Shutter Makeover with Fusion Mineral Paint

From the moment we bought our house 5 years ago, I knew that I would repaint the shutters. They were burgundy against red brick – they simultaneously clashed and got lost.

I loved our house, but every time I drove up all I could think was, “It would look SO much better if those shutters were…” fill in the blank.

Major projects like kitchens and bathrooms came and went, babies were born, life kept chugging along and we never painted those silly shutters.

I finally had my mind set – it was going to be black or gray. Those were classic. Those were safe. Except…

…every time I took the kids on a walk, I passed this one house a few blocks from ours. The shutters and front door were a cheerful blue, and I began to notice that I smiled every time I walked past.

And then it clicked – that’s what I wanted – not something safe…

I wanted something that would make me smile every time I drove up to our house.

Blue is certainly still a classic color – just look at many English cottages! I was sold.

You might know by now that I love Fusion Mineral Paint. It is awesome stuff; I’ve used it a bazillion times around our house and have been nothing short of impressed.

But could I use it on vinyl shutters?!

People use it on their front doors all the time – even on a bicycle, as I saw recently! Why not shutters?

Just a note – our roof has a really generous overhang around the perimeter – the windows never actually get a lot of direct rain or snow. This made me even less concerned about durability. I’m confident, though, that even if you don’t have a deep overhang, it would still hold up well.

I’ve used Fusion Mineral on our dining table, black bench, the twice-painted table, and a number of other projects. I’ve scrubbed pasta sauce off that dining table countless times over the last year and it’s held up like a champ. Toys have been scooted across that bench over and over again for well over a year and it has yet to flinch. And that’s without any sort of topcoat. It’s incredible stuff.

To prep, we removed the shutters from the house and gave them a good cleaning with plain old dish soap and water.

We let them dry and power washed the siding while we were at it.

Then I gave them two coats of Fusion Mineral Paint in Liberty Blue.

What a difference even after just one coat! (Still wet in photo.)

Don’t freak out if the paint looks a little like camouflage while it’s drying – it will even out! When I first saw the shutter look like this…

…it was a total “oh no!” moment – but trust me, it doesn’t look splotchy now in the slightest. Fusion Mineral Paint is also self-leveling! Woohoo!

You know what impresses me even more than how well 2 coats covered? It didn’t take away the texture of the shutters! They still have that faux-wood grain visible! Just make sure you don’t get gloopy with the paint – use a light hand and try not to go back over what you just painted, because it’s already starting to dry.

My husband purchased new shutter pins and I painted those too. He rigged up this block of wood with holes to stick the pins in so I could easily paint them. (Make sure you check your pin size before purchasing! They come in different sizes.)

After doing this, I would actually recommend painting the pins after the shutters have been re-hung. As he was hammering the pins in, the paint chipped in a few places, resulting in touch-up work. It’s totally up to you – the block was super convenient, so if you don’t mind touch-up work, then you could do it that way.

It is amazing how much paint can make a difference!

(Okay, well, some landscaping too…)

This would have been a 2-day project except that I ran out of paint. We started first thing in the morning, washed and painted the shutters, then let them dry overnight and put them back up the next day. As it so happened, my paint took most of a week to come in, so my neighbors had to look at a half-done house. (Sorry, neighbors!)

It took 1.5 containers of paint (500ml each) to put 2 coats of paint on 10 shutters – 6 long shutters and 4 short shutters.

I am totally in love with the blue.

It’s taken me a few weeks to get to writing this post, and so far the paint hasn’t had any problems. Even the finished shutters that got left out in the rain before we re-hung them were just fine. I will keep you updated as the seasons go by as to how they hold up, but I feel really confident that they will be A-okay!

Guess what – I smile when I drive up to the house now!