How To Make Paint Dry Faster (7 Easy Ways To Speed It Up)

While you can’t control every single factor that plays into paint drying process (such as sudden weather changes), you can employ some tips and tricks to make your paint dry faster than it would on its own.  

As mentioned, great ventilation speeds up paint dry times dramatically (and helps get rid of lingering paint odors). But besides general ventilation in your work area, you can also aim fans directly at your painted surfaces to encourage evaporation.  

You can’t always wait for a day with perfect humidity, but you can create ideal conditions in your workspace.

Adjusting the thermostat and adding a dehumidifier to your painted room (or area where furniture is being painted) can get humidity below the ideal 50% range and temps to the right ballpark.  

Paint sprayers leave behind thin but even layers that dry remarkably quickly compared to brushes or rollers.

Although priming a paint sprayer and prepping the area against overspray takes time, the trade-off of shorter application and dry times is worth it.  

True, this won’t actually make paint dry faster—but it does help you make use of those long wait times.

If you have multiple pieces or rooms to paint, consider priming and oil painting or acrylic paintings in a rotation. As soon as you finish one room or piece, the previous one might be ready for its next thin coat.  

Primer reduces how many topcoats you’ll need for full coverage. So, while it doesn’t make those later thinner coats dry quicker, it will cut down how many you need—and how long you have to wait overall.  

Some paints are marketed as quick-drying. They use formulas that evaporate faster than typical acrylic paints, and can require as little as an hour between coats, with full dry times being reached in 24 hours or less.  

Besides factors like humidity and application, the kind of paint quality you use can determine how fast or slowly it dries, too. This is because different formulas evaporate at different speeds than others.  

Latex paints have pigments and gloss components suspended in mostly water, which evaporates pretty quickly. You’ll notice most latex paint varieties dry to the touch in an hour, with additional coats being safe to apply roughly every 4 hours.  

The oil paint take a lot longer to evaporate than water. Allow 6 to 8 hours for coats to be dry to the touch and a full 24 hours between coats. 

Although these take a while to dry and cure, their durability is impressive—and for some people, that makes the longer wait worth it.  

These can be water- or solvent-based, although the former is much more common. As such, acrylic dry times are comparable to those of latex paint (acrylic paint dry faster), but can vary from 30 minutes to two hours depending on thickness.  

Most wetting spray paints that come in cans are oil paints, but they don’t take nearly as long to dry. 

The main reason spray paint dry faster is the application method: because they’re applied with aerosol through a small opening, the paint goes on in a very thin layer.  

Lacquer spray paint dry faster, just takes only 2 or 3 hours to dry fully, but enamel spray paint dries in about 8 to 10 hours. The touch-dry times for most spray paints are very short, at 5 to 30 minutes for most formulas.  

Although puffy paint—also known as dimensional or 3D paint—can be made with quite a few different recipes, most are water-based and dry in just 2-4 hours.

The downside is that, because these paints usually go on clothing, they need 24 to 72 hours to harden completely after expansion before the item can be washed or worn without damaging the paint.  

The amount of time it takes for primer to dry will depend on its formula, since primers can be water- or oil-based. Like topcoat paints, water-based formulas and acrylic paint dry faster. 

You also don’t have to wait too long before applying your topcoat—about 1-2 hours for water-based primers and twice as long (at least) for oil-based ones.  

The surface type, weather, and other factors that affect topcoat drying times will also dictate primer drying times, along with the other paints on this list.  

The drying time of paint will usually follow guidelines given on the paint’s instructions, but certain factors can make acrylic paint dry more quickly or slowly than it normally would.  

When the humidity in a room or outdoors exceeds 50 percent, the moisture in the good air circulation keeps the solvents or water in your acrylic paint from evaporating at the rate they should. 

This means your acrylic paint stays wet for longer. When the air is dryer—50 percent humidity or less—you’ll notice the dry time is much shorter.  

Overly warm or cold days will also slow drying mediums down your paint’s drying time. It’s best to use latex paint in 50-85°F weather (or adjust your room's thermostat) and oil-based paint in the 40-90°F range.  

When you simply can’t achieve the ideal temperature, such as an exterior painting project, too-warm days are better than too-cold ones; paint will dry better in heat. 

Whenever possible, however, acrylic paint when temps are in the right range for your paint type.  

Not only is air circulation important for your safety—so you don’t inhale the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) present in acrylic paint —but it also helps your paint dry faster. 

Stagnant air, besides being hazardous, slows evaporation of the water or solvents in your acrylic paint. Turn on fans, open windows and doors, and keep the air moving.  

Unfinished wood, never-before-painted walls, and other surfaces can absorb paint more readily than others. There’s also little to no color to cover, requiring apply light coats (sometimes). 

These kinds of surfaces will dry a lot faster than previously painted ones—especially if you’re covering an entirely different formula of acrylic paint, such as oil-based over latex.  

Thin layers and acrylic paint dry faster than thick ones, so how you deposit your acrylic paint can dictate its dry time. Paint sprayers leave the thinnest layers and result in dry acrylic paint faster, with rollers coming in second and brushes taking the longest.  

Waiting for wet paint to dry can be frustrating, especially if you know you need additional thick coats. 

By acrylic painting in ideal weather conditions, changing your application method, and using other tips and tricks, you can speed the drying process along and use your painted room or wax based furniture polish much sooner.