I recently discovered Pebeo porcelaine paints and now I want to paint all the dishes!
I was first inspired by Amy Christie’s two tone mugs. I was going to replicate her idea and make all my dishes with the same dipped look, but then I found the Pebeo paint pen, and instead decided to doodle around with a bunch of different ideas.
(P.S. That’s Ashley’s IG feed on my phone. She is one of the nicest people ever. I love her!)
I kept the dishes all to coppery gold and black paint so that they still coordinate with each other and are easy to mix and match.
Or not. 🙂
I used these two paints:
Pebeo Porcelaine 150 China Paint 45-Milliliter Bottle, Vermeil Gold
Pebeo Porcelaine 150 China Paint Bullet Tip Marker, Anthracite Black
(links are Amazon affiliate links, but this post is not sponsored)
They ARE on the pricey side for such small pots of paint/pens but I was pleasantly surprised to see that they spread far. I still have quite a bit of paint left after all my projects.
My dishes are from IKEA. They had a clearance sale on irregular sets so I snatched up a bunch.
Tips:
– To paint the dishes, I just painted like normal. Nothing fancy. I just used a paint brush, a foam brush, painter’s tape if the design called for it, or just free strokes.
– One trick I found helpful is that you can scratch away paint bleeds or mistakes with a razor blade before baking….the baking cures the paint and makes it dishwasher safe. Depending on your dishware, this may cause scratch marks, so try to be as nimble as you can.
– The paint was really fun to use, but the pen was fantastic. The ink came out evenly for the most part and I loved that it was really easy to control. It works better with short strokes, like dots, dashes, etc. When the ink started to run sparse with long strokes, I gave it a few shakes and tried again and it worked great.
– After baking, the paint is more permanent but can still be chipped off. Just FYI. I haven’t had trouble with it yet, but my dishes are still pretty newly painted. I have read threads about the paint wearing down over time. I think if you treat them carefully, like hand painted dishes, which they are, the paint should hold up nicely.
When I was done with my tea cups and saucers, I wanted to keep painting, so I looked to my dinner plates. Nothing’s safe now! 😉
There is some controversy as to whether the paints are food safe. From what I understand, they have been extensively tested to be food safe, but are not yet FDA approved because of the expense associated with that process. I decided that for saucers, painting right on the plate would be fine, because they don’t see heavy use. For dinner plates though, I stayed away from painting directly on the eating surfaces and instead decided to paint the underside of clear glass plates.
I found the paint a little harder to control on the glass than the pen, so I embraced the messy look and kept the copper designs loose and free form.
I love my new dishes. Well…they aren’t really new. I’ve actually had them for a while, but some simple paint touches have made them feel like new again.
It makes my nightly winter herbal tea ritual feel a little more special. If I ever can’t sleep, a cup of chamomile..and boring TV ;)…will knock me right out.
Will you paint my dishes?! LOVE these and love that the paint is dishwasher safe because I’ve learned that I won’t use any dishes that aren’t lol!
haha. Thanks Allison. I’m the same!
I have been wondering about these paints for awhile, the sharpie pens were no good(no matter how long i baked them) but I’ve not seen them used only found them on amazon. I shall now fight the urge to buy a little longer, but I have a sweet seafood green tea set that would look pretty cool with some artistic loving!
Ooh. That sounds like it would turn out lovely!
I have done this years ago (I like calligraphy, so I made lettering on all my plates ;). That went very well for the years we didn’t have a dishwasher… Once the plates went into that cleaning wonder, my lettering started to fade, and after 6 months or so, everything was gone.
That’s interesting. Did you use the same brand of paint? Some of these dishes, I have washed over and over in the dishwasher more than the others, and they haven’t sustained any chipping or fading. I wonder…or hope…the paint has improved? I’ll definitely update this post if I experience the same problems down the road.
I hope the paint has improved, I used the same Pebeo bottles ;).
The plates kept ‘good’ about 4 years without dishwasher, so I’m very sure that in my case that is the problem. Because I wrote on the plates, I had to make the paint thinner (for my pens), but I used the medium for that… Very curious how yours turn out in time 🙂
Aw man. So maybe it will chip away. I’ll keep an eye on them and see what happens then. The glass plates will get used more than the tea cups and saucers so I’ll watch those closely. So far, so good and it’s been a few weeks. I’ll definitely update the post in a few months if I run into issues. If I do, it’s good to know I can preserve the rest with hand washing if needed.
