Ceiling Fan Painting – Make it Fun!

This fan was in my oldest daughter, Kelly’s room.  Her room is nothing but a museum right now, a testament to who she was and aspired to be.  She is 22, graduated from college and not living at home anymore.  I went into the room the other day and happened to look up.  I smiled as I remember painting the fan with stripes when we first moved in.  This was a project that was included in my book, Instant Decorating. Here are a couple more projects from my book if you are interested.

*I have done another detailed post about painting ceiling fans here.

Ceiling fan painting is one easy way to add color to where it is most often neglected – on the ceiling.  Ceiling fans are wonderful to help the air circulate, but can be eyesores when they don’t fit into the decorating scheme.

When we moved into a previous home and my daughters were little, there was a dark-brown ceiling fan with antique brass fittings in each room. We couldn’t afford to replace them at the time, so to make them look less obvious, I painted each white to blend in with the ceiling.

When I was decorating their room with a color theme, I continued the palette by painting each blade in a different color of decorative stripes.  When we moved into our current house, my oldest, Kelly wanted her new out of the box white fan, painted with the stripes again.  I happily obliged.

Kelly liked lots of color in her room as you can see from the neon green walls with the the colorful border of equestrian event ribbons she won.

How to Paint Stripes on a Ceiling Fan

supplies needed:

• Ceiling fan with white blades
• Pencil
• Roll of 1-inch-wide masking tape
• 5 colors of 2-ounce bottles acrylic paints , one color for each blade
• 1-inch foam paint brush
• Water-based sealer

1. Remove fan blades from fan and clean thoroughly.

2.  Starting from metal ornamental edge, use a pencil to make marks at 1-inch intervals along both edges of the blade.  Repeat on all blades.

3.  Place first piece of tape between first and second marks and around sides of blade.  Then place tape at every other mark.  The tip should have masking tape over it.  Repeat on all blades.

4.  Paint fan blade with two to three thin coats of acrylic paint in unmasked areas, remembering to paint sides of the blades.  Let dry between coats.  Repeat with a different color on each blade. Let dry.

5.  Remove tape.  Brush one to two coats of water-based sealer on entire surface and side edges of blades.  Let dry.  Put blades back on fan.