Ready to whet your DIY appetite with a simple yet stylish hack? Here’s one that looks good enough to eat, especially if you’re a fan of strawberries. It’s also easy to do with a little patience, paint, and glue.
Magdalena Wöckinger @menawox is the brains behind this DIY, sharing, “I’ve seen vases like this in so many stores over the past few weeks and instantly fell in love with the design. The price, though … not so much.”
Can’t say I blame her. The price for the vases she was obsessing over was about $175 — yikes!
She decided to do her own thing and came out a winner with a cute strawberry vase dupe for around $23. Now that’s a much nicer number for the budget.
Here’s how you can do the same!
What You’ll Need
Fool Them With This Designer Strawberry Vase Lookalike
1. Paint the Vase
Use a spray paint suitable for glass to paint the IKEA 365+ carafe red. Choose a paint that also works with plaster so you don’t have to buy multiple cans. Let the carafe dry while you move on to the next steps.
2. Create the Plaster Strawberries
Mix the Plaster of Paris in a bowl using water according to the plaster’s instructions, then pour into clean strawberry silicone molds. Magdalena said pouring the plaster was very calming, so hey, you might get a little stress relief out of this, too.
Let the plaster dry, then remove the strawberries from the molds. Paint the plaster fruit with the same paint you used on the carafe and let them dry.
Don’t bother painting the flat part that you’ll be gluing to the vase. That way, you can easily line the berries up on a piece of parchment and coat them with paint.
3. Attach the Strawberries to the Vase
Start adding strawberries to the carafe using a strong glue. Go around the top first and work your way toward the bottom.
Keep the large end of the berries up, pointed sides down, except for the final, bottom row, if you want the same look as Magdalena’s vase. The bottom row of strawberries should be pointy-side up. Once the glue dries, finish everything off with another coat of paint for a seamless finish.
Same Hack, Different Shape and Size
When I was looking online at various pricey strawberry vases, I noticed some were smaller, larger, shorter, or wider. Some had strawberries going sideways or alternating directions. One of them was even green pears (not as cute as the strawberries in my opinion).
Basically, you could tweak this hack to a size and shape that suits your style and space. It’s one of the great things about DIY: you get to make it exactly how you want it. And there are all sorts of fun IKEA vase hacks and glassware projects to try.
These days, saving money is pretty much right up there with breathing and eating, so anything to create a beautiful space for less is worth it.
Watch the hack (here’s one with lemons!) and follow Magdalena Wöckinger @menawox to get more clever inspiration.
If you have your own designer dupe to share with us, we’d love to see it!