Thrifty DIY: Spray Painted Christmas Tree

DIY painted christmas tree

These days artificial Christmas trees come in every color imaginable from white to silver to pink. But if you’re looking to try out a different color of tree, there is no need to buy one – you can make your own spray painted Christmas tree! For my latest Thrifty DIY, I took a $3.99 tabletop tree from the Goodwill and transformed it from traditional green to a flocked white tree with gold and rose chrome tips – all for a total of $10 in supplies and a little over an hour of time:

Thrifty DIY: Spray painted Christmas tree makeover

This was such a fun, doable project because I used a little tree. I have seen bloggers spray paint large trees, and while the end results are super cool it can be a time consuming and costly undertaking (requiring 10+ cans of spray paint!). However, this is the perfect technique to try on a small tree you might already have on hand, or can find at a thrift store for a few bucks! I used about 1/2 can of spray paint to cover my tree.

How to spray paint a small Christmas tree

It looks like a completely different tree and looks so cute displayed on our kitchen table.

Tabletop painted Christmas tree with metallic ornaments

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Read on to see how to make your own spray painted Christmas tree in an hour for under $10!

Supplies for Thrifty DIY Spray Painted Christmas Tree

 

How to Spray Paint a Christmas Tree

Step 1: Spray with a coat of white paint

Head outside and give your tree a coat of white spray paint. Be sure to get on the underside of the branches as well. I found it helpful to stand up the tree and give it a coat, and once that coat was dry, lay the tree on its side so I could spray the underside of the branches. And it’s ok to let some of the green tree show through – this gives it that nice flocked look!

Step 2: Add metallic paint to the tips

I went with a mixed metallic look for the tips of the tree, by painting some tips with gold and others with rose chrome craft paint. Just apply with a small brush, and make sure to get the underside of the branches as well.

Step 3: Add glitter to branch tips (optional)

If you want, you can sprinkle some glitter on the tips to make them even more sparkly. It will stick to the wet paint if you do it immediately after painting. Just beware that this is messy, so do it outside on a tarp! To keep it easy, you can just skip this step – the metallic paint looks great on its own.

Step 4: Decorate the tree base (optional)

Here’s what my tree looked like when I was done painting all the tips. My tree originally came in a little red bucket, so I spray painted the bucket white when I painted the rest of the tree.

I finished the bucket by painting it with two coats of rose chrome craft paint and adding a strip of glittery scalloped tape around the bottom!

How to spray paint a Christmas tree

I topped of my tree with these gorgeous vintage glass ornaments from Minted and a simple star I made with a gold metallic pipe cleaner by shaping it around a cookie cutter!

Like this Thrifty DIY project?

Then don’t miss my Top 10 Favorite Thrift Store Makeovers!

This post is written in support of Goodwill San Antonio. All content and opinions are my own.

Spray painted Christmas tree

How to Spray Paint a Christmas Tree (PRINTABLE INSTRUCTIONS)

Active Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour
Difficulty: Intermediate
Estimated Cost: $10

Transform a tabletop Christmas tree from the thrift store with spray paint to give it a gorgeous modern new look! This spray painted tree project can be done in an hour.

Instructions

  1. Remove any ornaments and embellishments from the tree and dust off if needed. Place on a tarp outside to spray paint.
  2. Cover the tree with white spray paint, first standing it up to spray paint as much of the branches as possible. Once dry, lay on its side and get the underside of the branches and cover any spotty areas.
  3. Paint the tips of the branches with metallic craft paint and a small brush. I used a mix of gold and rose chrome paints.
  4. Create a star from a gold chenille stem and add metallic ornaments.

Notes

It is ok if a little of the green tree still shows through after you spray paint. It looks cool that way! Give the container the tree comes in a makeover as well. I painted my pot and added a strip of scalloped metallic tape around the bottom. FYI - it is much easier to paint a tabletop tree than a full sized tree.

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2 Comments

  1. does the paint make it flammable???we do have small LED lights for it and it’s going outside.

    A quick response would be greatly appreciative. This was a after thought. I’m knee deep in Christmas
    decorating thank you.

    1. Hi Debbie, unfortunately I am not sure if the spray paint would make it more flammable. My little tree does not have lights on it. I have seen numerous tutorials for spray-painted full-sized trees with lights though, so you may want to look into those.

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