Easy Santa Mug Transformation

Have you ever found a Santa Mug that was almost unrecognizable – sharing my easy Santa mug transformation for when you do!

Have you ever passed up an old vintage Santa mug because you thought, “it’s just too chippy?” Maybe you were out shopping at an antique mall and stumbled upon the absolute cutest Santa mug but there were just too many spots of missing paint for your liking? Maybe Santa was unrecognizable. Perhaps the paint was almost gone and the remaining bits were distracting to you. Maybe you prefer your mugs to be all one color? Maybe you weren’t sure the chippy paint would match the rest of your decor!

While I do indeed love chippy paint, I can appreciate that the ‘chippy look” isn’t for everyone. With that in mind, I decided to try a quick little DIY today! You will not believe how easy it is to remove the remaining chippy paint from an old Santa mug. Let me share my easy Santa mug transformation with you.

I got this idea to try and scrub off the paint of a chippy Santa mug after looking around my collection and wishing I had a few more authentic white ones. I remembered that I had some cleaning products on hand that I thought I might try. I wanted to see if they would work to remove the existing paint on this mug.

I first tried a few powdered cleaners that I had on hand. I tried both Bar Keepers Friend and Bon Ami. When I used each of these I noticed that I was having to use a lot of elbow grease and only very small chips of paint were coming off. I was not impressed with the results at all.

I almost gave up on the idea and then I remembered that I had ordered a product to remove paint from an old set of doors that I have been working on. I ran to the garage and grabbed that bottle as fast as I could. I was able to use this product inside the house because it:

• Has no harsh fumes or unpleasant odors
• Is Non-caustic and has a low volatile organic compound formula
• Cleans up with just water
  
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I anxiously sprayed the Santa mug and waited for a few moments. I wasn’t sure if it would work or not since I didn’t have very much success with the other products that I tired! Even though I was suppose to let the product sit for a while, I began scrubbing the mug after just a few minutes with a stiff bristle brush! I was so thrilled because immediately I saw the paint scrubbing off. I am happy to report that Max Strip works like a charm to help remove the chippy paint off of your old Santa mugs! Yay!

Now, let me be clear. All of the paint didn’t just slide right off. I did have to spray some areas with a second coat and I had to go over a few spots many times. But, this worked so much better than the Bar Keepers Friend and the Bon Ami.

Also, this process will only work on Santa mugs that have been cold painted. Cold painting is a process by which the paint is added to a piece AFTER it has been glazed and fired. When paint has been added to a piece in this way, it can easily chip! So, if you see a Santa mug with chipped paint, chances are that you can easily scrub off the rest of the paint to expose the all of the white!

While I was so happy to figure this out (maybe some of you already know this trick – but I literally just figured it out), I do want to encourage you NOT to scrub off the paint on all of the old mugs out there. 99% of the time, I like to keep these old pieces as close to their original form as I can. But, there have been a few times that I wanted to remove that paint off a few of my old mugs (I have a lot) …. and now I know how!

PS: I do want to note that I left a few little sections of paint on this mug so that I will always be able to identify it and so that I will remember that this is the one that I altered!

Let me know if you try this out and if you find success! This whole process reminds me of the “Easy Off” (furniture stripping) craze that is happening right now – ha! Maybe it will catch on! Thanks so much for following along!

I am sharing just a few Santa mugs below that are either already totally white or that are chippy and ready to scrub! I couldn’t find that many out there online, but you can click on the picture for information on each one that I did find!

One more thing: If you liked this easy Santa mug transformation and you enjoy doing Holiday DIYs then you may enjoy this post on how to create your own bottle brush trees! You may also enjoy this post all about my personal santa mug collection – it includes some fun facts!

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