You probably heard the common advice of wearing old clothes whenever you are painting something or working with paint. And this is not a pointless whim! The stains of paint, if they get dry, are pretty hard to get rid of. And even if you are lucky, there is still a chance that your t-shirt or pants will have those noticeable pale paint marks forever.
But if you neglected this advice and managed to stain your clothes with paint, you can still save it using our recommendations.
How to Remove Water-Based Paint From Clothes
Luckily, this type of paint is quite easy to wash off. To deal with water-based paints, such as watercolor, acrylics, or latex paint, simply follow these easy steps.
Scrape off as much excess dried paint as you can using a dull knife, a brush, or a spoon. Then flush the back side of the stained area with warm running water.
Now prepare a 50/50 mix of warm water and detergent, and saturate the blot with the help of a rag. Keep on doing this until you see the paint is no longer there (or at least it’s not coming up anymore).
The next step is to make use of a stain remover and launder the item as you usually do. After you take your garment out of the barrel, give it a close check. Any traces of stain still visible? If yes, then apply a non-acetone nail polish remover or rubbing alcohol to it and launder again.
How to Remove Oil-Based Paints
Oil-based paints are somewhat harder to deal with. But it is still possible to do even when they dried.
First, you turn the garment inside out and blot the stain from its back side using either paint thinner or turpentine. Then rinse it out, apply the laundry detergent you normally use, and soak your garment overnight in warm soapy water.
The next day, rinse the item and launder it according to the care tag recommendations. In case the stain is still there, treat it with the stain remover and repeat the washing. But even if this doesn’t help, discard your piece of clothing.
These tips will help you free your clothes from dry paint of different origins and make things wearable again.
