Some high school senior traditions include painting a senior parking spot. At our local high school, only seniors are allowed to paint their parking spots. Warning: it took a lot longer than I thought. You can learn from some of our mistakes. Here are some fun Senior Parking Spot ideas and how to paint one!
Senior Parking Spot Ideas and How to Paint One
The more elaborate your design, the more expensive it will be to paint your Senior Parking Spot. First, you want to decide on your design. We found one my daughter liked online with a simple Google search. My daughter liked the design and colors and wanted to add a little Harry Styles love to her Senior Parking Spot, so we headed to Lowes to buy the paint and supplies.
Paint the Parking Spot a Solid Color
We bought a gallon of white exterior paint, because that’s the color we decided to paint the parking spot to start with a clean base and to add the other lines. If there’s any way you can paint the spot the night before, do it, because it takes a while to dry. It took at least a couple hours for ours to dry, and we live in Florida with plenty of heat. We used a long roller to paint it.
Tape the Lines
Next, you’ll want to section off what you want to paint and tape the lines. We used painting tape, because of our design, but many people just free-handed their Senior parking spot design. My husband made the circle by squatting down, extending his arm, and then drawing a circle with chalk while turning around. He and my daughter then went over it with tape and tried to fix the imperfections.
Start Painting ASAP
Another Senior Parking Spot tip: If your whole school has a specific day to paint your senior parking spots, don’t wait until the night before to go to Lowes or the paint store. That’s what happened to us, and they ran out of exterior paint in quart sizes, so we just used interior paint. Two weeks later, everything still looked great, but it may wear faster over time.
ETA: At the end of the year the colors had faded some, but it still worked and lasted her whole Senior Year.
To paint the parking spot, we just poured some paint straight out of the can onto the ground and painted. I wish we had bought more of the tiny rollers. They were easier and faster to use than the spongey brushes.
We started at the top with our design, because you don’t want to paint yourself into a corner. Then we did the circle, and then finished the bottom. Because it was so hot, the paint dried pretty quickly.
After everything was dry, we peeled up the tape, and it came off pretty easily!
How to Paint Letters for Senior Parking Spots
We first bought letter stencils(affiliate link), but then the person next to us said it wasn’t worth it. The stencil was sticking to the paint, and it was tedious and not worth the effort. So then we decide to free hand it, and most people seemed to do the same.
However, some really crafty people had luck with theirs.
First, we used chalk to outline the letters, then painted over the chalk.
And done!
All in all, it took about 7 hours from start to finish. It was a hot day, so bring plenty of water!
Some people brought canopy shades, but honestly, they were kind of a pain, especially when you have to paint next to someone. So we just sweat it out.
Have fun!
What Kind of Paint Should You Use for Senior Parking Spots?
For painting senior parking spots, the best type of paint to use is exterior paint. However, the interior paint also worked fine and lasted all year. I wouldn’t recommend using chalk paint because it fades and washes off easily.
In total it cost us about $80 for the painting supplies, but we also bought a lot of different colors.
Best Senior Parking Spot Ideas
It’s amazing to see how creative people are! It started to rain as were finishing up, so I didn’t get to snap too many pictures of other senior parking spot ideas, but these Senior Parking Spot ideas were really cute.
Here are some fun Senior Parking Spot ideas:
- favorite hobbies
- future or favorite colleges
- favorite sports teams
- favorite TV shows
- favorite movies
- favorite characters
- funny quotes
- inspirational quotes
- video games
- funny Senior parking spot ideas to claim their parking spaces
Just have fun with it!