The 5 Best Fabric Spray Paints [Ranked]
Do you have a favorite old t-shirt whose color has faded due to use over the years?
Has your sparkling clean sofa cover or upholstery become dirty due to dust and grime setting on them?
Do you feel your bland fabric indoors needs a fresh lease on life to jazz it up somewhat?
If your answer to all or most of these questions is a resounding “Yes,” it’s time to bring home fabric spray paint.
With a little bit of creativity along with some inspiration and design ideas from the online world, you can use your fabric spray paint to give your faded, old, and bland fabric an interesting and attractive new look.
You can take a look here to see how Melissa used fabric spray paint on her patio furniture to get rid of the grime and dirt of three boys and a dog!
Contents
Comparing The Options
- Spray paint for fabric. Aerosol Fabric Spray available in a 3-oz. spray can. Works great on natural and synthetic fabrics. Perfect for all over color or using with stencils
- VEHICLE INTERIOR SPRAY PAINT – Dupli-Color Vinyl and Fabric Spray Paint is a high-quality and fast-drying paint that is formulated with a maximum adhesion promoter to bond directly to interior components to restore or customize your fabric interior.
- Use to refresh and recolor outdoor fabrics including furniture cushions, pillows and more; not recommended for sun umbrellas
- Permanent spray paint for fabric
- Ideal for use on car seats, car door panels, vinyl car tops, dashboards, floor mats and more
Buying Guide
You can get fabric spray paint at several online retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Michaels, The Home Depot, etc.
Some smaller online stores, as well as your local arts and crafts stores too, could have stocks of fabric spray paint from which you can take your pick.
However, it’s most likely that you won’t get the wide variety available at online retailers in these smaller stores.
If you are trying fabric spray paint for the first time, it would be wise to begin with a small project.
This means instead of spray painting your sofa, try painting your t-shirt or tote at first.
You can get some design ideas by taking a look at this one:
or this one:
Ideally, buy a few cans of spray paint to ensure you won’t run out of colors in the middle of your project.
Your fabric, the color of paint, and your budget are other important factors to consider.
Most fabric spray paint companies recommend using natural fabric with up to 20% manmade fibers.
When you plan to spray paint your lightweight t-shirt, you should opt for durable and lightweight colors, not heavier-bodied paints.
You need to remember that all spray paints aren’t created equal.
While some work well with porous and lightweight fabrics, others may have been designed to suit heavier clothes and upholstery.
Picking the right one fit for your fabric is crucial to get the desired results.
Here’s a review of Tulip fabric spray paint (Source) on different types of fabrics, which would give you some insight on how the choice of fabric could influence the final results you get.
Be it a light-colored paint or a dark-colored counterpart, you’ll most likely need multiple coats to get the desired effect.
This is why ordering multiple cans (preferably, a pack of cans that come at a discounted price) would be wise. And make sure to stick to a budget when buying fabric spray paint.
More Details
Fabric spray paint gives you an easy (and often, a cheap) alternative to making your old fabric look stylish once again with a fresh coat of paint rather than replacing it with a new one.
Whether it’s a throw pillow with a faded cover, a sofa upholstered in white that has become stained and dirty, or a shirt/dress that has lost its sheen and thus, become unfit for wearing in public, you can salvage them all with a few cans of fabric spray paint.
Just imagine how cheap (and even creatively satisfactory) it would be to achieve a trendy look for your treasured pieces of furniture without spending on reupholstering, or making you old and faded t-shirt as good as new instead of buying a new one!
How To Use Fabric Spray Paint
Once you have chosen your fabric (ideally, natural-blend ones), wash it, if possible, and dry it.
Don’t use fabric softener though.
Your next step is to stretch it out on a flat surface. You should think of the design you want to get.
For simple styles, you could spray the colors randomly, or fold and twist the fabric at one or multiple points to create a tie-and-dye look.
If you want to focus on just a small area, cover the rest of the region.
