How To Paint Furniture With Your Own Hands (including Old Ones) (with Video)

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

How to paint furniture: tips and tricks

We all often find ourselves wanting something new in the familiar interior of the house. Usually, the simplest way lies on the surface - rearrangement of furniture. But it does not always give the desired result. And then an idea comes to mind: you need to change the furniture itself, and not its location in the room.

But how often can we afford to throw out old things and buy new ones? Moreover, many pieces of furniture may be beyond the power of the family budget.

We know a much more economical and simpler way to change and refresh the interior of your home. This is the painting of old furniture.

Content

• 1 Required materials and tools
• 2 How to prepare furniture for painting
• 3 What paint to paint the furniture?
• 4 Painting furniture with your own hands (for example, a wooden kitchen cabinet)
• 5 How to paint old furniture?
• 6 Interesting interior solutions (what color to paint the furniture)
• 7 What needs to be considered? Useful Tips
• 8 Furniture painting video

Required materials and tools

The often beloved Soviet-style furniture is made of such high quality that it can last for many more years, which cannot be said about modern models. Plus, vintage home furnishings are more in vogue than ever. Therefore, the restoration of furniture by painting it is the best solution.

How to paint furniture without noise and dust, and not turn an apartment into an object of painting production, smelling of toxic agents? For this we need to stock up on the necessary tools and materials.

For painting work you need:

• A piece of furniture that needs painting;
• Masking tape;
• Gloves;
• Paint;
• Roller and brushes;
• Paint tray.

Before starting painting, the surface of the furniture must be prepared. This requires:

• Putty;
• Roller and brushes;
• Paint tray;
• Gloves;
• Protective glasses;
• Fine-grain emery paper;
• Rubber spatula;
• Grinder or block of wood.

Having prepared everything you need in advance, you can get to work. Before you paint the furniture, you need to prepare it to avoid further mistakes.

How to prepare furniture for painting

Proper surface preparation will provide quality paint that shines in the sun and delights the eye.

1. First, carefully inspect the furniture that you are going to restore for minor damage. If necessary, repair or replace installed mechanisms: locks, handles, hinges. The peeling particles of the old varnish must be removed. Remove the doors, take out the drawers and unscrew the handles and locks from the outside.
2. Sand the surface (both glossy and matte) with fine-grained sandpaper. It is this skin that will not leave deep scratches that will be difficult to cover with a primer or paint. For more convenience, you can use a sander.
3. First you need to cover the surface of the furniture with a primer, and after that, with the help of a putty, close up problem areas. This will ensure good adhesion of the materials. Degrease the surface with vodka or alcohol - they do not leave a slippery film.
4. Apply acrylic primer so that it is well saturated with any minor damage, scratches, cracks. It is better to use a brush for this. Wait until it is completely dry.
5. Using a rubber trowel, apply the putty to the defects of the furniture and coat thoroughly.
6. After the putty is dry, sand the areas where you applied it. This should be done with a grinder or fine-grained sandpaper stretched over a block. Depending on how deep the defects were and what layer of putty you applied, this operation may need to be repeated several times.
7. When this work is finished, get rid of dust on the surface and prime.

What paint to paint the furniture?

To choose the right means for painting furniture, you need to pay attention to what material this furniture is made of. You can use more than paint. There are many special varnishes that can not only give the surface a spectacular look, but also protect it from dirt, moisture, and parasites.

Varnishes that are now used for painting are of the following types:

• Alcohol;
• Epoxy;
• Alkyd;
• Nitrocellulose;
• Oil;
• Polyurethane.

Varnish, in contrast to paint, creates a surface with higher hardness and durability. But if you are deciding what paint to paint your furniture with, then choose from the assortment below.

• 1. Acrylic paints are traditionally used for furniture treatment. They are more resistant than others, dry quickly, are easy to use, and are well suited for the kitchen or children's room. In addition, acrylic paints have a less pronounced odor and are easily diluted with water, which saves material.
  2. Acrylic paints in spray cans will greatly simplify and facilitate your work. Such paint lays on the surface easily and evenly, and dries faster than the usual paint applied with a brush or roller.
  3. Enamel varnish paints applied to wood give the surface a shine and gloss. If you want a matte effect, then oil paints will help you.
  4. Transparent paints will help you preserve the natural structure of the wooden surface. The assortment of the range is very large, and the consistency allows you to mix different shades with each other, so that you always have a choice in what color to paint the furniture.

Do-it-yourself painting of furniture (for example, a wooden kitchen cabinet)

You probably have furniture at home that you would like to update. Most often these are kitchen cabinets, since they especially suffer from moisture and mechanical stress.