I wonder too about hard water. We live in a place with very soft water. I wonder if a place with hard water might be harder on the paint. Hmmm….it’s like a science experiment. 🙂
These are absolutely lovely! I will look for these colours, hopefully they exist in Swedish stores as well….
Thank you! I got them on Amazon, so hopefully!…
I love the patterns you chose, they look so amazing! I have that black paint pen. For Christmas/birthday presents for family I’ve bought white mugs and have let my son draw pictures on them. His first one was just a lot of scribbles as he was only 3. The next set were either scribbled looking flowers or his version of people (one big circle w everything drawn in it). I’ve had trouble w the paint chipping. I try not to put them in the dishwasher anymore. Regardless, it’s a great project and your dishes turned out beautifully unique 🙂
love love LOVE the polka dots!
Love. Question, Ikea’s cups come pre-glazed. So you paint over glaze and then bake is that correct? Also at what temperature were the glass plates baked.
Thanks! Yes. I painted over the glaze and then baked it. The glass plates were baked at 350 degrees F. I believe anyway…I just followed the instructions on the paint label.
I love these! I am not entirely sure mine would come out this great, but yours are really pretty! I think I might just throw caution to the wind and try it 😉
Totally go for it! If you ever don’t like your initial design, you can just wipe it away with baby wipes while it’s still wet, or a razor blade if it’s dry. I did that a few times.
Those are so cute! I’ve used the plain black paint like this before, but the copper is extra fun. My favorite is that polka-dotted set though!
The polka dots are my favorite too. 🙂 Thanks Charity!
OMG. cute Delia. These would be super fun to make for a girls get-together. Great designs!
Thanks Dana! They would totally make a fun social craft.
And now I want to branch out into ceramics… *sigh*
These are so cute! I love all of the designs and colors you chose! So beautiful together!
Thank you Eden!
Hi there! Absolutely love your dishes! I am working with these paints in the near future and was wondering how yours are holding up so far? Curious to know how long these will last with regular use.
Great question Autumn! It’s been over a year and they are holding up great. That said, we use these dishes occasionally, not daily. I’m not extra careful with them though. I pop them in the top rack of the dishwasher and everything still looks like new. I hope that helps!
These are so freakn CUTE!! Have you tried a design that requires one color being painted over another? For example, using the black marker to write a quote within the gold strip on the saucer posted above. I want to try this brand, but I’m concerned if the paint will hold up with this particular design. Would I have to bake the gold strip first, and then write on it. Or does it dry enough without baking allowing the marker to be written over it?
Thanks Priscilla. That’s a really good question. I would think you would need to bake them in between layers of paint. Otherwise, you run the risk of the top layer eroding at the layers underneath. It dries well, but you can scratch it away pretty easily before baking.
I have made clear glass plates that I painted word on with a paint pen. It chipped months later because you cannot use a sealer since you would see it on the plates. Did you bake your glass plates to get the paint to stay on? Every glass plate I find is not oven safe.
I did bake them and have not had any chipping paint issues. I used plain glass plates from Walmart. They are unmarked so I wasn’t sure if they were oven safe, but I tried anyway and they held up fine being baked. I hope that helps? Sorry that you have had issues.
Since a long time I have been trying to find a reliable ceramic paint which lasts long as I dont want my efforts to go in vain. Thanks for letting know with surety that these paints are reliable. I am definitely going to try this one.
Of course! I just washed one of these dishes tonight. Still looking good and going strong! Have fun!
Absolutely love your dishes! I am working with these paints in the near future and was wondering how yours are holding up so far. Thank you very much and hope you keep better sharing more.
Thank you! They have held up great. They are not our everyday dishes, but over the last couple years, we’ve used them enough for me to confidently give the paints a seal of approval. We’ve run them through the dishwasher dozens of times and no paint has chipped off yet.
Is there a clear coat that is safe to eat or drink out of ?
Good question. I’m not sure. I just tried to limit or avoid putting paint on areas that would have food on it. I wish I could give you a better answer.
Crazy about the pokadots. Really like the gold edged plare too, looks old timey. Question: Are the paints able to be microwaved after they’ve been properly baked? Don’t imagine any metalic one would be microwavable.
Great questions. Yes, we have microwaved them…even the metallic ones, without any problems.
Hi!! Camp across this post. How did they hold up?
Hey! It’s been about 8 years now and we still have and use some of these dishes. The smaller dots got rubbed or chipped off over time but I would say probably only in the last few years. Even though they can be put in the dishwasher, I think the designs would last longer if you hand wash them. Still…for the most part they have held up just fine. I hope that helps.