Refresh a Faded Outdoor Umbrella With Spray Paint!

What do you do when your outdoor umbrella still works, but looks terrible from fading and wear? A few years ago I experimented with spray painting it rather than just throw it out and the results blew me away - it looked great! And the cost? Six bucks. Wonder how long it would last? I did - and I'm amazed by that, too!
Blog: AnOregonCottage.com
Our umbrella is black, making it easy to get any spray paint, though I think brown and basic green or blue would also be easy to match. Flat black worked the best - just the cheap .99 cans you can find (that I'd never use on nicer projects). I needed 6 cans to cover our 9-foot umbrella.
As you can see, it was so faded it was gray. It also had green mold courtesy of our damp Oregon winters (and falls and springs...). I washed it as best as I could, let it dry and then sprayed it as evenly as possible. I seriously had my doubts, since it looked a bit mottled as I finished...
But when we set it in place, it looked 100% better! I wrote about this way back in 2011 and I thought it would buy us another season of use. Then I added an update in 2013 that it still looked great - without any touch-ups, even. You know what? We still used it all through the 2014 outdoor season and we'll only be replacing it this year because it finally has holes in it! That's 4 years more use from a $6 investment and some of my time - that's a win, right?


Find more details, including tips and what I learned at the blog post url below:
Jami @ An Oregon Cottage
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
Go
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
  3 questions
  • Janie Armstrong Janie Armstrong on Apr 23, 2017

    does this work with paint for outdoor trim? i overbought paint and can not return.

  • Janie Armstrong Janie Armstrong on Apr 23, 2017

    i over bought paint for house trim=. can i use this on umbrella???

  • Panic Mo Panic Mo on May 11, 2020

    Can I use two different colors - similar tones- or will the paint bleed through??

Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 20 comments
Next