A Painless Way to Remove Paint from Your Clothes
Painting is often touted as one of the easiest ways to give your home a design overhaul. However, it also tends to give your clothing an update too, and not exactly in a good way. Paint drips, splatters, and streaks can give your shirts and pants a whole new look, and removing those, well, artistic embellishments is often a project in itself.
“It’s worth it to have painting clothes, either old clothes or an artist’s smock, so you can focus on painting and not worry about paint stains,” says Mary Gagliardi, who goes by the title “Dr. Laundry” for Clorox. “That said, anyone can brush up against a freshly-painted surface for an accidental paint stain, so it’s good to know how to get them out.” Here’s how to remove paint from clothes so that your walls and your wardrobe look as good as new.
How to Remove Acrylic and Latex Paint from Clothes
Before you get started, you’ll need to know whether you’re working with acrylic paint, latex paint, or oil-based paint. The steps for removing acrylic paint and latex paint are the same, while the process for removing oil-based paint is slightly more involved (more on that below). Usually, if you’re painting a wall, you’ll be using acrylic paint. Check the specs to be sure.
What You’ll Need:
Dull knife or plastic spoon
Old toothbrush
Clorox 2® for Colors Stain Remover and Laundry Additive (Gagliardi’s recommendation) or distilled white vinegar
Laundry detergent
Step 1: Remove clothing and scrape off paint.
If you’re working with acrylic or latex paint when you notice a splatter, the first step is to remove your clothes; you can’t clean them while wearing them. Immediately scrape away as much of the still-wet paint as possible from your clothing with a dull knife or plastic spoon, Gagliardi says.
Step 2: Rinse the stain and apply the cleaning agent.
Next, rinse the stain with water before applying the Clorox 2® for Colors or distilled white vinegar. Use an old toothbrush to work on the stain over the course of about 10 minutes.
Step 3: Toss your clothes in the wash.
Next, toss your clothes in the washer on the warmest cycle, pouring in a little more cleaning agent with your regular detergent (if it is safe to mix them together; please read instructions on your products).
Step 4: Repeat steps 2 and 3 as needed.
“Normally when working on a stain, you would air-dry the clothing and then check for success, but you really don’t want the paint stain to dry out — so this is one exception where you don’t do that,” Gagliardi says, sharing that you should check the clothes immediately after the wash cycle is complete. If you notice any stains, repeat the cleaning process again.
Step 5: Let your clothing air-dry.
When you’re sure that the stain is removed, let the clothing air-dry. Do not put it in a machine dryer!
How to Remove Oil-Based Paint from Clothes
If you’re working with an oil-based paint, the process to remove drips and splats from clothing requires a little more finesse — oil and water, as you probably know, don’t get along well. Oil-based paints are often used on furniture, baseboards, molding, and cabinetry; you should be able to check your paint can label to be sure.
What You’ll Need
Dull knife or plastic spoon
Old toothbrush
Clorox 2® for Colors Stain Remover and Laundry Additive (Gagliardi’s recommendation) or distilled white vinegar
Dish detergent
Laundry detergent
Step 1: Scrape off as much as possible.
As with acrylic and latex paints, start the process by scraping off as much of the mess as possible from your clothing with a dull knife or plastic spoon.
Step 2: Add dish detergent.
“Given that oil-based paint is hydrophobic, which means it hates water, you can skip rinsing the stain with water,” Gagliardi says. You’ll want to pretreat the stain first with dish detergent. Rub on a few squirts of the same liquid detergent you use to clean dishes using an old toothbrush, and then rinse it away.
Step 3: Brush on a cleaning agent.
Pretreat the stain again, this time with a little Clorox 2® for Colors or distilled white vinegar and a toothbrush. Wait 10 minutes for the cleaning agent to do its job.
Step 4: Throw it in the washing machine.
While the stain is still wet, throw your clothing in the washing machine. “Use the warmest water recommended, using a good detergent,” Gagliardi continues, noting that you can add more Clorox or distilled white vinegar at this point as well — only if it is safe to mix them together; please read instructions on your products.
Step 5: Air-dry your clothes.
Check that the stain has been entirely removed before letting it air-dry; otherwise, treat any remnants with another round of this process, starting with dish detergent.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
The first step of removing any type of splatter from your clothes is simple: Act fast. “The biggest thing to avoid is letting the paint dry out on the fabric,” Gagliardi says. “Once paint has dried on fabric, it is much harder to remove. You want household paint to stand up to water-based cleaning solutions in order to clean your walls when needed, so it’s not surprising that regular laundry products don’t clean dried-on paint effectively.”
Secondly, you don’t need to go through too much hassle if the stains are teeny enough to treat on the fly. “For smaller paint stains, apply a little alcohol-based hand sanitizer and scrub the stain gently with an old toothbrush to loosen the stain from the fabric,” Gagliardi says. “This can be helpful in jump-starting stain removal, making it easier for laundry products to remove a stain completely.”
Getting Rid of Fresh Paint vs Old Paint
It’s sometimes a pain to do when you’re in a painting groove, but if you notice that fresh paint has just spilled on your clothes, try to treat it as soon as possible. “If you can get to a paint stain while it’s still fresh, before it’s had a chance to dry, you have a much better chance of getting the stain out,” Gagliardi says. “However, dropping everything while you are painting to deal with a paint stain on clothing can create other problems, especially for paint brushes or rollers that will dry out while you work on the stain.”
Old paint that’s dried, particularly an oil-based one, will likely leave a stain that’s too tough to remove completely, even if you repeat the above steps. That’s why it’s wise to follow Gagliardi’s advice of having paint clothes that can be splattered on without tears.
Now that you know how to remove paint from clothes in a timely manner, you can refresh your space with even more peace of mind.
Further Reading
We Tested (and Rated!) All the Sofas at Ashley — Here Are the Best to Suit Your Style and Space
We Tested (and Rated!) Every Sofa at West Elm — Here Are the Best for Every Type of Need
We Asked 8 Pro Travelers What They Never Pack in Their Carry-On, and Here’s What They Said
