How to remove dried paint from your floors, walls, or furniture after you’ve had a paint spill or splatter!
If you need to know how to remove dried paint from something, then it’s time for some more old-fashioned rubbing alcohol magic!
Remember when I was telling you about how you can use rubbing alcohol to clean sharpie marker off of just about anything? Well, anything but latex paint. That’s where this little tip came from.
When I was working on my bathroom lately and painting with – what else – latex paint, I had a few mis-haps. Well, mis-haps, lazinesses, whatever you want to call them. I had a roller that was too big for my roller handle. And it kept falling off the handle, all loaded up with paint.
I just kept on paintin’. I didn’t stop to wipe up my messes. Why would I when I had this little trick up my sleeve to be able to deal with it “eventually”? In fact I was so lazy bold as to leave it there for a full 2 weeks.
No problem!
Here’s what you can do if you’re like everyone and have had many painting oopsies too!
How to Remove Dried Paint
I poured a little bloop of rubbing alcohol onto the main marks and left it to sit for 30 seconds or so. Then I just wiped it all around with a paper towel. It was good as new! No scraping needed! Even the little smears that didn’t get a soaking came off just as easily.
I really hate scraping off paint mistakes and will just leave them all terrible-looking most the time rather than having to scrape.
Next I moved on to the floor in the dining room. I let the girls do some painting there a few months ago and didn’t worry too much about the floors cause, well, I want them gone like yesterday anyway. Lately though, those multi-colored paint splatters have been bugging me when we have people over and it’s pretty clear those floor aren’t getting replaced anytime in the next few weeks.
A few moments later… presto!
The Results
I’m so glad I finally took 5 minutes out of my day to take care of this now that I know how to remove dried paint. Getting rid of those shameful marks really gave my Spring Cleaning a good boost.
It was so easy too!
This is one of those ideas where, if you know about it already, seems like common sense, but if you don’t, it can be a real revelation. It’s great to use on things like doorknobs, light switches and vent covers that seem to always get a few marks on them accidentally when you think you’ll be able to just paint around them.
I would suggest if you have any paint on wood floors or any kind of fancy tile, that you test first on a hidden area to make sure it’s safe, but for my plain ol peel n stick tile, it worked like a charm!
Hope this tip makes your next painting job just a little easier!
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Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.