The Best Home Improvement Store Rocks for Rock Painting

I am often asked about the best home improvement store rocks for rock painting. In this article, I show you which rocks I use and rock painting ideas to go with each of them. Let’s get started with the rock painting fun!

Rocks for Rock Painting Beginners (and Seasoned Painters)

If you’ve read my piece on where to get rocks to paint for rock painting (6 places), you know I fully recommend beginner rock painters start with home improvement store rocks.

The reason I recommend home improvement store rocks is because:

• there is a large selection,
• the selection varies throughout the year,
• you can’t break the law in obtaining them,
• they are VERY cost-effective, and
• you get a chance to experiment with many rock sizes, shapes, and textures.

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Home Improvement Store Rocks for Rock Painting

Now that we’ve determined where to buy rocks to paint, let’s focus on the different home improvement stores rocks available year round. You can get one or all of these to determine your favorite.

Dorado River Rocks for Rock Painting

These home improvement store rocks are pale in color and have beautiful natural patterns. They are relatively smooth (the smoothest we’ve picked up from home improvement stores).

Dorado river rocks also take less base coat paint to cover them. They aren’t always flat, but we find that they are excellent for rock painting and kindness rocks.

Rock painting ideas with these rocks include (more available on our Rock Painting 101 page):

• Kawaii Face Rocks – Learn How to Paint Circles on Rocks
• Scratch Art Rock Painting Idea – So Much Fun!
• Manga-Style Bunny Rabbit Rock Painting Idea – It’s Easier Than You Think

Caribbean Beach Pebbles for Rock Painting

These rocks are gorgeous! The Caribbean beach pebbles are not smooth but make base coat painting a breeze.

You will most definitely have to clean them, as when you stick your hand in the bag, it will be covered with a fine, white powder. Honestly, they are wonderful to paint on if you don’t need a very smooth rock.

If you’d like to quickly and easily make them a tag smoother for painting, use a heavy gesso paint as a base layer. This will cut down on painting time.

Rock painting ideas with these rocks include:

• Kawaii Weather Story Stones – The Cutest Weather Stones You’ll Ever See
• How to Blend Paint Pens Easily – Make a Blended Rainbow Rock!
• How to Paint a Bunny Rock Using Only Simple Shapes – Great for Kids

Ash River Rocks

These rocks are very dark – some are even black. The various sizes and shapes allow us to vary our rock painting designs and improve our painting skills.

I’ve found they are very, very dirty and need a good scrubbing before painting but there is no wax to remove. Additionally, one side is usually flatter than the other but isn’t smooth like the Dorado River Rocks. That being said, we really like painting on these!

These are the newest bag we’re working with. Rock painting ideas with these rocks include:

• Camping Story Stones – These Are Sure to Impress!

Over to You

What are your favorite home improvement store rocks for rock painting? I think each of these has benefits and drawbacks, but it helps to challenge me as a painter. And that’s fun.

Be sure to pin this to your favorite rock painting ideas board on Pinterest and check back for reviews of bagged rocks and individual rocks.