Hairspray...An Artist's Windex

Anyone who's seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding knows what I'm talking about for the title of this post.  Gus, patriarch of the family, believes that everything from wounds to cars can be fixed with the power of Windex.  So when I ended up getting ultramarine blue paint on my beloved lemon yellow wing back chair, I just about cried (although I think my husband cheered...haha!).  What do I do?!  Well, after a quick google search, I discovered quite a few people mention using hairspray.  Okay, I'll try anything, I thought.  And guess what?  Hairspray is an artist's best friend.  Check out the steps below to get oil paint out!

The culprit, wet corner of painting

The victim, yellow wing back chair

Step 1: Take a dry, white rag and blot any excess paint off (if stain is still wet).  Do not smear around, simply blot, and when rag is saturated, move to a clean part and blot again, until rag no longer picks up paint when blotting.

See the blue spots?  That's from blotting, then moving to a clean spot until no more paint is picked up from the blotting process

Step 2: Spray hairspray onto clean part of rag, or directly onto paint spot

Step 3: Rub clean part of rag (with hairspray on it), over paint spot.  Similar to Step 1, but in this case, you can rub instead of blot.  This step can take awhile, be patient and rub in different directions to really pick up the paint.  If you see the paint begin to spread around, stop, and go back to Step 1.  When rag is saturated with paint, move to a clean section of rag and repeat.  Be liberal with the hairspray, but try to keep it in a concentrated area around the spot.  Each time you move to a clean section of the rag, apply more hairspray.

Step 4: Slowly but surely, the paint will disappear, and you will end up with nothing but a wet hairspray spot.  If you are dealing with clothes, stick them straight into the washing machine.  If you are dealing with something that can't be laundered, dampen spot with water (unless dealing with a material that water stains, such as silk).

Step 5:  Blow dry until hairspray spot is gone!  If you find that the area is tacky from the hairspray, wet again and repeat Step 5.

Voila!  No more stain!!!!!!!!!!  I can't believe it!

Okay, so what if the stain is dry?!  I tried this on a dry carpet spot that fell victim to orange paint, and I can say that the results are similar!  You may have to work at it a little more, and you may not be able to get every ounce of stain out, but never fear, you can make it better at the very least!

Happy painting...brush in one hand, hairspray in the other!