Stainless Steel Spray Paint for DIY Custom Tumblers!

Stainless steel spray paint is easy and cheap to use! Make your own DIY custom tumblers with any color paint you want. Watch these video tutorials!

Hi Friends!  I have posted a lot of tutorials on how to make your own personalized tumblers, and today I thought I’d show you how to use stainless steel spray paint. 

You all know I love making glitter tumblers and people love to receive them as gifts!  The possibilities when it comes to custom tumblers are endless.

You can check out all the tumbler cup tutorials I have over on my roundup of customized tumblers page.

The first thing I do on almost all of my glitter tumblers is to spray paint them. 

You can buy powdered or colored stainless steel mugs, but it’s also super easy to paint them yourself. 

I used to have a hard time with stainless steel spray paint and would end up sanding the tumblers which was a lot of work.   Then I found one paint that always worked, but then I found more!

Since those days, I have used quite a few different types of spray paint on stainless steel mugs and the paint never runs anymore. 

I finally got around to making a video of how I paint Ozark or Built tumblers, so you can see just how easy it is!  There is one video at the top or side (it moves around) and one at the bottom on how to paint a stainless steel tumbler.

Stainless Steel Spray Paint Tips

I have used the following paints and all of them have worked great.  You can find these at your local Walmart or on Amazon.  There are so many paint colors so you can really create unique custom tumblers.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links from Amazon and/or Walmart.com. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my links.

• Rustoleum Gloss Protective Enamel in any color
• Rustoleum 2x Spray Paint
• Krylon Colormaster

You can always browse my Amazon storefront with my complete DIY Tumbler supply list.

Before you spray paint stainless steel tumblers, you’ll need to tape off the top with painter’s tape or electrical paint.  If you are only using paint, this is good practice so your mouth doesn’t touch the paint while you are drinking. 

If you are going to epoxy the tumbler, this also helps prevent the resin from cracking if dropped.  If you’d like to see a video on how I tape a tumbler with electrical tape click here. 

Then you are ready to spray paint your tumbler!  I love to use a turntable and spray tent so that I don’t get paint everywhere (I used to do it over my bark and we have some pretty colorful bark and rocks now!). 

HomeRight sent me their turntable and tent to try out and I absolutely love them!  Make sure you’re in a ventilated area and shake your paint cans well.

You can find the turntable on Amazon here and the spray tent here.  I like to put a piece of paper over the turntable so that it doesn’t get too much paint on it.

Start spraying from about 12 inches away from side to side and turn the table every few seconds until you can no longer see any stainless steel color.

If you don’t have a turntable, simply walk around the tumbler as you spray about a foot away. Keep walking around spraying side to side until the tumbler is completely coated. Sometimes I walk around 4 or 5 times before it’s all painted!If you want to add a monogram or name to your mug before you paint it, click here for my instructional post.

If you are going to glitter the tumbler after you paint it, pick a paint that is similar in color to your glitter.  This will save your glitter since you won’t have to apply two coats of glitter. 

For my full tutorial with videos on how to glitter a tumbler after it’s painted click here.

For a bunch of other ideas on which stainless steel tumblers I use and how you can decorate a custom tumbler, check out my post here!

I’ve just started making glitter stainless steel stemless wine glasses.  They are really easy to paint too!  Here is another video on painting tumblers so you can check out spray painting a stemless cup.

This one you’ll have to press the play button for it to play.

I hope these videos help to show you how easy it is to spray paint stainless steel mugs and tumblers.  You don’t have to sand them or do anything special! 

Just pick your favorite color and go for it!  It does take some practice, so have patience with yourself and don’t make the first one for someone else. 

My kids and I have about 10 DIY custom tumblers in the house.  It’s always easy to tell who hasn’t washed their cup!

Also, in case you don’t read the stainless steel tumbler instructions, these need to be hand washed.

Thanks so much and please let me know if you have any questions.

Have a creative day!