How to Paint Plastic

A little craft paint can liven up your plastic item.

Look around and you’ll find plastic on ballpoint pens, food bowls, containers, lunchboxes and even clear jelly-type summer shoes. With its unbeatable durability and inexpensive price, plastic provides people with a numerous items that enrich their lives. Painting plastic, however, presents unique problems because most plastic surfaces are smooth and resist paint adherence. By following some crafty guidelines, you can paint small details on plastic items or even paint an entire plastic object with good results.

Things You'll Need

• Plastic item to be painted
• Dish soap
• Fine-grit sandpaper
• Liquid sander
• Pencil
• Soft rags
• Natural bristle artist brush
• Plastic adhesion primer
• Plastic flex additive (if object is flexible)
• Paint
• Paint brush, roller or airbrush

Instructions

1. Prepare the plastic object for painting. This is the most important step in painting plastic because it determines whether the paint will adhere to the item. There are a few ways to do this, and the method you pick depends upon the type of painting you choose.

2. Clean an old plastic item with ordinary dish soap and warm water. Any grease residue on the plastic object will reduce paint adherence. Drop a small item into a sink full of soapy water, or wash a large item with a soft brush and a bucket of soapy water on a clean driveway or sidewalk. Scrub well, spray the soapy water off and allow the item to dry completely.

3. Remove the shine on the surface of the plastic object. The shinier the surface is, the less likely the paint is to stick. If you’re painting an entire item, such as a plastic chair, use fine-grit sandpaper, rubbing lightly over the entire surface to knock off the shine. Be careful not to push too hard and scratch the surface. Sand thoroughly, even a small surface with shine remaining may repel paint.

4. Treat small areas for detail painting by removing the shine only from the portion of the plastic that you will paint. This technique is useful if you will be drawing and painting freehand artistic details on plastic. The idea is to remove the shine where the paint will be while leaving the shine on unpainted surfaces.

5. Sketch lightly on the plastic item with a pencil where your design will be. Only an outline is necessary. For instance, if you’re going to paint a flower on a plastic lunchbox, sketch the outline of the flower, stem and leaves directly on the box.

6. Use a small artist brush, and dip it into liquid sander. Lightly paint the sander inside the border of your sketched design. Don’t worry about making it exact; just keep the liquid sander inside the border of your sketch. Allow the sander to remain on the plastic surface for a few minutes before wiping it off with a clean soft rag. Wipe it quickly and completely to avoid smearing it on adjacent surfaces.

7. Paint your design over the original sketched area with craft paint.

8. Prime large objects with primer designed specifically for plastic. Even after removing the shine, the new paint needs help adhering. Plastic primer bonds to the plastic and provides a porous surface for the new paint.

9. Add plastic flex agent to your paint if the plastic object is flexible. The mistake many people make is assuming a plastic lawn chair is hard, so it must not be flexible. To test for flexibility, grab any part of the object and see if you can bend or twist it, even slightly. If you can, you must add a flex agent to your paint. Follow the manufacturer’s directions when combining the two.

10. Roll, brush or spray on the new paint, taking care to watch for runs. For a nice finish, it’s usually better to apply multiple thin coats as opposed to one thick coat.

Tips & Warnings

• Take safety precautions when using oil-based paints. Use them in a well-ventilated area. If you’re spraying a large plastic object, wear a respirator.

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• MisterArt: Order Krylon Paint for Plastic