Unfortunately, the University of Florida is usually among the first schools to go on spring break. I was stuck at home this year, which isn't a problem since I live near the beach, except that the weather was HORRIBLE. I lugged my cooler, tote, and beach chair down the street and soaked up as many rays as I possibly could on the one sunny day of break. Needless to say I ended up with a nice red glow.
With so much free time on my hands, I decided to put my creative talents to good use. With warmer weather and summer quickly approaching, I thought it would be a great idea to paint some mini coolers for my sisters and friends! I drove around to 7 stores until I ended up at Academy Sports where they had a HUGE selection of all different sized coolers at great prices. Academy was great too because they had more than enough mini coolers since I needed 6. If you are going to paint coolers, you MUST MUST MUST sand your cooler! I can not stress that enough. I'm sure if you're a part of the Cooler Connection on Facebook you have seen girls freaking out when someone posts and asks if sanding is really important and if only priming does the job just as well. NO. It doesn't. When I was a senior in high school I thought it was totally cool to try to be sratty. So I painted my small cooler pictured above (I recently redid it this past year), without sanding it and it was utter disaster and embarrassment. I took it to the beach one afternoon and after an hour the paint was peeling on all sides and completely ruined. With that said, I have a handheld power sander at home that makes sanding super convenient. If you aren't lucky enough to have a crazy mom who likes to refinish your wood floors by herself, a rough grit sandpaper should do the job. Just be patient and make sure you do a thorough job of sanding the entire cooler, or some areas may still remain slick and peel.
Here is the mini cooler I ended up purchasing after seeing many options. Its the Igloo 1/2 - Gallon Sport Jug and I was a bit skeptical of the hooks on the handle, but they ended up being great when I sealed them since I was able to hang them up to dry. After sanding is done, I tape off the tops and handles of my coolers and use Krylon Spray Paint Plastic Primer in white in order to get a good base coat for the paint to adhere to. The primer coat doesn't have to be too thick, but if you have a bright cooler a few layers of primer may be ideal if you want to use light colors in your design.
(I spray painted outside and dried inside on newspaper because of our curious outdoor kitty)
I decided that I would paint Lilly Pulitzer inspired designs since Lilly is the best summer accessory. If you are going to paint Lilly patterns, its important that you look at the layers of colors. In almost every Lilly print, you can see some white coming through the background and most objects (flowers, jellies, pineapples, etc.) are painted softly and then roughly outlined in a darker accent color. For the monogram, if you search "monogram maker" on Pinterest a few good sites that are easy to work with will come up. This one is what I use. Just print it out to the size of your liking, shade the back side of the paper with a pencil, tape it on to your cooler, and trace the monogram to leave a pencil outline. I recommend using Sharpie oil based paint pens to get a clean, crisp look. After painting the fronts in the Lilly patterns, I did a cute quote on the back of each cooler. The backs weren't as detailed as I usually like to be since I was short on time, but I think they turned out nice! Now on to sealing. Sealing is just as important as sanding. After the paint has dried, I use Mod Podge in a gloss finish (because I like things shiny) to seal the paint so it won't bleed when you do the next step of sealing. After the Mod Podge is completely dry, I do at least two coats of Miniwax Polycrylic in semi gloss. Its important that you allow for enough drying time in between coats so it doesn't end up as one big sticky mess. The last step of sealing is polyurethane. Because the polycrylic is not waterproof, polyurethane is necessary to making sure your cooler won't melt in the heat or get messed up after a quick rinse. I use one coat of Miniwax Polyurethane in semi-gloss and it's extremely important that you apply thin coats or else it will yellow badly. If you have a lot of white areas on your cooler, you should apply more coats of the polycrylic to make yellowing less likely.
Once the coolers have dried, fill up with your favorite fruity beverage and hit the beach or pool! Happy cooler painting and happy tanning season!!
xoxo
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| "First Impressions" in yellow |
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| "Jellies be Jammin" |
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| "Spike the Punch" |
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| "Tossing the Line" |
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| "Lulu" |
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| "Bellina" |
