Selecting your Playground Paint

When selecting paint for your playground project, identifying the type of surface you will be working on is extremely important to the longevity of your stencil project.

When applying your stencil to a cement surface, we recommend striping spray paint be used to spray paint the stencil outline. Generally white is selected, but we have used black as well. For painting the large sections, any type of Cement and Porch Paint can be used. This surface tends to widen the paint color selection as most colors can be easily mixed to your color preferences.

When installing the United States Map stencil, we recommend 5 paint colors are selected, with the 5th a quart size of blue to paint the Great Lakes on the map. A Color Guide is included in your map kit, with a downloadable copy available on our website.

When installing the World Map stencil, we recommend a total of 6 colors be used, with the 6th a quart size of blue to paint the various smaller bodies of water. A Color Guide is also available in your map kit, with a downloadable copy available on our website.

We have taken the guesswork out of what states or countries to paint which color, so the same colors are not side by side. Our Color Guide will identify which areas to paint Color #1, #2, etc. When organizing your installation team, it generally works best for each person to be assigned a specific color.

Photos are included to demonstrate how to clearly provide Color Guide information to each painter.

When applying your stencil to an asphalt surface, paint selection can be slightly more limited to off-the-shelf colors typically used in parking lot striping. Colors like “safety yellow” or “handicap blue” can be used as-is when painting. We have had success when working with specialized painting stores who are willing to mix paint to provide greater color variations. We would recommend contacting your local paint store to discuss color options with them.

When working on asphalt surfaces, bear in mind that more paint may end up being used on this surface, particularly if it has not be sealed in several years. Asphalt tends to have various indentations which generally are filled during the painting process which results in using more paint. On a recent United States map installation, we used one gallon of each of our paint colors.