Blinds come in three varieties: wood, vinyl and faux wood. (There are also aluminum blinds, but they tend to be less common in residential settings).
Mostly, manufacturers color them white or brown. But, as a homeowner, you might have a totally different idea for how you want them to look. Green or red might be more your style.
Furthermore, blinds can lose their coloration over time. They start off bright white but then begin to dull with stains, dust and UV damage from sunlight.
In this post, we take a closer look at how to paint your blinds. What’s more, we make it easy – so easy, in fact, that you’ll feel like you’ve been doing it your entire life.
Read on to learn more.
Collect The Materials You’ll Need
If you want to paint your blinds, you’ll need to collect all of the materials that you need. (Do this first to avoid having to hunt around for them later on when you need them most).
Supplies required include:
- Spray paints
- Drip cloth
- Sandpaper
- Dish soap
- Sponge
- Blinds
When choosing your paints, make sure that they will adhere to the material you’re spraying. Don’t forget that what matters is the surface of the blinds, not the material inside. So if your blinds have a coating of paint on the outside, that’s the surface that you need to consider (not whether they are wood inside)>
Start Painting
The next step is to start the process of actually painting your blinds.
Remove From The Wall
The first step is to remove them from the wall (if you’re painting blinds you’ve already installed. You can skip this section if your blinds are new from the store).
To remove blinds, unclip them from the mounting brackets. On most designs, you shouldn’t have to go to the hassle of unscrewing the mounts.
Remove The Slats
Once you remove the blind unit from the window frame, start removing the slats, one by one. You should find that they quickly slide out of their string housing.
It is a good idea to take your blinds outside first before you do this. That’s because you’re going to be painting them and you don’t want to get spray paint all over your rooms.
Wash The Slats
Once you remove them, use the sponge and dish soap to wash them. Again, if you’ve bought your blinds from a store, such as Shuttercraft, you can skip this step.
As you’re washing your blinds, you’ll notice a covering of dust and grime. You may even notice stains from where splatter has landed on them in the past.
Grime shouldn’t be too embedded and, therefore, relatively easy to remove. Wipe down each slat a few times until clean. Use warm, soapy water then rinse with a hose.
Sand The Slats
In some cases, you might want to sand the slats. This job can be time-consuming (which is why many people skip it). But it also helps the paint adhere much more easily. If the slats are particularly smooth, sanding them will help make your paint job last longer.
Spray Them
After sanding, lay out all your slats on a sheet of plastic, about six inches apart and begin spraying them. You’ll need to do the front sides first, wait for them to dry, and then turn them over and do the back. Don’t be afraid to take your time with this part of the process. There’s no rush. If you have a good spray can, you should notice that achieving even coverage is easy, even with a single coat. If you are worried about coverage (or you are using a color that contrasts with what’s already there), you can do two coats.
Check your spraying technique. Pass over the wood with long, steady hand motions, avoiding spraying too little or too much. Use a handle attachment for your spray bottle to give you more control.
When flipping the slats, turn them over so that they face down on clean sections of the drip cloth. Don’t place them in areas of overspray as this can wreck the finish.
Slide The Slats Back Into The Strings
It should take around three hours for the slats to dry. A good policy is to leave them overnight, just to be on the safe side.
Once you’re confident the slats are dry, pick them up and slot them through your blind strings, one by one. This process shouldn’t take you more than 30 minutes, but it is tricky. You’ll need to line up each slat with the correct hole and make sure that they’re all facing the same way. You’ll also want to check that there’s enough tension on the string to pull them tight when you want to raise or lower the blinds.
Reattach To The Wall Brackets
Reattaching your blinds to the wall brackets should be relatively easy on most models. Usually, it’s just a matter of clipping the top of the blinds back into the mounting bracket and then fitting the decorative trim.
Before fitting the blinds, retract them first so that all of the slats stack on top of each other. This will reduce the risk of damage to the blinds during the installation process.
Then, extend the blind and check that all the slats are at the right angle. If any are facing the wrong way, just twist them around a little to correct them.
Enjoy
The last step is to step back and marvel at your handiwork. You’ve just successfully painted your first set of blinds.
Painting your blinds is a wonderful way to transform the atmosphere of a room. When your blinds are the right color or just looking their best, it elevates the mood and makes your home feel so much fresher.
What’s more, it’s such a simple DIY job. All you really need is some sandpaper, a can of spray paint and a drip mat.
So, after reading this, are you considering painting your blinds? Or are you happy with how they are right now?