Update Home Decor - Spray Paint an Old Lantern ⋆ Love Our Real Life

Do you ever have old home decor that you like, but just no longer love? That was the case with my outdated brass lantern!

I’d had it for years, which meant it completely clashed with all of my current decor. So…I gave our basement home decor a quick update by spray painting an old lantern!

Get more painting ideas for the home here!

Nothing was “wrong” with the lantern. It was just old.

As with most of my DIY projects, I’ve been thinking about doing this for a while but envisioned it to be a pain.

Of course, it wasn’t!

If you have an old lantern or frankly just have older decorative items that just don’t fit your current style, this post is for you!

Steps to Spray Paint Lantern

1. Clean lantern well prior to painting.

I’m attributing the dust to the fact that I just didn’t love this particular lantern, so I avoided it.

Otherwise, I’m sure it would be cleaner;-)

I gave it a good wipe down and cleaned the glass while I was at it!

Bronze colored lantern with glass walls being cleaned with glass cleaner.

2. Cover the glass to prepare for spray painting the lantern.

If you are spray painting other home decor, you will won’t need to go through this process.

But, just keep in mind you will want to cover any areas that you do not want paint.

I first measured the approximate size of the glass. Then cut wax paper to fit and taped on with painter’s tape.

This worked really well!

Cover glass in lantern with wax paper and painters tape prior to painting.

3. Select Your Spray Paint

Since the lantern will be exposed to fairly direct candle flame, I thought it might be wise to use high heat spray paint.

Some was left over from updating our old fire pit. That project made a big difference for our patio!

Selecting spray paint from various brands.

I grabbed several of the partial spray paint cans I had left from previous projects.

4. Start painting!

This project was completed outdoors, in our garage. Drop cloths were used to protect the garage floor from paint.

Always be sure you have a well ventilated area when spray painting.

Wearing a mask is also a good idea!

First coat of high heat black spray paint on lantern and tray.

Notice I’m also painting a serving tray!

In one of the above photos you can see it used to be a pretty bright red.

But, unfortunately I never seemed to use it as it didn’t flow with everything else.

So why not paint it, too?!

Two light coats of the high heat spray paint were used allowing about 45 minutes between coats while I was doing other things.

The particular high heat spray paint I used was very matte / flat. So, I did use a very light coat of the Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze on just the outside of the lantern.