Painting furniture: for the DIY mavens

msmoore27

So DH and I are considering our first adventure into the unknown world of painting furniture.

We've been slowly trying to get our new (bigger) apartment up and running and have bought some choice new furniture pieces over the past couple months.  We desperately are in need of a home for our new tv (and cable box, dvd player etc).  We have in mind exactly what we want for it: a great big wood media cabinet with doors we can close when we are not watching, in a fun, bright color, probably turquoise or tiffany blue.  So, we are thinking of buying an ugly wood piece that has the dimensions we want, and painting it ourselves. 

We've never done this before, and are a little intimidated but also excited!  I've found a couple of great tutorials for this online, but if anyone has particular advice to share, I would welcome it!!

kaesha

I get inspired for a lot of DIY stuff on Design Sponge!

MauiBride2008

Design Sponge, The Lettered Cottage or Life in the Fun Lane are all DIY bogs I like to be on for furniture painting inspiration. The DIY Show Off blog also recaps a lot of furniture and room transformations which might show a lot of furniture makeovers. HTH

Married2MrWright

Ooh!  Love it.  I've seen a distressed turquoise cabinet like that at Pier One and it's awesome.

Make sure when you purchase your piece you know if it's real wood or laminate, etc. because that will make a difference on how you need to prep it for your paint.

I am a big fan of using a primer...if the original piece is already painted or laquered/varnished you'll need to sand it or use chemical stripper to take the shine off.  Then prime.  Then put your pretty color on top.  If you want to make it distressed Home Depot sells designer paint kits where you put a different color beneath, your main color on top and distress/sand in places to make it look used/vintage. Depends upon the look you're going for...

msmoore27

thanks for the links ladies!  i did find a couple of good sites with instructions (including recs on specific primers to use), and how to deal with the piece if it is laminate as opposed to real wood.

this is the look we are going for:

http://www.horchow.com/store/catalog/prod.jhtml?itemId=cprod61240114&parentId=cat2540731&masterId=cat000010&index=10&cmCat=cat000000cat000001cat000010cat2540731

 just taller, with doors for the tv.

Married2MrWright

msmoore27:

thanks for the links ladies!  i did find a couple of good sites with instructions (including recs on specific primers to use), and how to deal with the piece if it is laminate as opposed to real wood.

this is the look we are going for:

http://www.horchow.com/store/catalog/prod.jhtml?itemId=cprod61240114&parentId=cat2540731&masterId=cat000010&index=10&cmCat=cat000000cat000001cat000010cat2540731

 just taller, with doors for the tv.

Love it! I get that catalog too and drool over the stuff in there!   With some paint and stenciling you can so DIY a version. Cannot wait to see pics!