I love the idea of high heels but I never wear them, mostly because they hurt my feet after a while and I’m kind of a wuss. But I’ve had these wedge heels for a few years and I love them because they match almost everything I own and they’re actually comfortable. They also walk a fine line between dressy and casual. Perfect, right? Yeah, until they look as worn out as mine did.

Yep, those are in rough shape. Instead of trashing them and buying a new pair, I decided to see if I could upcycle them. If not, then I’d give it and spend the money to get a new, probably less wonderful pair of wedge heels.

Warning: this project took about 4 hours with drying time. It was definitely worth it, but I just wanted to give you a heads up in case you are planing to do the same thing with your shoes. It’s a perfect craft for a day when you have cleaning and laundry to do.

Things You Will Need:
Scissors
Satin paint
Wedge heels
Painters tape
Sponge brush

*You might also want some Outdoor Mod Podge or waterproof spray protectant for afterwards. My paint bottles say to let the paint cure for 7 days before using them. Afterwards I plan to waterproof them as well.

**Before you get started, cut off any frays or loose material on the heels. I also used a file to sand down the rougher parts so that the paint would lay smoothly.

Step 1
Tape around the wedges so that you don’t get any paint on the fabric/plastic part of the shoe. Make sure it’s very close to the wedge. Otherwise, you’ll have to touch it up later.

Then you can tape up the heels to create your striped pattern.

Step 2
Paint the white on first.

This is the part that takes a very long time. Depending on the color of your wedge, you might need to add quite a few layers of the white paint. Since mine were brown, I had to paint on 5 layers.

Wait until each layer is completely dry before adding another layer.

When you’re satisfied with the white sections, very slowly and carefully peel off the tape. You want to make sure you’re not pulling any paint off with the removal of the tape.

Step 3
Tape off the white sections of the wedge heel so that you can apply the black paint.

Step 4
Apply the black paint.

Follow the same procedure you followed in step 3 with the white paint. You probably won’t need as many layers though. Since black is a dark color it will cover up the brown much easier.

Make sure to let the paint dry between layers.

When the paint is completely dry, peel off your tape starting with the tape around the white sections.

Step 5
Apparently, I didn’t pull the tape off slow enough because some of my white paint came with it. Ugh… it was devastating.

So, this step is for touchups. I didn’t want to risk pulling off any black paint, so I eyeballed it.

You can hardly tell I had to touch it up.

Read your paint bottle. It will tell you how long you have to wait for the paint to cure. Unfortunately, I’ll have to wait a week. I am  really happy with the way the shoes turned out though. They’re not perfect, but they’re good enough for me!

Let me know what you think!

Do you like them? Would you try it?