Painting Wood Furniture

When cared for properly, solid wood furniture, will last for a lifetime; more than a life time possibly. Just imagine a treasured piece of furniture that has been handed down from generations to you, but it's color has faded and it doesn't suit your decor. Options are staining, stripping, and refinishing, but they are messy, difficult and time consuming. Don't worry if you are an amateur, even you can do the painting provided you have the right tools like three paint brushes, primer, paint, polyurethane, mixing sticks, newspaper or drop cloths and cleaning products like a sponge, soap, and water.

First, clean the furniture thoroughly with soap and water. For dressers, nightstands and drawers take the drawers out and clean them as well. You can paint the drawers outside the dressers. Tables can be painted with legs attached or detached but clean the legs up and down. All surfaces and parts that are to be painted should be cleaned.

Secondly, Prime the surfaces once the furniture is clean and completely dry. The best material to be used is bonding primer. The bonding primer will attach itself and provide a good base for the paint if the furniture has a very glossy finish; but you can sand down the finish a bit to help the primer do it's job. One thing to remember is to use the primer in a well-ventilated location. Brush the primer on to the surface of the wood, just as you would with paint. There should be a gap of four hours in between each coat of primer as it takes four hours to dry completely. The second coat should be applied just the same way as the first coat.

Thirdly, you can paint the piece of furniture you love with the right color that suits the interior decor of the home. Hardware stores, paint stores, home improvement stores, discount stores carry colors in different shades and tones. Unless you are going in for a specific weathered look or doing layered painting, glossy paint should generally be used on furniture.

Fourthly, a different paintbrush has to be used to paint the furniture than the one used for coating primer. You can paint the entire piece in one sitting including drawers and extra pieces at the same time. You have to leave a gap of at least four hours before painting the second coat . You can paint the front surface of the drawers as that is the only surface that shows outside. You can do this by placing the drawers upright on their backs.

Fifthly, you can give special touches like painted artwork, texturing, sponging, or even just new, pretty door knobs or drawer handles, only after painting your piece of furniture with a fresh coat of glossy new paint.

In this final step paint all the horizontal surfaces with polyurethane finish with another paint brush after leaving a gap of 24 hours after painting your furniture. This is necessary only on surface tops of dressers, cabinets, nightstands, and especially tables though this finish can be coated on the entire piece of furniture. For a thicker, glossier finish, three coats of polyurethane are essential but you have to leave a gap of 24 hours after each coat of polyurethane.

This process can be applied even on pressed or processed wood and a similar finish can be obtained in exactly the same way and this is not limited only to solid wood furniture.

The outcome of this project will last for many years.

Privacy Policy