Dress Up with Gold Painted Converse Shoes

My oldest son doesn't like wearing any kind of shoe other than Converse. Last I counted he has 5 or 6 pairs all in different colors with a varying distressed loved look. He wears them for everything.

For Prom he got a brand new pair just for the occasion. He's even ordered custom colored Converse directly from their website. So when graduation was approaching and he was planning on wearing his converse again, I suggested he go with something a little extra special.

This is where mom and the magic of spray paint comes in. I grabbed his grungy red pair he'd had for a while and started wearing to mow lawns – they were looking a little neglected and Christmasy all at once. Then I got creative. Special thank you to Krylon for sending me a variety of gold paint to use on another project… the left overs helped dress up my son for his graduation.

You can paint your own converse any color you'd like.

Materials you need

• painter's tape
• your favorite color of spray paint
• newspaper or a drop cloth to cover your work area
• paper for inside the show

How to DIY spray paint your own Converse Shoes

1. Cover work area. I used an old, flattened cardboard box so I could easily turn the shoes as I painted them.
2. Remove the shoelaces and clean off any excess dirt and grime from the rubber areas of the shoes. If you decide to clean the canvas, make sure it's dry before you paint. To get some of the tough spots of dirt off, I used a Magic Eraser – oh how we love them!
3. Tape any areas you don't want the paint. I wanted the entire shoe to be gold, with the shoe tongue black. So, I taped off all the rubber and then covered the tongue with paper (see the next step). If you want to paint with multiple colors, make sure to tape off appropriately.
4. Add paper inside the show to prevent the paint from covering the inside area. I used some basic packing paper I had, but you could also use newspaper. Just crunch it up and shove it in that shoe. To keep the tongue from being painted gold, I covered it with paper and taped off the area. Later, when I wanted to paint the tongue of the shoe black, I taped off the gold areas and lifted the tongue with paper behind it.
5. Spray paint where you'd like. Make sure not to saturate an area too much, instead, spray an even coverage, allow to dry a bit and then spray again until the area is covered the way you want it. I found the canvas really soaked up the paint, so I had to apply about 4 coats. This was partly due to my covering red with gold. Another color combination may have different results.

I love how they turned out and more importantly, my son worn them proudly for his graduation. I was excited to be able to contribute to his day – and it's always fun to make something special for one of the kids.

You can use this same technique for just about any fabric shoe. Plastic or shiney shoes may not have the same results… after wearing shiney shoes, the paint tends to flex and flake off or crack.

I'd love to hear about any fun shoe DIY projects you create!