How To Paint Plastic Switch Covers And Outlets?

Most of the houses have white plastic switch covers and outlets. This usual white color of plastic covers and outlets looks nice only when walls of the house are also white in color. But in a well colored house, these white plastic switch covers and outlets provide extremely unattractive appearance. To solve this problem you don’t need to call an interior decorator. In fact, you can easily paint the plastic outlets with the color of your desire. But painting a plastic is different from painting a wall. It can be tedious in many terms. In this article, some easy instructions are provided and with the help of these instructions you can easily paint your odd colored plastic switch covers and outlets.

To paint the plastic switch covers and outlets you will need these materials-

1. A flat head screwdriver
2. Roller tray
3. 1 paint brush (1/2 to 2 inch)
4. Old dish towel
5. Spray cleaner
6. Dish soap
7. Paint (according to the color of your walls)
8. Latex gloves
9. Sandpaper (fine gauge)
10. A clean trap (painting)/cloth
11. Dust cloths

Pre painting steps

1. Spread the trap on the floor. You will use the one end for the painting and the other end for sanding.

2. After this, just remove the switch covers from the wall. This can be done easily by using a screwdriver. Once you removed the covers, you should place back the screws at their places. By doing so, you will not be needed to take care about the screws and you can avoid any screw loss.

3. Now, wipe all the smudges and fingerprints from the switch cover, with the help of a clean cloth and a spray cleaner. If you don’t have some cleaner, then you can simply wash the covers by using water and dish soap. Then dry it with some towel.

4. With the help of some sandpaper, lightly sand the surfaces of the outlet covers. You should not use hard hand for this, because it will cause scratches on the surfaces. Just a light hand sanding is enough, in order to create some smoothness. This smoothness actually participate in paint adhering.

5. Use a soft cloth (dust cloth) in order to remove all the dust that is accumulated on the covers.

Painting
1. Place the clean outlet covers on the dust free end of the tarp. And after this, put on the painting gloves.

2. Open the can of the paint and pour a small quantity of the paint in the roller tray.

3. Dip the brush into this poured paint. Your brush should not carry excess of the paint. Drop down the excess paint into the roller tray by gentle rubbing of the brush against the walls of the tray.

4. Now, pick up the outlet cover and start careful painting of the edges. Don’t allow any drips to move on the surface of the cover. You should not worry about the resultant streaks, because it is just a first coat of the paint.

5. After applying the first coat, start light brushing on it. You should apply unidirectional smooth strokes.

6. Different type of paints needs different times to get dry properly. So you should read the instruction manual of the paint, to get an idea about the drying time of the paint.

7. After proper drying of the paint, repeat the above mentioned steps for second coat.

8. After drying of second coat, screw back the outlet covers into their places.

So, by following these instructions you can easily paint your plastic switch covers and outlets.

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