How to Paint a Propane Tank

There is so much natural beauty surrounding our lake house from the mature and majestic trees to the calming and serene water.  But (there’s always a but, isn’t there?), we have one eyesore that has bugged me from the moment I laid eyes on our home – the propane tank.  I mean, this thing is HUGE – 500 gallons HUGE.  And, guess what?  It’s right in our FRONT YARD.  UGH – I need to learn how to paint a propane tank!

Since we live in a remote neighborhood, our most affordable option for heating is propane (no natural gas is available).  Our home, like all the other homes in the neighborhood, came complete with a good ‘ole metal propane tank.  Some of my neighbors were lucky enough to place their tanks in more obscure places like on the side of their homes.  We, however, are NOT in the lucky category for propane tank placement.

While it is possible to relocate a propane tank, that option turned out not to be viable for us. We have a pie-shaped lot.   In order to increase the square footage of the house, we needed the side and the back of the house . No propane tank relocation was in our future (sad face).  So, on to Plan B.

Plan B required much research on how others have dealt with this very same issue.  Some ideas that we considered were landscaping with various shrubs and plants, building a trellis or wooden structure around the tank, or simply painting it.  After seeing some of the very creative ways others have painted their propane tanks, I thought I would try this option first. After all, it would be the cheapest and easiest (and this budget friendly option spoke to my CPA self).  But (as I said earlier, there’s always a but), I’m no artist.

So, then the challenge was on.  I looked at dozens of ideas.  Of course, I LOVED the propane tanks that were painted with grasses and flowers, but I also knew my limitations, and this was not a possibility for me.  So, how could I paint my propane tank? There were so many cute ideas like ears of corn, logs with beavers, train engines, submarines, American flags. But I also wanted something that semi blended in with our red brick house and the natural surroundings.  Then, I saw it AHHHH– angels singing (OK, maybe that was a bit dramatic)– a watermelon with a ladybug on top.  PERFECT!!  Now that was something I could do, and it wouldn’t stand out as much as a yellow submarine (ha! ha! I think there’s a song about that).

Instructions on How to Paint a Propane Tank

So, here’s how I went about painting our propane tank. 

1.  In some states there are safety codes about what colors you can use to paint your tank.  I recommend using lighter colors such as white, gray, and silver since dark colors absorb heat.  I couldn’t find any codes in my state that would restrict the painting of our tank.  Also, our tank is right under a large tree and is shaded. So I didn’t worry too much about the colors I planned to use.

2. It is also important to find out if you actually own your tank or if the propane company owns it.  In our case, we are the owners of our tank, so I assumed I could pretty much do whatever I wanted to it. (Hopefully, that was a correct assumption).  If the propane company owns the tank, you’ll want to check with them about restrictions on painting your tank. Or, you might find yourself unable to have it filled the next time it runs low. (And that would be very bad – frowny face).

3. Before diving right into painting, you will need to prep your tank for painting.  I first used a wire brush to brush off any rust and remove loose paint.   Then, I filled a bucket with Dawn dishwashing liquid and hot water and got to work on scrubbing my tank.  Here’s what it looked like before I washed it.

And, here’s what it looked like after I washed it.

I know what you’re thinking – It looks EXACTLY the same.  What I thought was dirt was really tiny pieces of paint that had flecked off.  So, washing it didn’t have any affect on changing the appearance of this eyesore.  But, at least I had a good clean surface to start with before painting.

4. Next, I put on a primer that was specifically designed to be used on metal.  I used Rust-oleum Clean Metal Primer.  It was designed to be applied to either interior/exterior bare, lightly rusted or previously painted metal.

5. Finally, the fun part – the painting.  In total, it cost approximately $45 for the primer and paint for this project. I considered $45 to be a bargain for getting rid of our eyesore! Here are the products that I purchased to paint our propane tank.

• 1 quart of Rustoleum Painter’s Touch Ultra Cover in Hunter Green – gloss
• 1 quart of Rustoleum Painter’s Touch Ultra Cover in Sun Yellow – gloss
• 1 quart of Rustoleum Painter’s Touch Ultra Cover in White – gloss
• 1 can of Rustoleum Painter’s Touch 2X Ultra Cover paint + primer spray paint in Apple Red – gloss
• 1 can of Rustoleum Painter’s Touch 2X Ultra Cover paint + primer spray paint in Black – gloss

I’m not typically a big fan of gloss paint, but for this particular application, it was the only way to go.  Also, for the main part of the propane tank, I planned to brush and sponge on the paint so I had more control over it.  However, the colors in the Rustoleum quart cans for metal products are limited. So, I ended up mixing them together to get the color I wanted for the stripes on the watermelon.

I first used the Apple Red spray paint to cover the lady bug portion of the tank.  I sprayed 2-3 coats (waiting in between coats) until I had good coverage and I let this sit overnight.  Meanwhile, I painted Hunter Green on the base of the tank using a brush.  I also ended up painting 2 coats of Hunter Green and let this sit overnight.

The next day, I used blue painter’s tape to tape off the wings and the face and sprayed with the black spray paint.

To make the circles on the wings, I made my own pattern by cutting 1-inch and 2-inch circles out of vinyl with my Cricut machine. Obviously, you do not need a Cricut machine to make circles.  You could use lots of round objects that you have on hand for a circle pattern.

I placed the vinyl circle pieces randomly on the wings and taped off the rest so that I could spray paint the circles black.  When I removed the vinyl pieces after painting, I did take a small paint brush to refine the circles.

Next, I mixed the color for the watermelon stripes.  The mixture was 4 parts Sun Yellow, 2 parts Hunter Green, and 1 part White.  I also had a natural sea sponge for applying the stripes.

I portioned the watermelon into 8 parts and started sponging at one end of the melon very thinly and widened the stripe as I moved down the melon.   After applying one coat of the stripe, I let it dry and applied a couple more coats until I achieved the look that I wanted.  Applying multiple light coats with the sea sponge gave the stripes depth and made it look more realistic.

The two final touches were the eyes and antennae of the ladybug.  For the eyes, I painted white circles with smaller black circles in the middle.  Well, actually, my husband painted the black circles in the middle of the eyes so it looked like the ladybug was looking at the neighbor’s house. Kudos to the hubs for his cute idea!

For the antennae, we had some extra electrical wire which my hubby opened up with a box blade to expose the 3 wires. (one white, one black, one copper). 

The black wire was perfect for the antennae.  Mike removed the black wire and twisted the ends with needle nose pliers to look like small balls and attached it to the propane tank.

My hubby and I are incredibly happy with the final result.  Isn’t she a beauty?

And don’t you just love before and after pics? Me too. What a change this little bit of paint made.

Who knew that adding paint to a propane tank could make such an impact?  We laugh because everyone now knows our house as the “one with the watermelon and ladybug” in front.  At the time that I wrote this post, our house looked like a major construction zone -you can even see the brick on our house that Mike was in the process of removing in the pic above.   Mike ordered some dirt to be delivered and when he gave our address to the delivery driver, the driver did NOT say “Is that the house with the brick torn off?”  Instead, he said. “Is that the house with the watermelon and ladybug in front?” (Ha! Ha! )  So, our once eyesore has now turned into a focal point which has diminished the other eyesores of our construction zone – an added benefit that we didn’t expect!