I may have taken things a little too far this time! I have been adding color to a very beige and grey backyard bit by bit. This weekend I went hog wild and I literally spray painted my tired old cement pad.
Our house is rather old built in the 1950’s. Its a mystery at what point they would have added this concrete pad and privacy fence but its safe to say it was a long, long time ago.
Our patio is approximately 232 inches by 135 inches or 3.5 meters by 5.9 meters.
It has 4 sections at various widths 51 inches 52 inches 67 inches 62 inches. I worked in sections. I was done three sections when the spray paints started running out.
You will need:
- brooms, dust pans
- power nozzle on your garden hose or power washer
- a concrete mold
- 9 or 10 colors of spray paint (expect to pay approx.$7.50 per can of paint)
- clear concrete sealer
Before you get started you need to clean every bit of your concrete…
In order to successfully paint concrete you must clean and prep the area properly. This means going over the surface to remove all dirt and debris. Our patio had lots of that!
All the credit goes to my father in law for digging all the grass and weeds out from the cracks in the concrete slabs. New bits of nature are constantly blowing through the air so even during the process you may need to re-sweep. So keep a dust pan and broom or whisk handy through the entire process.
Plan on spending at least an hour on the clean up process. First I used the corn broom and a kids sized snow shovel for my dustpan. Then I used an old kitchen broom for finer bits of dirt. Then I used a flat broom for a final run over to see if I had gotten it all. To be thorough now consider if any areas need to be scrubbed. I had two areas where there were potted plants with thick mud caked onto the ground under the flower pots-it would not budge. Scrubbing with soapy water will tackle this…or use a power washer. Then you will need to wait for it to completely dry.
If you leave dirt on the concrete the paint will stick to it and likely wash away the next time it rains so don’t skip the cleaning stage.
Gather the Supplies: Concrete Mold and Paint
What is a concrete mold?
A concrete mold is typically used with quick-setting concrete pre-mix to create cobblestone walkways or patios of any size.
If you were pouring concrete into this mold you would want to have it as pictured above (wide edges upwards) but for spray painting we want to have the wide part on the bottom of the mold. This will create a tiled grout effect.
Where does one buy a concrete mold?
I have had this mold stored for the last 5 years! I bought it from Lee Valley with the idea of making a concrete path in a section of my backyard. However, I took one look at the bags of concrete that I would have to haul home and mix and thought it was best to put it off for a bit….lol. That sounds back breaking!
I have looked at the website and Lee Valley does still sell this mold for $34.50. Its 20×20 and very sturdy. Here is the link. http://www.leevalley.com/en/garden/page.aspx?p=10339&cat=2,2180,33222
If you aren’t near a Lee Valley store, you may need to investigate if your closest hardware store does carry it. It looks easy enough to purchase online but harder to find in actual stores.
Here is a similar one at Walmart.com. https://www.walmart.com/ip/17×17-Inch-Pavement-Mold-Irregular-Concrete-Stepping-Stone-Patio-Paver-Mold/163739522
Possibly a cheaper alternative would be to take a piece of plastic and cut a pattern out with an exacto knife. This would be like creating a stencil. At my local dollar store they have thick pieces of sturdy plastic in the craft section that looks like a big placemat. This is meant for a work surface for crafting kids so they don’t wreck your table. I could see this being cut up as a stencil. Just a thought!
Next you’ll need to choose the paint!
I started out with these 7 colors but after the first section decided to add a red spray paint that I recently used to paint my Muskoka chairs an awesome red.
As you can see the lime green and sunshine yellow colors did not have the impact that awesome royal blue did. Lets give a shout out to Tremclad Royal Blue for its awesome job covering concrete on the first try. Yellow and lime did get a second coat once everything was dry. I didn’t actually mind the faded effect it had since colored tiles or bricks are not perfect. But then I wondered if it will fade with the sun and snow so I thought that I would want to make it darker by going over just the yellow and lime the following day.
Here I am at the 3/4’s done mark and very pleased with myself…but running out of some of my spray paints.
Here is a good picture from before and after the paint. Concrete doesn’t need to remain bland grey. The hardware store has several options for painting cement. If this is a bit too bright and busy for your space, you could do it in shades of green, brown, copper, charcoal etc. Pinterest also shows several techniques using a stencil effect. Or just painting a rectangle with a pattern on it so it looks like a carpet. So cool!
Here is the patio in the early spring with the last of snow melting. All the garden furniture packed away for the winter and the formerly-lush ivy looking creepy and brown.
In May and June I was having a lot of fun adding color by painting a few things, but the patio concrete was pretty ugly grey and not cleaned up since the spring.
This is a cool angle from the deck! Now that I have put all the furniture in place….and I realized I forgot to put the clear sealer on top. Oh plumpers! I was so eager to see it all come together I completely forgot! Tomorrow is a holiday so…hubby is home to help me remove it all again. I will start early before the temperature gets too hot. I’m hoping that with the sealer on top this color will stay vibrant and last through the seasons. This is July 1st 2018. I’ll follow up with how it held up over the years.
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