I’ve always wanted a spray booth for containing over-spray when I spray paint or air brush a model.  But with the price of a commercial spray booth in the hundreds of dollars, I could never really justify the purchase for the amount of spraying I do.

As an alternative, it’s possible to build a very inexpensive spray booth that is just as functional as a commercial booth, and with this article, I’ll show you just how to do it.

The only aspect missing from this homemade version is ventilation. Commercial spray booths are designed with built-in ventilation. They are meant to be vented to the outdoors so that paint particles do not build up in the air of your work area.

I’m assuming that you’ll use your homemade spray booth in a well ventilated area or even better, completely outdoors. I will personally use my booth outdoors — this just prevents over-spray on the surrounding area.

With the lack of ventilation, please be sure that you’re following all of the safety recommendations of the paint you’re spraying. I would also recommend wearing a face mask when air brushing because air brush particles are especially small and very easy to inhale.

Materials Needed

• 1×2″ lumber (may be a different size or even scrap pieces)
• Luan plywood (or other thin, flat wood)
• Drywall screws or nails
• Plastic (roll plastic used)
• Masking tape

Cutting the Lumber Strips

The first thing you’ll want to do is cut the 1×2″ lumber into appropriate sizes.  1×2″ wood is a great choice because it helps keep the spray booth lightweight and portable.  However, any size wood strips could work.

You can change the lengths of the wood depending on the size you’d like your spray booth to be.  For this article, a relatively small booth was built as an example.  Below, I list the sizes used with the recommended sizes in parenthesis.

I’m labeling these as parts A, B and C so further explanation is easier to follow.

• “A” PARTS: 4 6″ pieces (at least 12″ recommended) for the depth
• “B” PARTS: 4 12″ pieces for height (this seems to be a good height for most applications)
• “C” PARTS: 3 16″ pieces (at least 20″ recommended) for width

Assembly

The assembly of the box is simply creating rectangles from the lumber strips and attaching them together with connecting pieces.

All parts in the assembly are screwed together in the example, but you could also nail this together if you prefer. Screw or nail placement doesn’t need to be exact but you should drill pilot holes for screws before screwing into the wood.

Building the Sides

Let’s take this one side as a time since they’re identical.

To build a side, you’ll need to attach 2 PART A to 2 PART B as shown in the illustration.  Red dots in the illustration represent screw (or nail) placement.

The easiest way to do this is to lay 2 PART B flat on your workbench, place the 2 PART A on top of them, squaring up all of the edges. All edges should be flush. Screw or nail these together.

Repeat this exactly fo the other side.

Connecting the Sides

Next, you’ll need to connect the sides together.

For connecting the sides, you’ll need to use 3 PART C and attach them as show in the illustration.  Again, red dots represent screw or nail placement.

To do this, stand up the two sides so that PART A pieces from the sides face each other. PART A pieces should be on the top and bottom of the standing sides and PART B pieces should run vertical.

Use 2 PART C pieces to connect the two sides by screwing one in place along to bottom edge of the sides and the other along the top edge of the sides.  These will be level with PART A pieces.

These two connecting PART C will become the back of the box. So far you should be able to see this coming together since you’ve build the framing for the sides of the spray booth and now added the back framing. 

The only thing left to do on framing is to add a top.  For that, simply add the last remaining PART C to the top of the booth.  This is screwed into place laying down on the framing, flush with front of the booth — the opposite side that you just attached the previous two pieces.

Adding a Base

Next you’ll want to add a base to the booth.  This will protect any surface you’re spraying on.

To construct the base, you need to cut a piece of Luan, plywood or other flat construction material to the size of the framing and attach it. This is the size of PART A x the size of PART C. So, in this example, the base is 6″ x 16″.

That piece is then attached to the bottom of the booth. To do this easily, lay the booth on it’s back (on the 2 PART C parts) and screw the bottom in place. You may use screws if you’re using wood, but may need construction adhesive to attach other materials depending on what you decide to use for the base.

Adding Plastic

The entire spray booth frame is wrapped in plastic.  Rather than build a hard surface outside wall, the plastic is used so that it may be changed periodically as spray build-up accumulates.

Any type of sheet plastic will work but you may want to use transparent plastic as it will allow light into the booth.

The key is that you want to use one continuous piece of plastic to eliminate seams.  The plastic is wrapped around the box similar to wrapping a present — folding and tucking in sections as necessary.  If you do decide to use multiple pieces, just be sure that the plastic overlaps at the seams to prevent areas that paint or other spray can escape.

The plastic is held on with masking tape all the way around the front edge of the booth.

Finished Spray Booth

That completes this quick, inexpensive spray booth.  I hope you find this helpful and try to build one of your own.