Let's try to paint with our own hands using the example of such a kitchen cabinet, and you will see that it is actually quite easy to paint old furniture at home.

Stage 1: sand the wood. This is an important preparation step. Take a 120-grit sandpaper and lightly sand the wood in the direction of the texture to avoid scratching the surface. Sand again with 220 grit to remove any minor scratches and smooth the surface.

Stage 2: we apply impregnation to the wood. Before doing this, carefully wipe the dust off the surface. The applied impregnation layer acts as a sealant and contributes to a more uniform coloring. Allow the impregnation to dry completely.

Stage 3: apply the stain. It is best to apply it with a brush, in a circular motion, so that the product is rubbed into the texture of the wood. Make the final pass in the direction of the wood grain so that the final finish is even.

Stage 4: finishing the surface with a layer of paint. By itself, the paint does not protect the wood from the negative effects of moisture, parasites and drying out. Therefore, carefully study the composition. In some cases, you will have to use additional means as a protective layer.

How to paint old furniture?

You probably have a lot of old furniture left, which is a pity to throw away, and nowhere to put. She gathers dust in the country, in the garage, in the barn. And many pieces of such furniture are made of chipboard - a very convenient, lightweight and inexpensive material. You can give them new life by simply painting them in a different color and refreshing the coating. In addition, the reconstruction by painting will significantly strengthen the surface, which is susceptible to various damages due to its technical characteristics.

Before painting chipboard furniture, it must be carefully prepared. There are two ways to clean the surface:

1. Chemical method. It involves the use of special chemicals to remove the old coating. You need to choose such a tool depending on the type of past coating. Be sure to use gloves when working.
2. Thermal method. In this case, the treatment is carried out with hot air or steam. To do this, you need a building hair dryer. Point it towards the surface and hold until the paint or varnish coat softens so that it can be easily removed with a scraper.

After cleaning, the surface must be putty and rubbed with emery.

The easiest way to paint old chipboard furniture is to use acrylic paints in spray cans. You will do it faster, and the layer on the surface will be even and smooth. Oil or alkyd paints can also be a great option.

Interesting interior solutions (what color to paint the furniture)

As you know, old furniture is painted not only to update, but also to match the interior. Fashion trends in home design can go well even with the old Soviet wall, if you work on it a little.

It is enough to repaint such a wall, using the guide in our article, and play with the arrangement of its elements.

The most important thing is to decide in advance in what style the interior of the room will be sustained. And even the classic Romanian wall of the 80s, long boring and unfashionable, can be turned into a multi-level, fully functional part of the room, and not just a piece of furniture.

In the photos below, you can see examples of how you can arrange the old wall to match the new fashion trends in design. Notice how the new color of the furniture and its fittings is in harmony with the color of the walls in the room.

Here you can see the old wall, which has been repainted in a different color:

And here are the solutions for how to rearrange the wall elements:

These photos will help you decide how you want your renovated furniture to look.

What should be considered? Useful Tips

In furniture painting, as in any work, there are secrets. They will not only help you get through the process faster, but they will also save you money and ensure perfect execution.

1. Choose materials (primer, putty, varnish, paint) from a single source. In this case, they will be guaranteed to be compatible with each other. Most often, the manufacturer develops coatings for certain types of surfaces, in accordance with the operating conditions. This will make it easier for you to choose the optimal material.
2. Don't be afraid to play with colors. Correctly selected colors will help to visually enlarge the space. The contrast between the colors of furniture and walls will create a unique style in the room in any direction.
3. Before starting work, be sure to stock up on a roller and several brushes of different thicknesses. It is more convenient to paint wide surfaces with a roller, and brushes are needed to paint the ends of furniture parts and finishing accessories.
4. Use masking tape. It will help you protect already painted and dried surfaces from paint. It is not very convenient to use a solvent in such cases - it will damage the paint layer. Masking tape will save you from such mistakes.
5. When painting, use a respirator mask or thoroughly ventilate the area! Although most modern paints and varnishes are non-toxic and do not emit harsh odors, the precaution is never too much.

Furniture painting video

We hope this article is helpful when you decide to renovate your furniture in a simple manner like painting. As you can see, this way you can completely transform the whole house, and not just the closet or wall.

If you have any questions while reviewing, please ask them in the comments. We will be happy to answer you. Surely many of our readers have experience in such work. Share it with us, tell us about the features of the process, what difficulties you faced and how you solved them. Good luck with your work and comfort in your home!