Painted Cooler Tutorial

CLICK HERE FOR AN UPDATED VERSION OF THE PAINTED COOLER TUTORIAL!

I decided to paint a cooler! Everybody in a frat/sorority or just in college needs one! Here is the tutorial how I did it!

Materials:

Cooler

Paint (acrylic)

Paint pens

Spackling

Sandpaper

Plastic paint primer

ModPodge or sealant

I went and got the cooler from Walmart and the first thing you are going to do is fill in the labels and indentures with spackling. It takes 24 hours to dry and then after than you can sand it down.

Once it’s dried, sand it the whole thing down. It’s better to use an electric hand sander than doing it all by hand (besides, it’s really hard to take a picture and using a sander at the same time!). And then take a wet paper towel to wipe of the dust.

 

Dry your cooler and then spray with plastic paint primer

Once the primer dries, then it’s time to start painting! It’s best to go ahead and paint the base coats for each section of the cooler first and it also helps to use a hair dryer to speed up the process if you’re impatient like me!

There were a few logos and such that I wanted to be JUST right so I transferred it by first printing out the image then I placed it on top of newspaper. It’s best to use carbon paper, but if you don’t feel like going to the store, newspaper is your next best bet. (It’s best to cut out a section of the paper that has a lot of black ink on it like a picture) I taped it to the cooler and then traced and pressed down on it with a pen.

Once you have all of your ideas and logos down, time to paint away! It’s best to use paint pens for lettering and outlining! Once you are all finished (I said I was finished about 7 times but I’m such a perfectionist I kept fixing things!)

Also, every time you finish painted a section or side, I would HIGHLY recommend lathering it with mod podge. This will help your work STAY and reduce the risk of it getting scratched!

To finalize the cooler, coat the cooler in ModPodge or sealant to assure that your hard work doesnt scratch off!!

I’m so proud of the finished cooler!