Make your ugly headphones more beautiful

I have you these over ear headphones for working out. Well they were sounding fantastic, but they looked terrible. Who wear orange and white? I felt like an idiot. I wear a lot of dark colors and hate white plastic … plus they had the brand name plastered all over them, and the company logo, which I didn’t like. I hate wearing or over things that have logos and crap all about you — I prefer to wear my own brands and logos that I created … because I’m not someone’e free billboard.
They are good headphones. So it’s a decent company. But I hate having a poster for everyone.

So I decided to paint them.

These headphones only came in three color schemes, all of which are equally awful. Orange / white, pink / cream, and black / shit gold-like color.

I like matte black by itself. I like simple things. So here is how I changed it.

Step 1: preparations

You need:
good spray paint

Matt finish spray paint clear

Duct tape (I didn’t have duct tape so I used packing tape.)

Sunshine to dry it in

Headphones that are a bad color

an x-acto you want to get picky about masking buttons and stuff

Step 2: painting prep

Make sure the headphones top sliders are pulled out / extended for painting, otherwise you will have areas of old bad paint showing when you extend them. Put them on and find the convenient extension and open that wide when painting.
Glue the soft parts of the headphones and foam. You don’t want to paint the part that is touching the ear. Fortunately, my frothy parts were a pleasing dark gray.

If desired you can just take off the soft part / foamy stuff and tape from the speaker area. I glued them to the foam because I didn’t want any white peeping out anywhere accidentally, and that way I could tell what was covered by them and what wasn’t. So regardless of which way it is easier with your headphones.

Also if you have knobs or switches (like on my thing “subwoofer”) that you tape these over as well. You don’t want to impair the function of the headphones by sticking things together with paint.

Also tape from the connection socket / metal part. I forgot to do this and had to go back and wipe it with solvent to get the paint off of it so it would work properly.

Step 3: actually painting

go outside. put on a ventilator (or, as I did, a burqha or kerchief)
Place the headphones on a surface that you don’t mind messing with spray paint. I used matte black and olive green for my colors. These are easier to work with because they are slow-flow. (Unless you paint metal on the headphones you are using, in which case metal-adhering paint definitely) you can use any type of spray paint

Make sure the cord isn’t blocking itself, crossing each other touching. Then place them in a tight spiral (as tight as possible) this makes it so you can paint one side without wasting too much color then turn around and do the other side.

Paint your headphones.

Make sure you get the inside of the swivel areas and the top and sides of the headgear.

Let dry, then turn the whole thing over and hit the other side.

I have a thick coat of black and a little drained. Then I applied a thin uneven layer of the olive green to make the old black look.

Once the paint is dry, spray is on top of a layer of clear coat matte protectant. The mat is a little bit more resilient and a little bit less likely to peel off. It will adhere the paint to the plastic. To last longer.

Step 4: completion

untape them.
Clean defects with solvent / paint remover on a paper towel or a little rag.

Paint in any tiny areas that you missed with Sharpie and hit with a tiny bit of the clear coat. (that way the eddings won’t wear off on you)

Apply cool stickers of your own to cover up the brand name that shows through because it’s textured. (damn you brands)

Enjoy your new, less-gaudy, no more ugly as hell headphones.

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