With the weather we’ve been having recently, it might be time to say goodbye to summer. I’ll be sad to put away my flip flops, but I’m excited for cute boots and sweaters! And of course, a fun umbrella is a must. I transformed this boring black umbrella into an awesome neon color block umbrella just by adding a bit of paint!
It took a couple coats of paint to fully cover the solid black umbrella, but I was able to get it done in an afternoon, and I’m just thrilled with how it turned out!
Neon Color Block Umbrella
Here’s what you need to make your own color block umbrella:
- plain black umbrella
- painter’s tape
- fabric paint
- paint brush
Start by taping off your umbrella with your painter’s tape. I taped off the polka dot border all the way around the umbrella, then I added strips of tape in random lines across the umbrella.
Make sure your tape is pressed down really well onto the umbrella. It won’t stick to the umbrella as well as it does to a wall, but it definitely works!
Once your umbrella is taped off, start painting! Press the tape down around each section one more time before you start painting. And as you paint, make sure you start on the tape and brush in towards the middle of the section. This will help keep paint from seeping under the edges of the tape. You definitely don’t want to brush paint towards and under the tape—better to brush away from the tape to keep the edges clean!
As you can see, the first coat of paint didn’t completely cover the black. No worries! Just wait for that coat of paint to dry, and add another! I had to do three coats for the pink and yellow, but the blue and green were covered after two coats.
Once all your sections are colored, gently pull the painter’s tape off. You want to do this part carefully so that you don’t accidentally pull up any paint along with your tape!
If any paint seeped under the edges of the tape, you can clean up the edges with a black Sharpie marker.
The multi-surface paint I used is an indoor/outdoor paint, but the directions say to let it air dry for a few days so that it cures properly. So set the umbrella aside for a few days; there would be nothing worse than to have the rain ruin your nice paint job because it wasn’t totally dry!
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If you liked this project, check out these other simple painted projects!
Edie says
Your umbrella is super cute!
Berce says
Jolie idée !☔️
Gwen says
Super-duper CUTE! What a fun ‘brella!!!