D.I.Y Painted Plastic Animals…

Last updated on 21 April 2016

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When I painted (and posted about painting) wooden animals a few weeks ago, I mentioned that I always loved the look of painted animal toys, especially those fantastic craft/storage ideas with the painted animal glued to a jar lid. Love that! When I painted the wooden animals, I knew that I wouldn’t be putting them on the tops of jars, but I really wanted to have a go at painting them…I really loved the way they turned out and I have them sitting on my shelf at the moment. You’ll recall that I just painted them white (which I love!), but I really wanted to try out coloured animals, but not paint over my lovely rhino and antelope.

I was in a pound store (New Zealand: the same as a $2 Shop), and found a box of children’s plastic African animals. I bought them, excited for the up-and-coming new DIY. There’s nothing to it really.

I painted the animals just with white paint that I bought at Wilko (a tub of 2.5L for about 4pounds), and then used tester pot paints (also from Wilko. 1 pound each) to paint them different colours.

My little sister (10 years old) asked me why I painted them ‘crazy’ colours…and I just told her I was letting their creative side out.

Although my initial idea was to top some jars with them, I decided not to (for now!) and instead, have displayed them on a little set of cube shelves that I’ll be showing you soon!

One thing I would suggest, if you’re going to try these chappies, is to use a spray paint white primer first. I found that on the zebra (though it was just on him, so maybe he just has issues?) that a few cracks appeared. When I painted these larger plastic animals I’m about to show you, I used a Wilko white enamel spray paint  (bought for about 4 pounds I think), and then because I’m not very good at spray painting, I did another layer of white over the top, using normal white paint. It seemed to work a lot better and I didn’t get any cracks.

In case you’re wondering, I also bought these guys from Wilko. Seriously, I love that store! When I eventually leave England, I’m taking it with me. All of it.