This was a fun project to try just to see if painting on a vinyl shade would work. I started out by purchasing old roller shades at thrift stores and yard sales. Then I scrubbed the shades down with soap and water and got started.
I experimented with 4 different types of paint & a couple of sealers to see what worked and what didn't. Painting on vinyl is a little tricky since the paint doesn't necessarily want to adhere to vinyl. You kind of have to force it. However, I found that using a very dry stencil brush and pushing the paint into the vinyl in a swirling motion works. I also used a hand held hair dryer to speed up the drying process in between colors.
I stenciled my thrift store roller shades with a variety of different stencils and paints. Next I let the newly stenciled, dry, roller shades, sit, rolled up for 2 months just to see if the paint would come off. Not all of the paint I tried worked. Some if it smudged onto the back of the roller shade.
What I discovered is that no matter what acrylic paint you decide to go with the most important part of this project is to seal your finished stencil with clear matt sealer. This is what will hold in the paint and also prevent it from smudging onto the back of shade when it's rolled up.
Here's what worked:
Liquitex Basics acrylics: Since I'm a huge fan of Liquitex Basics acrylics I had to see if it was versitile enough to stencil on vinyl and it is. What I really like about this paint is that its thick, smooth and has bold colors. Plus you can add basic white to any color to create a lighter tone for shading. In my opinion it worked the best of any of the paints I tried.
American acrylics and DeoArt - I think that they both worked fine. They're a thinner paint than Basics but, by applying the paint in small amounts with a dry brush you get good results.
DecoArt Patio Paint - I've used patio paints for stenciling on terra cotta so I just had to give them a try. This is a waterproof paint that reacts a little different and it does have limitations. While they come in bright colors theyr'e not made for blending like acrylic paint. I found that they work well if you using one or two colors with no shading needed.
Stencil Creme - This paint didn't work at all. No matter how dry I applied the creme or how long I let it sit. I didn't get good results. Stencil cremes are oil based and oil and vinyl don't mesh. The paint sat on top of the vinyl shade and was easily smudged.
