DIY: Painted Coconut

I wanted to share with you all a fun DIY project I did during our time in Key West awhile back. Painting and mailing coconuts is the cool thing to do down there (at least for tourists), and I really wanted to send a special gift to my former coworkers up in Boston. Since commissioning an artist to hand-paint a custom coconut is quite expensive, I decided to grab some watercolors, and paint my own design on a coco I had found near the resort where we stayed. Here's a step-by-step of what I did:

Step 1: Choose a coconut, The coco must be able to stand on its own (unless you want to provide a stand as well). It should be dry and drained of milk.

Step 2: Sand the coconut. This will give the paint a rough surface to adhere to. It also removes many of the little fuzzy hairs that will get in the way of your brush.

Step 3: Paint the coconut. I used watercolors, but you can use whatever you want. Some artists will prime the coconut first, but I didn't, because ain't nobody got time for that.

Applying the background

Painting on the first palm tree.

Done with the first tree; on to the second.

Both trees done. After I took this picture, I went over the background colors again to blend them better, and added a message on the top right corner that said "love from Key West" as well, but I forgot to get a photo before I sent it off. I also painted the company logo on the other side.

Step 4: Seal with several coats of spray polyurethane. You can find this at any hardware store for a couple bucks. 

Step 5: Mail it off. The post office where I mailed it didn't have any Key West-themed stamps, so I just used the most colorful ones they had. I also put clear tape over the stamps so they wouldn't fall off. Mailing my coco cost about $11, since it was large and I couldn't get all of the milk out, but would obviously be less for a smaller, empty one.