Easy DIY Fluted Wood Vase

This post is sponsored by Minwax. All opinions are my own. Read our full disclosure here.

Between working from home, online learning, and stay-at-home orders, our homes have been forced to become a little bit of everything. They’ve been working overtime trying to be an office, a classroom, a gym, and everything in between.

Let’s take a moment to appreciate everything our homes have been to us over the past year. And let’s take it a step further and show our homes a little extra love through Walmart’s Give Back to Your Home campaign and some good ol’ DIY projects.

One of my favorite ways to show appreciation is with some flowers. But why stop there–why not make a beautiful fluted vase to go along with it?

Lucky for us, we don’t even have to leave our house to tackle this project. All the supplies for this project is available on walmart.com and is ready to be shipped straight to your door!

Alright, let’s start DIYing!

Tools

• Saw (hand saw, miter saw, or circular saw)
• Hot Glue Gun 

How to Make a Simple Fluted Vase

New to DIY? Download our free 5 Steps to Getting Start with DIY guide!

STEP 1: CUT YOUR DOWELS

First, grab your vase and determine how tall it is. Cut your dowels down to the same height (or even a little taller) than your vase.

If you’re using your miter saw, or just want to save some time when using your hand saw, tape together 4-6 dowels and cut them all at once. If you’re going this route, just be sure to cut both ends so that they are all the same size.

Before cutting, also be sure to check out this post on how to safely cut small pieces of wood on the miter saw.

STEP 2: SAND YOUR DOWELS

Depending on how rough your dowels are, you might need to start with 120 grit sandpaper to knock off some of the rougher areas before using 220 grit sandpaper. If your dowels are already feeling really smooth, just hit them with 220-grit sandpaper.

As you’re sanding, make sure you’re moving in the direction of the grain!

STEP 3: STAIN

Before we break out the stain, let’s apply Minwax Oil-Based Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner. This will help the stain penetrate more evenly.

To apply the Pre-Stain, wipe it on with a clean rag and wait 5 minutes. Then, wipe off any excess Pre-Stain with a clean, dry rag.

Now that we’ve finished pre-staining, we can apply our stain.

Wipe your stain on in the direction of the wood grain. Don’t forget to stain the ends as well. I’ll be using Minwax Wood Finish in Special Walnut.

Wait 5-15 minutes and then wipe your stain off with a clean rag.

Let your stain fully dry for 4 hours.

STEP 4: ATTACH DOWELS TO VASE

Apply a bead of hot glue down your vase and position your first dowel. Line the top and bottom of the dowel up with the top and bottom of your vase and make sure it’s straight.

Note: Only apply enough glue for 1-2 dowels at a time so that you can get the dowels in place before it starts to dry.

Continue adding a bead of glue and dowels until your vase is nearly finished. As you go around, make sure that your dowels are staying straight. It’s easy to start getting a little slanted!

Once you have about 5-10 dowels left, mock up the spacing before applying glue.

If you have a small gap that won’t quite fit another dowel, you have a few options:

1. You could try to cut your dowel, but given that they are so small already, this isn’t something I’d advise.
2. You can slightly space out your remaining dowels so that they all have a slight gap rather than having one larger gap at the end.
3. You can try to get the dowel to fit the best it can and be okay with it sticking out slightly more than the others.

Whatever option you choose, remember that you can always face one side of your vase toward a wall if you need it to😉 But that’s why we mock up the spacing with a handful of dowels left. It allows us to make the necessary adjustments to end up with the best looking vase possible.

STEP 5: SEAL

Now that all of our dowels are attached, let’s finish up this beautiful fluted vase with some sealer. My go-to sealer is Minwax Polycrylic because it dries crystal clear.

You’ll want to apply at least 3 coats, waiting 2 hours between each coat.

There you have it! Now you know how to make your very own DIY fluted vase.