Sun, rain, and seasonal storage can age an outdoor patio umbrella, leaving it dingy and dull. Bring it back to life, on the cheap, with a fun and creative coat of paint.
Unroll that old umbrella and evaluate it. Are the seams intact? Are the umbrella mechanics operational? Any rust on the spokes or tears in the fabric? If it is in reusable form, please use a cloth to clean the umbrella.
If the umbrella fabric is a fine weave, apply a coat of spray primer. Lightly coating the surface of the fabric helps to saturate it and will prevent the paint from bleeding.
Paint the inside of the umbrella first in a coat of pink paint. Make a full coat to cover the inside of the umbrella, but leave the edges of the umbrella unpainted (Image 1). Let the pink paint dry and then do a second coat for full coverage (Image 2).
While the second coat of pink dries, paint the edges of the umbrella with two coats of the darker green color (Image 1). Leave a 3-inch gap between the pink and dark green to make room for a third color, a light green (Image 2). Using two shades of green helps to emulate the natural transition of colors in a watermelon rind. If you want the band of light green paint to be perfectly straight, put painter's tape on the inside of the umbrella that overlaps the dry pink and dark green. Paint two coats light green for full coverage.
The outer fabric of the umbrella will be painted alternately light and dark green to represent the exterior of the watermelon. Eight panels on the typical umbrella allow colors to alternate in every way. Proceed with two coats on each panel for full coverage, which will help disguise any pink bleeding from the inside of the umbrella.
Use black paint and a new foam brush to freehand paint the watermelon seeds on the inside of the umbrella.
Set up an umbrella on your patio or at the beach for an easy and entertaining function.
