

I did try two types of gold spray paint for this project, but the mirror effect spray paint was definitely better.

Step 1 – Spray the vase

Take equal parts of water and vinegar and add them into a spray bottle. I used one cup each of vinegar and water.

It doesn’t have to be exact. Eyeballing the measurements will work too. Just make sure that the amount of vinegar is equal to greater than the quantity of water.

Clean the glass vase thoroughly and lightly mist it with the water-vinegar mixture.

Quick Tip: Cover a lazy Suzan with aluminum foil, and place your vase on it for painting. You can keep turning it with one hand and spray painting with the other instead of going all around the vase to mist or paint it.

Then take a paper towel and dab the freshly misted vase gently. When I say gently, I mean very gently!

Step 2 – Gold spray paint

Once the vase is misted and dabbed, lightly spray the vase with the gold spray paint. We need to create a very thin layer of paint.

So it’s not like how we normally use spray paint, but a thin and light first coat, just enough to cover the vase.

Before the paint dries completely, maybe after about 30 seconds to a minute, mist it again lightly with the water-vinegar mixture.

All of this misting and painting and dabbing was made easy by the lazy Suzan I used 🙂

Dab the vase gently once more with a paper towel. You’ll see the vintage effect appearing. If you feel it’s not vintagey enough, spray a bit more of the water-vinegar mixture, or even just vinegar, and dab it gently with a paper towel.

Step 3 – Style the vintage tealight holder

Just let the vases dry and that’s it! That’s all you have to do to create a beautiful vintage tea light holder.

Oh, but wait – we forgot about the tea lights! 🙂

Add tealights to each of the vintage tealight holders and style them however you please. I had a couple of gold candle stands and I placed my vases on them.

Here’s how they look! Don’t they look beautiful?

This is such an easy and inexpensive project for the holidays and it’s even fun to do with kids. You can’t go wrong with the painting. The imperfections will only make it look more vintage!

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Will you try this project? Let me know in the comments below. Also, let me know if you have any other comments or questions.

If you like this post, check out the following post on Diwali wall decor. I am sure that it can be customized for any holiday or even used as just decor.

How to Make a Beautiful DIY Diwali Decor – Floral Diya Hoops

Be sure to follow me on Instagram where I share more details of my projects and more about me as well. If you want to get started on your own DIY journey, but don’t know where to start, download my beginner guide to get you started.