My oldest daughter is a high school senior this year and the first time we’ve been able to take part in the tradition of painting your Senior Parking Spot. Caution: it took a lot longer than I thought. You can learn from some of our mistakes. Here are some fun Senior Parking Spot ideas and how to paint one!
How to Paint a Senior Parking Spot
The more elaborate your design, the more expensive it will be First, you want to decide on your design. We found the one above on the internet with a simple Google search. My daughter liked the design and colors and wanted to add a little Harry Styles love to her Senior Parking Spot, so we headed to Lowes to buy the paint and supplies.
Paint the Parking Spot a Solid Color
We bought a gallon of exterior paint for the white, because that’s the color we decided to paint the parking spot to start with a clean slate and to add the lines. If there’s any way you can paint the spot the night before, do it, because it takes a while to dry. It took at least a couple hours for ours to dry. We used a long roller to paint it.
Tape the Lines
You’ll want to section off what you want to paint. We used tape, because of our design, but many people just free-handed their Senior parking spot design. My husband made the circle by squatting down, extending his arm, and then drawing a circle with chalk while turning around. They then went over it with tape and tried to fix the imperfections.
Start painting
Another Senior Parking Spot tip: If your whole school has a specific day to paint your senior parking spots, don’t wait until the night before to go to Lowes or the paint store. That’s what happened to us and they ran out of exterior paint in quart sizes, so we just used interior paint. So far, two weeks later, everything looks great, but it may wear faster over time.
To paint we just poured some straight out of the can onto the ground and painted. I wish we had bought more of the tiny rollers. They were easier and faster to use than the spongey brushes.
We started at the top with our design, because you don’t want to paint yourself into a corner. Then we did the circle, and then finished the bottom. Because it was so hot, the paint dried pretty quickly.
After everything was dry, we peeled up the tape, and it came off pretty easily!
Painting Letters for Senior Parking Spots
We first bought stencils, but then the person next to us said it wasn’t worth it. The stencil was sticking to the paint, and it was tedious and not worth the effort. So then we decide to free hand it, and most people seemed to do the same.
First we used chalk to outline the letters, then painted over it.
And done!
All in all, it took about 7 hours from start to finish. It was a hot day, so bring plenty of water!
Some people brought shades, but honestly, they were kind of a pain, especially when you have to paint next to someone.
Have fun!
ETA: It’s now the end of the school year and the paint lasted all year!
Fun Senior Parking Spot Ideas
It was amazing to see how creative people are! It started to rain as were finishing up, so I didn’t get to snap too many pictures of other senior parking spot ideas, but these were cool and fun!
Many people showed their hobbies, favorite bands, favorite colleges, favorite sports teams, favorite TV shows, favorite anything or even just funny Senior parking spot ideas to claim their parking spaces. Just have fun with it!
Elisabeth
Monday 23rd of January 2023
This is great! Thank you so much. This is really going to help with our Club's backlot project. Question: what type of paint did you use -latex, oil-based, etc.?
tanialamb
Monday 23rd of January 2023
You're welcome! We used a gallon of all-weather exterior paint for the white. But they ran out so we had to use interior paint for the colors. It was fine and still lasted through the year.
Milan Lockett
Monday 10th of October 2022
How did you know how much paint to buy? Do I have to do a first coat of white or can I just go ahead and paint my spot whatever color I'd like? What is the cheapest paint type that you would suggest or where to get the paint the cheapest? Where did you all get your paint supplies? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
tanialamb
Monday 10th of October 2022
I just had to guess how much paint. You can paint your spot any color you like, but most people do a solid color, because they have to paint over last year's spot. You can choose any color you like! We got out paint supplies at Lowes, but Home Depot would work, too.
Bella
Sunday 21st of August 2022
Hello- How do they remove the paint for the next year’s student??
tanialamb
Sunday 21st of August 2022
They paint over it and do a new base coat. So you can do a solid color to cover it first.
Laura Coffman
Thursday 7th of April 2022
this is beautiful!! i'm thinking about our Art Club sponsoring a similar activity next year and would love to pick your brain about a few things like how much white paint did it take to do the first layer, how much paint overall did you use for your design, did the interior paint hold up over the year?
Julie
Thursday 18th of August 2022
@tanialamb, Thank you for this detail on how-to AND the amounts of paint! We're doing this *exact* design this weekend. SO helpful!
tanialamb
Friday 8th of April 2022
We bought a gallon of the white paint and had PLENTY of leftovers. For the colors, I think we bought a quart in each color and we had some leftovers of that as well. The interior paint has held up, the colors have faded some in the Florida sun, but overall it worked for our needs! It was a lot of fun and is a good fundraiser!