This past weekend, I spent a good 14-15 hours working on my senior parking spot. I went into this process without any idea of what to do, because there aren't many articles out there for parking spot tips. Today I'm sharing a comprehensive guide of all the supplies you need + what the process was like + tips you need to follow. PLEASE LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES!
// SUPPLIES YOU NEED //
- Paint Scraper (for scraping all the paint off for last year's spot)
- Painter's Tape (for marking off sections to have clean lines)
- Primer (get Killz primer--you need a gallon)
- Paint Rollers (to paint the background)
- Paint Trays (to hold paint)
- Paint (get exterior house paint at Lowe's--you need 1-2 gallons for your background and a quart/pint of each color of your design)
- Paint Roller Extensions (having 6ft extension poles makes painting so much easier)
- Chalk (to draw out your design before you paint)
- String (if you're drawing a circle you can tie string to your chalk and use it to draw a circle so it's perfectly even
- Stencils (I didn't use these, but if you're writing a quote I suggest using letter stencils)
// THE PROCESS //
- Start by scraping all the old, peeling paint off your spot! This will give you a smooth(ish) surface to paint.
- Go over your spot with a layer of white primer so your colors will pop.
- Paint your background! If you have a darker color, 1-2 coats will do, but I had a light color so I did 3.
- Once that dries, paint your design! I stayed super simple but there are so many cool design ideas on Pinterest.
// TIPS YOU NEED TO FOLLOW //
- You need about 1 gallon for your background and a pint of each color for your design. The Lowe's guy talked me into buying about 4 gallons of paint, so now I have so much leftover paint and nothing to do with it. Paint is expensive, so don't buy more than you need! You can always go buy more but you can't return extra.
- Bring a bluetooth speaker and LOTS of water!
- Split costs with friends where possible. You need so many supplies, so if there's anything you can share with friends, do it and save the money. My friends and I shared a primer, chalk, paint colors, and painter's tape.
- Don't waste too much time scraping. Obviously, if your paint is peeling up, you'll need to scrape that off, but I spent a good 4 hours scraping paint off my spot even though I only got about half the paint off and it was still lumpy anyway. It's a parking spot, so it's not going to be super smooth, so save time where you can. If you are going to spend a lot of time scraping, I recommending bringing bandaids and gloves because your hands will get pretty scraped up from the concrete.
- Take lots of breaks. You have to allot time for each coat of paint to dry, so I recommend taking breaks as frequently as possible. My school's painting window was Friday-Sunday, but I did most of the design on Sunday, which made it stressful because I was constantly waiting for each layer to dry. My friends and I went to go get lunch/snacks in between each layer!
Good luck painting! It's a stressful experience but it ends up being a lot of fun!
No comments