Painted Shoes Perfect for St. Patrick's Day

Guess what these two Irish ladies will be celebrating ONE WEEK from today?! St. Patrick’s Day!

Living in the Chicagoland area, St. Patty’s day is quite the celebration. Parades, bagpipes, a green river, soda bread, lots of shamrocks… these goodies are just the start of the Irish tradition that sneaks up every March.

Since Casey and I both come from Irish clans with the last names that start with O’, of course, we have lots of green festivities in store over the next week. To “kick off” the celebration of all things green, we introduce you to this year’s St. Patrick’s day footwear of choice.

How to Make DIY Painted Shoes

DIY Colorful Kicks! For under $10, these personalized gym shoes will be the perfect touch o’ green to my green ensemble and will keep me comfy all day long. Before we get into the details, let me first say this requires absolutely NO painting skills and is definitely a ROOKIE craft. With a pretty random tape job and dabbing some shades of green on these puppies, these colorful kicks are a no-brainer!

Supplies for DIY Painted Shoes

Paint (3-4 colors)
Sponge brushes
Painter’s Tape
A pair of white canvas shoes (I picked mine up for around $4 at Target).

To start off, I randomly taped one shoe in a geometric pattern that covered as much of the white as I could. Trust me when I say there really was no rhyme or reason to the taping, just random taping.

One thing I do like about how these turned out is the top/front of the shoe. I taped the shoe in a way that the toe area would have a solid color, and I really did like how that turned out. You, of course, don’t have to create yours this way, it just worked for me.

When I was done taping the first shoe, I tried to mirror the tape job on the second shoe. It’s definitely not perfect (actually, you don’t even really have to do both shoes the same if you don’t want to), but I tried. With so much “going on” all over the shoe, if you miss an area or if one part is completely different than the other shoe’s equal part- I really don’t think anyone would be able to notice.

When both shoes were finished being taped, I made sure ALL of the tape was very secure along my tape lines. Having the tape secured onto the shoe is ESSENTIAL in making sure the paint doesn’t bleed onto areas that are supposed to stay white. Once you feel confident that the tape is in place, it’s time to paint!

I started off with the mini paint brush, but realized I liked using a small sponge brush instead; both are completely acceptable! I painted all of the untaped areas by switching off shades of green (trying to make sure the same shade of green was never next to itself). I followed that same color pattern on both shoes.

Once both shoes were painted, I let the paint dry for about 30 minutes.

I peeled off the tape and realized that I loved the green but didn’t love the large strips of white that were still remaining. If you love the design more simple like this, you’re all done! But if you’re like me and want MORE color, repeat the taping & painting process once again.

This time, it’s okay to tape on top of the previously painted, dried areas (keyword: DRY).

Add some more pops of color and wait for the paint to dry.

When you remove the tape the second time, you’re left with festive green kicks that will work perfectly with your St. Patty’s Day gear!

But if you’re not in the market for hot green shoes, first let me tell you- I understand and respect that. These do have a little 80’s flair to them, don’t they? However, using a variety of different colors could work for these shoes and make them far more versatile than just Irish apparel.