Free Printable Paint Can Labels

I love organization. I love it when everything has a place and happily occupies that place. Labels are my friend. Marie Kondo is my spirit animal.

Sadly, my love affair with organization is often thwarted by my nemesis, Real Life.

I’m currently working on a mural for my office which involves 17 colors of paint. (I can’t wait to show you the finished mural!) That’s a lot of different cans of paint. And that got me thinking about how I organize my paint cans.

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The problem for painters

Whether you’re painting murals, or just painting one room of your house at a time, you’ve probably accumulated a few paint cans in your garage. And what’s the most important thing you need to know about each can of paint?

Hint: it’s not the hex code or the color formula. The most important thing you need to know is which room (or wall) that can of paint has covered.

When you have several rooms painted in similar but different colors, it can be really tough to figure out which can is which just by looking at either the paint spilled down the side, or the somewhat arbitrary paint color names.

If you’re like me, and you enjoy painting and moving furniture, this can be a common problem.

Hypothetical situation (sort of): when you rearrange furniture and need to touch up the paint (from where your daughter left smudgy foot prints along the wall at the exact height of her top bunk bed, which also happens to be eye level now that the wall is exposed), you have to try and remember whether the color was Dusty Beige, Soft Whisper, or Pale Dream. And they all look the same in the terrible lighting of your garage.

The easy solution

Enter paint can labels. I printed off several of these and took just a few minutes to go through my paint cans and dab a bit of paint on the label. (That’s what the circle at the top of the label is for.) Then I jotted down the room, color, and sheen.

Now, when I’m trying to choose between three different pale shades, I can easily find the one that’s labeled “Front Bedroom” and get to work, instead of painting three different swatches on the wall to figure out what I’m looking at.

The footprints that defy gravity disappear in just minutes, once you uncover the right can of paint.

Get your free printable paint labels!

I made these labels round so they can go on the top or side of a gallon paint can. And I had extra room left on the page, so I threw in a few more options too, for smaller paint cans.

(If you put the label on the side of your paint can, make sure it’s not the side that you pour from, otherwise your label will end up covered in paint drips!)

You have two choices for downloading:

1. Either download the PDF version of these labels following the instructions at the end of this post and print it on full sheet Avery label paper (or similar), then simply cut out the labels. (Keep in mind Avery labels come in Inkjet and Laser printer format, so make sure you get the right kind for your printer.)
2. Or if you have a Silhouette machine, email me for the SVG print & cut file. (I’m happy to share it, but WordPress won’t let me upload it.) This works with the Avery labels, and the Silhouette sticker paper.

Pro tip: Keep a few extra labels printed out on the shelf next to your paint, so when you buy a new can, your labels are ready to use!