We’ve all got them – the not-so-fresh looking old baubles that have zero emotional significance but for some reason continue to lurk in the Christmas decorations box year after year, in a kind of festive limbo land.

Well, don’t toss ‘em! It’s incredibly easy to give your old baubles a fabulous, paint-dipped new life. And it’s even more sustainable if you’re using up some leftover paint from a previous project. 

What you’ll need

• Baubles. You can use plastic if you prime them first, otherwise glass ones are your best bet.
• String or bamboo skewers to hang your baubles
• Cans
• Paint! We used British Paints’ Paint & Prime Interior Low Sheen
• Vessels or containers to hold the paint if you’re working with sample pots that are smaller than your baubles

You’ll need

Step one

Gather your baubles. Don’t worry about whether they match in size or colour – the paint will give them consistency.

These babies were destined for the scrapheap. Not any more! Credit: Supplied 

Step two

Choose your colours! We had mostly shades of blue decos, and opted to coordinate with similar tones, but really, the world’s your oyster.

Lay down some newspaper, a drop sheet or if you’re extra like us, a length of fake turf.

British Paints ‘Turquoise Whirl’, left and ‘Vintage Denim’, right. Credit: Supplied

Step three

Get dipping. This is the fun part! We used sample pots so we had to decant our paint into bowls for this part, but if you’re using up leftover paint cans, you could easily dip directly into those.

Rotate your baubles in the paint to ensure they’re coated where you want them to be, and roll them around a bit to achieve a ‘wavy’ effect. This is much easier than trying to achieve a perfectly straight line.

Yep, that’s a raincoat. This is a kid-friendly activity but… it’s paint. Credit: Supplied 

Step four

Hang them up to dry. We used bamboo skewers suspended between two cans to hang our baubles up, or you could use string. They just need to be high enough not to touch the surface below.

Step five

Pop them on the tree, and admire your handiwork!