I am so excited about today’s project because every girl needs a little pop of fun in their makeup, jewelry or desk drawer, right?. This is a super easy and cheap project to do and it also gives me a reason to do a quick tutorial on how to spray paint plastic, so that it actually sticks and stays.
Almost every drawer in my home has these little cheap desk organizing trays from Walmart:
I use them for organizing almost everything including my makeup, jewelry, my daughter’s hair binders and barrettes, little stuff in the kitchen drawers and our family desk drawer. The ones from Walmart are the cheapest ones out there at $1.97 and they’re great because you can slide in two side by side into wider drawers. Â Most vanities in the bathroom have a wider drawer for makeup and this is great way to keep it all organized.
I decided to spice things up a bit by spray painting them. Â Having fun colors or chic metallic organizers when we open the drawers just makes me smile. Â So let me show you three different ways to use these:
The best way to spray paint plastic and to guarantee that it will stay and not scratch off is to use a primer that is specifically for spray priming plastic.  Yep, they make such a thing and it’s some great stuff!  This is one of my favorites made by Rustoleum that you can get at Home Depot:
The trick to using plastic primer is that you need to spray two coats and allow 20 minutes in between each coat. Â It’s key to wait at least an hour after the second coat before spraying on your color. Â Once your plastic has been primed, I have found that any kind of spray paint will work. Â You do not necessarily have to have enamel, although enamel is ideal if you’re doing something major.
For this project, after you spray prime two coats with the plastic primer, you simply want to spray a light coat of color or metallic over the organizers, let them dry about 20 minutes. Â Less is more when it comes to spraying plastic so if you need another coat of color, lightly spray a second coat. Â The most important part about spray painting plastic is that you need to let it dry at least 24-48 hours. Â If you’re using enamel, you should wait 72 hours. Â This is the reason most people think spray painting plastic doesn’t work because they do not wait long enough for the part to cure/harden.
For the metallics, I really think that the Rustoleum Metallics in gold and silver are the by far, the best spray metallics out there. Â For extra durability, you can also spray a top coat but I didn’t do that to mine and we’ve been using them a week and they’re perfect.
Thanks for hanging out with me today and if you happened to miss last week’s Paint It Monday, Favorite Trends for Revamping Furniture with Paint, you can get to that post by clicking the image directly below:
Cheers!
Cyndy
Delaney says
You are incredibly creative! I have to go through your whole site now! Thanks for the ideas and making Monday morning more fun! =)
Kristen@fit2feelbetter says
What a great idea. I had to do a little spray painting on a school project for my son the other day. I hadn’t spray painted in SO long and ow I’ve got the itch to do it again! This would be a perfect project. Thanks for all of the tips about what to use on plastic. That saved me future headaches I’m sure!
Kathryn says
Gold Metallic spray paint makes everything better. I use Krylon shortcuts and love it a lot too!
Susan says
These are so pretty! I honestly think I’d never have thought to do this, and I have a number of these tray dividers that are just plain clear plastic. They will be getting a facelift soon! And thanks for sharing the techniques you use to do it right. That is really important and appreciated!
Jenn @ HomeStyleReport says
It looks like I have a trip to Lowes in my future to grab some of that plastic primer (I’ve had loads of issues lately) then I’m off to paint my trays gold!!! Love this one…and your new design! It looks amazing!
Chrissy @ Adventures in DIY says
This is one of those “why didn’t I think of that?” things! Thanks for sharing!