by Frances Stanford

Created on: July 20, 2010

Spray painting can be a messy project, especially when you want to paint small objects. You don’t want to get the paint on other objects that are close at hand and yet it is important that you paint every inch of the object that needs your attention. For this reason it is essential that you confine your work to a small area and set the perimeter so that you won’t ruin anything that may be in the vicinity.

Creating a portable spray paint booth is a very easy task to complete, whether you spray paint objects on a regular basis or you just want to complete one project. The portability aspect is important because then you can do the painting anywhere you wish without creating a big mess that requires extensive and labor-intensive clean up.

It is not easy to spray paint small objects, such as door knobs, dollhouses or wooden cutouts. Being able to keep them in place is also difficult because you don’t want to handle them as you are carrying out the task. Placing the objects on a flat surface will also cause problems because the spray will bounce back onto the object and mar with drips of paint.

You don’t need to go to any expense in order to create your own portable spray painting booths. You can use objects that you already have lying around and in this way you can recycle materials that you intended to throw in the trash.

Make a bed of nails

Take a ceiling tile and tap small finishing nails into the holes in the tile. These will then act as small supports on which you can place one or many objects for spray painting. This is the perfect method to use for painting door knobs because the hole in the bottom will fit on the nail and you won’t have to contend with the recess filling with paint. If the object does not have a recess in the bottom, you can easily remedy this by inserting the nails in the tile so that the pointy end sticks up through. When you do a lot of painting in this manner, you can also use both sides of the tile, so that the nails perform a dual purpose.

Make a mesh wire box

Chicken wire is very flexible and can be used to create a portable spray painting booth. Fold the wire into the shape of a rectangle and turn it upside down. The roughness of the raised wire will give you a flat surface for the painting without having them stick to the wire. When one side of the objects is dry, turn them over and paint the other side.

Make a cardboard booth

An old cardboard box can come in very handy when you are looking for a portable spray painting booth. All you need is a wooden dowel and a few clothespins. Cut the box so that you leave one side intact and angle the sides down to meet the bottom. Insert the wooden dowel through the top part of the sides and use the clothespins to pin the small objects in place. Then you can start spray painting and you have a place to hang them to dry. Once they are dry, take off the clothespins and turn the objects around. Pin them to the dowel with the bottom part up and paint any areas that did not receive any spray.

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