Spray painting pillows can be done, but read on to learn from my mistakes. This definitely wasn’t an epic fail, but if I had it to do all over again, I would do a few things differently. If you don’t know this about me, I will spray paint just about anything. I am smack in the middle of giving my outdoor space a makeover. I am on a budget so I am trying to reuse as much as I can, with maybe making some changes to it to work with my new vision/style. I have these two outdoor pillows which are beige and white and they have held up well over a couple of years. They’re the indoor/outdoor fabric and I wondered since they were, could I actually use spray paint on them? The answer to that is “yes”, but with a glaring “*” beside it.
Light and dark pinks and blues are the festive beachy-boho vibe I am going for so I wanted the pillows to have those colors in them and I thought pink and blue stripes would work. I had Frog Tape and spray paint, what else would I need? I carefully and methodically taped the pillows, figured I could them spray the first color, wait for it to dry and then cover those stripes up with tape and then spray the second color. Easy peasy, right? Here’s the most important tip: DON’T DO STRIPES! Even though I was very careful about taping and making sure the tape was secured well, no matter what I did, there were little places where the tape will pull away from the pillow while I was spraying. No matter how many times I did it, there were still places where one color would bleed over into the other. I ended up trying again and again, re-taping and using one color, then the other. It always bled into the other color I was taping and trying to hide.
What You’ll Need:
1 or 2 cans of regular spray paint (I like Valspar)
Frog Tape if you’re making stripes or a design
drop cloth (I like canvas instead of plastic)
a pillow with indoor/outdoor fabric
If I had it to do all over again, I would maybe try a couple of different things. There’s always spraying the pillow another color and maybe stenciling something on it or spray painting it one color and adding vinyl decals like polka dots or a short little saying. I think the concept of spray painting the indoor/outdoor pillows is fine, at least as far as the fabric is concerned. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with doing it and mine has held up for a few weeks now with no problems. Just make sure you spray evenly and lightly and do several light coats instead of one or two heavier coats. You want the paint to go on as smoothly as possible, and you certainly don’t want it to run or thicken in places.
If you’re trying to redo your outdoor space and are on a really tight budget, try to reuse as much as you have. If you have the outdoor pillows, know they don’t have to remain the way they are currently. Give them a fresh couple coats of spray paint and add your own flair and they’ll be like new.