Slide a piece of cardboard underneath the surface that you will be spray painting on to avoid the color bleeding onto the back.
Now, test your spray paints on a paper towel to see if you are getting even tones.
Next, move onto the fabric and spray once or twice (or more if you are working with multiple colors).
Once you have finished spraying, lets it stand for 5-10 minutes to ensure the colors have dried.
Then, remove the side covers, straighten the fabric (if you have scrunched it), take the cardboard out, turn the fabric inside out, and iron it lightly to make the color permanent.
Walmart Options
Tulip, Simply Spray, Michaels, Marabu, Rust-Oleum, and Krylon are some popular brands of fabric spray paints available at Walmart.
Whether you decide to buy these paints in-store or online, you will be able to filter them by color, price, customer rating, brand, retailer, delivery and pickup (free pickup, or free pickup + discount, ship to home, 2-day delivery, etc.), special offers (clearance, reduced price, only at Walmart, rollback, etc).
From your t-shirt to the fabric of your totes or shoes, most of these fabric spray paints can be used on them to create easy and beautiful designs.
Michaels Options
This is another place to buy your fabric spray paints, though the variety on offer is fewer than what you will get at Walmart.
And Michaels stores more Tulip products than other brands.
Still, you can browse the store to see if it has what you need.
If you are lucky, you may even get your hands on the spray paint cans/bottles at a discounted price when you place bulk orders (for a pack of 4).
Available in aerosol cans and spray bottles, the fabric spray paints available at Michaels could be used in different ways.
From stenciling, tying off, and crumpling to free-hand spraying with color transitions, and masking, you can use almost endless techniques and styles to create a variety of beautiful, light-fast colors on a range of fabrics.
For Upholstery
This is a project of a much bigger scale than a t-shirt or tote.
If you wonder how you can use fabric spray paints for your upholstery, you can take a look here:
For a step-by-step guide of painting a sofa with an industrial-grade fabric spray paint, you can read this from Wikihow.
You may even use such paints on the covers of your sofa cushions to jazz up your interiors.
Here’s a helpful guide from Marabu that teaches you how to use stenciling for your cushion covers.
You may apply the same technique on shirts, bags, and other fabrics too to get beautiful results.
Outdoor Styles
Fabric spray paints aren’t meant just for indoor use.
You can apply them even on your outdoor fabrics and upholstery.
You can take a look here to see how you can spray paint your faded patio umbrella fast.
Here’s another way to add a new lease of life to your faded patio umbrella:
You just need to make sure that you order multiple cans as depending on the fabric and the design you want to make, anywhere between 1 to 2 cans (if you simply color it without any design) could be used up for spray painting a medium-sized patio umbrella.
Simply spray-painting (without designs) a La-Z-Boy recliner is likely to use about 6 cans while the number of spray paint cans needed for a loveseat would be somewhere in-between the above two.
DIY Fabric Spray Paint
Perhaps you now think that to give your fabrics or upholstery a new coat of paint, you must buy the fabric spray paints either online or from brick-and-mortar stores.
But take heart for there’s a cheaper alternative that will give you the same results.
It’s the DIY route.
Yes, you read it right!
You can indeed make these spray paints at home.
You will need some supplies that include acrylic paint (opt for multiple colors if you plan to mix and match them), a textile medium, water (you can use tap water), and some sprayer bottles.
Make a mixture by using a tiny amount of your chosen acrylic paint, textile medium of about half the amount of your paint, and water to fill the bottle to about ¾ of its capacity.
After putting the sprayer nozzle, shake the bottle to get all the ingredients blended well.
Use a paper towel to test the color before you apply it on your fabric.
You can read more about it here and even see the results of this DIY fabric spray paint.
Now that you know all about fabric spray paints, find a project where you can test your creativity with different colors.
Be it your interior or outdoor furniture upholstery, clothes, totes, or other fabrics, unleash your creativity to see the beautiful results that enhance the style quotient of your space.
