Have you guys seen painted cutlery before? it’s so much fun, I love how it adds a custom punch of colour to a party. Although it’s been on my list to try for a party for quite a while, I just never got around to it. I felt bad ‘wrecking’ cutlery. Sure, I could have hit the thrift stores and scooped up some old cutlery to freshen up for pennies… but then what do I do with it all? But the idea is SO fun.
So then I spotted these plastic utensils that look like real cutlery and it clicked. I’ll paint the fake stuff! So I grabbed a couple boxes and rushed home to test it out. If you haven’t already guessed, I LOVE the way it turned out! I’m for sure keeping this idea in my back pocket for a future party. And I really love how it could dress up a paper plate party. Can paper plates and plastic cutlery be classy? It’s well on it’s way with these guys.
All you need to craft your own is plastic ‘silverware’, multi-surface acrylic paint, and a foam brush. If you wanted to be perfect, you could tape the end off to paint, but I just free handed the lines and like that they’re all at different heights. I used a foam brush to try eliminate brush strokes. I considered actually dipping the cutlery in paint, but it uses SO much more paint and on something that is disposable, I thought save the paint! Foam brushes are typically wider so they’re easy to get a relatively straight line with as well. It took me three coats of the chartreuse and just two of the turquoise (the same paints I used for these paint ‘dipped’ treasures). I painted one side and the edges first, then flipped and painted the other side once it had dried. It was a bit time consuming because of dry time, but really easy to accomplish.
That’s it- easy right?! I love the extra pop of colour it brings to a paper place setting… super fun! My husband actually likes them so much he thinks I should paint our real silverware. I’m unsure. I have our camping cutlery I might try it out with first, so I’ll let you know how it goes! I’m going to test out some paints and see what works in the dishwasher because I’m not prepared to wash my cutlery by hand!
So what do you think? Do you use paper plates and plastics at parties or do you keep to the real dishware? I know some people are against paper… but now that there’s so many pretty options, I don’t see why not (have you seen the Oh Joy! Christmas ones?? Gorgeous!). And just an informal poll- Would you paint real cutlery?
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Kara says
Nov 18 at 8:07 amI don’t know if I’d paint real cutlery, but the painted plastic stuff looks awesome! (And you totally had me fooled at first. I thought those were stainless forks, knives and spoons!)
I’m all for paper plates when I have a whole bunch of people over. We generally don’t have enough for everyone anyway, so I have no problem busting out the classy Dixie-ware ;)
Colleen Pastoor says
Nov 20 at 10:16 amTricked ya! ;) I think paper plates have a bad rep- most of the time I’d rather enjoy our company than spend my day worrying about dirty plates everywhere!
Hayley G says
Nov 18 at 10:24 amThese are SERIOUSLY cute! What a great idea. We’re having a friends-giving this week and I might have to make these for it!
Colleen Pastoor says
Nov 20 at 10:48 amYou definitely should! They were quick to make and definitely more fun than plain plastics. AND hurray for friends-giving! We had our first one this year and loved it, I want it to be a yearly tradition now :)
Shambray says
Nov 18 at 3:25 pmUm! Love these! Now I can get plain ones and make them fun. Plain is too boring. Love this idea once again. You are a genius.
Colleen Pastoor says
Nov 20 at 10:57 amPlain IS too boring in this case :) And you’re flattering me Shambray! Thank you :)
Maren says
Nov 24 at 10:55 amI had no idea those were plastic until I started reading your entry! This is a great idea for parties. I’m going to keep my eye out at the thrift store or even Ikea and give this a try sometime.
Colleen Pastoor says
Nov 25 at 9:20 amThanks Maren! They are definitely tricky. My grandma gave me a bunch of ‘camping’ cutlery I think I’m going to try it with. The multi surface acrylic paint can actually be set in the oven to be dishwasher safe!
Jana | One Drawing a Day says
Dec 02 at 8:10 amSuch a fantastic idea. I love party planning the most.
Colleen Pastoor says
Dec 03 at 10:06 pmThanks so much Jana! I couldn’t agree more- I made a snap decision today that I’m going to try get my friends together for a quick ‘christmas dinner’/party in a couple weeks. When you love it, you love it- right?
Emily @ Table & Hearth says
Dec 02 at 10:59 amGenius. I wish I had known to do this at previous parties, pinning for the future ones! Thanks so much for sharing it at On Display Thursday!
Colleen Pastoor says
Dec 03 at 10:07 pmI know, right! I would have ditched the yellow plastics a long time ago if I had! Thanks for stopping by Emily, I always love your party :)
Laura Irion // Avery Street Design says
Dec 13 at 5:56 pmWOW! What a cool idea!!! I love it! Thanks so much for all your sweet support and for sharing at the Found & Foraged party last week! Hope to see you again tonight…starts at 8 central. :) xo friend, Laura
Colleen Pastoor says
Dec 14 at 11:39 pmAw, Thanks so much Laura! Your party is awesome- honestly, can’t get enough of that theme :)
Kelli says
Jan 08 at 4:51 pmI love this idea. When we have parties we often have upwards of 100 people here, I don’t know if I want to paint quite that many, but this is a great idea to keep in my back pocket just in case.
And I would TOTALLY paint my silverware if I knew I could still run it through the dishwasher because I’m SO not washing that stuff by hand!
Colleen Pastoor says
Jan 09 at 1:29 amOhmygosh Kelli! I can’t imagine hosting 100+ people in my house! You’re one brave woman- and I’m sure a fantastic host! Even just to do serving spoons would be a fun touch! I know… I’m tempted to try painting a couple pieces of mine just to see if it resistant to dishwasher!