Decorative Painting Surface Prep for Metal and Steel

Decorative Painting Surface Prep for Metal and Steel takes a little (or in some cases, a lot of) elbow grease. With the right supplies, though, rusty metal provides a superb “canvas” for your talent.

Decorative Painting on Metal

Once upon a time, many years ago, I used to paint on anything that couldn’t run away from me. Wood, glass, fabric or metal. Saw blades, milk cans, vases, tote bags, and tea towels.

When you paint on things, rather than on a canvas that’s framed and hung as art, it’s called decorative painting.

In some homes in recent years wall words and signage took a place alongside, or even replaced, fine art.

Adding decals to signage, or to chalk-painted, up-cycled furniture, is trending now.

This movement tempts me to dig out my art brushes and paints and paint this decal-type of design on things again.

We’re coming full circle!

Decorative Painting is not necessarily Tole Painting

So back when I wanted to learn to paint, I took tole painting lessons.

In many cultures, tole painting was stylized flowers, swirls, dots and flourishes. You’ve probably seen metal trays with tole painting, although perhaps you call it folk art.

I learned to do that, but my favorite from the start was country scenery. Old barns with rusty roofs, two story farmhouses with porches hanging with vines, a bird perched on a fence post in a wheat field.

Since people back in the 1980s were getting weary of be-ribboned geese on dusty blue or sage green, metal objects decorated with country scenery became somewhat popular. You would find this art in any pioneer village shop in places like Branson, MO or Black Hills, SD. Wherever history was celebrated you would find decorative painting.

No metal object is ready for painting as is. Usually old and rusty metal, like milk cans and metal gas cans, need some scrubbing and sanding for decorative painting. Even new metal needs scrubbing.

So I learned a few prep tricks for metal that I’ll share today so you can come with me on this new foray into decorating old things.

Decorative Painting Surface Prep for Metal and Steel

Supplies for metal and steel prep:

1. Dawn soap and water, baking soda
2. Steel brush and/or grade 0000 steel wool, cheese cloth or tack cloth. Fine sand paper for metal.
3. A safe rust remover such as Evapo-Rust© for extra rusty metal
4. A metal primer spray such as Rustoleum©.
5. A good quality metal matte paint spray for total coverage of the metal surface. Matte finish is important so the art paints adhere.

Steps for metal prep:

1. So your metal is not new and clean and rust-free and it needs a good soap and water wash. Rinse the soap off and shake the object as dry as you can. Then sprinkle the object with baking soda. The baking soda will adhere to all the damp spots:  the bumpy, rusty places where you need to scrub or sand.
2. Step 1 applies to new metal also, as it often has a coating that has to come off. If your metal is new, skip to Step 5 after the scrubbing.
3. Use the steel brush or steel wool and scrub at the rust. Rinse, scrub and dry until the metal is as smooth as you can get it.
4. I rarely paint on metal so rusty that the only solution is using a solution like Evapo Rust©. We’ll address this in another post.
5. After the object is completely dry, shake your paint primer and give the metal a nice coat. Protect all surfaces, and paint only in well ventilated spaces. Follow the directions on the can. Use fine sandpaper for metal and skim over the primer with a light hand. Dust the piece well.
6. Now you’re ready for the metal spray paint. Be sure your paint is a flat or matte finish. If it has a sheen it won’t be a good “canvas.” It has to have some tack to get a good art quality painting.

Your Metal Surface is Prepped and Ready

In other posts we have easy acrylic painting tutorials, so get ready to paint along with us.

You can use any type of paint on this prepped metal surface. I’ll be using acrylic paint from the tube for this design.

My favorite palette for country scenes includes these colors: burnt umber, yellow ochre, raw umber, alizarin crimson, pthalo blue, veridian green, chromium yellow, white and black.

Please come back

for the Wood Surface Prep for Painting DIY or our easy Fall Tree Watercolor Painting Tutorial.