Rainbarrel Community Service Project

This is a Community Service Project!
Please forward this page to anyone you think will
find the information useful.

Questions? Email me at denny [at] warrenkarate.com
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How to Decorate a Rain Barrel

Painting a plastic barrel can be a challenge. We have been doing this for a couple of years now and we believe that we have a system down that will work for the long term. Here are the step by step instructions:

After receiving the barrel use a fine sandpaper to give the plastic some tooth or roughness

Coat the barrel with 2 very light coats of spray primer

Place 2 coats of exterior house paint

Then the design can be drawn on with pencil

Paint decorations with exterior paint

To place the design on the barrel you can do it free hand if you are comfortable with that, or you may want to have designs printed on transparencies and use a overhead projector to trace the pattern on the barrel. Then the students can fill in with their own ideas of design and color, followed by some clean up by the artistic adult with an outline in the black.

We found that when the children painted the decorated barrel it was good for someone with a good eye to go back over the barrel and outline the designs with a black paint marker. This cleans it up and makes everything look beautiful.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact us and we would be very happy to help you make this a fun day for your school.

If you are an artist and are submitting a barrel we are looking forward to seeing your great designs.

Here are some ideas we have used with students for designing a barrel

tropical fish

frogs /dragonflies

anchors / sailboats

vines and flowers

words of peace / environmental

Be inventive Have fun!!

This is a Community Service Project!
Please forward this page to anyone you think will
find the information useful.

Protecting the Environment IS Self-Defense

How to Decorate a Rain Barrel