Hello, I love spray paint. I’ve never been afraid of buying an Ikea veneered dresser, brown outdoor furniture, orange clearance aisle lamps, or a yellow thrift store vase because it doesn’t come in the right color. BECAUSE, spray paint gives me the power to make all of the things all of my favorite shades of flat black, chalky white, pale pink or copper. I’ve come to have a steady supply of these four essential colors oh hand, at all times, no questions asked. I know it can be overwhelming to stare down that hardware store aisle and see an abundant amount of color, finish and brand options, Imma help you wit dat. As a bonus, I’ll pass a long a few tips for achieving a perfect finish. I’d like to think that I have developed a pretty solid method.
Choose a ventilated location. I almost always spray outside, if I have to, I’ll do it in the garage. I try and save projects for the non-winter months, but since you can’t always know when you need a spray paint fix, you can use a utility room or something similar for a quick project.
Which brings me to my next tip, spray paint doesn’t like the cold. Don’t spray paint outdoors in cold weather, k?
Use a cardboard box to prevent overspray. Don’t want your grass to sport a cool outline of whatever it is that you are painting? Then use that large cardboard amazon box as a spray booth, dummy.
A spray paint job doesn’t necessarily mean a quick job, take your time to apply thin even coats of paint.
Hold the spray paint can at least 10″ from the surface of your project, this is the easiest and best way to avoid drips.
Don’t hold the nozzle down! Spray in short quick bursts.
Keep the can in motion, don’t rest on one spot for too long or bad things will happen.
Clean the nozzle with a pin or towel at the end of each project. I can’t tell you how many cans of clogged up spray paint it has taken me to learn this lesson.
Awesome tips! Thanks for sharing. BRB gonna go buy that copper spray paint STAT.
It’s good stuff, you should! I am hunting down things to paint copper ;)
Thanks for the great tips and for showcasing and linking the products! I’ve been on the hunt for a deep, flat black. I think I’ll try your suggested one out for my next project.
I bought copper spray paint a few weekends ago and now I want to cover EVERYTHING in copper. Question on spray painting lamps… what is your method? Do you lightly sand first? When I spray painted a lamp of mine, I hit it with a medium then smooth grit to give it some “tooth”. Even still, I found that as I was lightly handling it once it was dry, some of the paint scratched off. Any tips I missed?
Caroline! I know, it’s kind of addictive, I just spray painted something copper today myself. So, about your question, was this using the copper spray paint? I’m assuming yes, I would try repeating the process but using a spray on primer for your first coat for good adhesion, you’re doing all the right things though. I haven’t experienced chipping with the copper paint yet, but I haven’t used it on super smooth surfaces either. Just a note, that rustoleum universal (flat black, satin black and satin white) seems to stick to everything without primer. I even used it to paint the door knob and hardware on our back door and it has one small chip in it in two years of daily wear and tear. You should make sure to have some of that on hand too :)
omg. ALL the emoji heart eyes for that liquitex blush business. need to go find right this second.
Do it!