I do quite a bit of painting and over the last year or so, I’ve started to do more spray painting for smaller projects. The idea of spray painting seems so easy…you know point and spray. However, anyone who has spray painted can tell you that it takes patience and a bit of practise to master the technique. I am not always great at taking my time. I like to do a very good job, but am always strapped for time and you can’t rush spray painting. It is much quicker to spray paint, but trying to get it done in one quick thick coat rarely works well. Believe me, I have messed up enough projects to know that very light thin coats work and a heavy spray finger may mean you only need one coat, but it also often results in ghastly drips. I am still learning the art of spray painting, but one thing that has really helped is having my own spray tent.
I used to worry about “off” spray, dust in the paint, wind, etc. It seemed like there was never a perfect location for painting. I was concerned about painting inside and have spray dust land on the walls, floors or other objects not meant to be painted. Outdoor painting also posed problems such as bugs and dust landing in the freshly painted surface. When I saw this idea for creating a spray tent, I put it down on my “garage sale list”. (Yes, it’s true, I have a garage sale shopping list….a list of items that I am on the look out for). So, I placed “collapsible wardrobe” on my list and was lucky enough to find one that was in poor shape and only cost me $3. I rigged up the top and base to stabilize it and hung it from the rafters in my unfinished basement. It provides the perfect tent for spray painting. I simply set my projects inside and spray through the open front flap. This contains the paint perfectly and protects my projects from dust and bugs. Of course, it is not that big and therefore I am somewhat limited in the size of projects I can use it for, but if they fit, the spray tent works wonderfully.
Here are some shots of my spray tent. It is in a bit of an awkward spot in my basement, so I didn’t have much room to take my photos, but you get the general idea. Mine has a zipper across the top and a second one down the right side. When I bought it, it didn’t open right up for painting because there wasn’t a zipper across the bottom. Easy enough….I just used a craft knife and made a cut straight across the bottom. You can see that the cardboard base has seen better days and I will need to replace it with a lightweight board. I have oodles of scrap wood and can probably cut something that I already have to fit in the base in lieu of the less sturdy cardboard that currently sits there. Love this!!
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