Tips for painting furniture

MandyMilller

Has anyone here actually painted furniture before? They make it sound so easy on the decorating blogs, but I'm not very handy so I'm a little daunted by the task. The main piece that I want to paint is a solid wood, Amish corner cabinet my parents got us for our wedding, so it's going to be a bit involved and I would feel guilty if I screwed it up. It just won't match anything in our new dining room (and I'm hoping a coat of white paint and some updated hardware will make it look less Amish)

MsStackhouse

We have, its not that hard. I used Life in the Fun Lane Blog as a guide.

 Good Luck! It was kind of fun.

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Would you consider having a professional do it? My sister has a large island in her condo that she is moving to her FI house. It is currently yellow and they want it white but rather than risk ruining it, her FMIL gave her a name for a person that does it.

Meghan&Rich

We painted our old bedroom furniture black - this was over 5 years ago, before we knew to check any blog how-to's!  It was IKEA furniture (that really light colored wood), and we knew we'd eventually be getting new bedroom furniture, so we weren't too worried about ruining it.  We (DH) lightly sanded it, painted it with gray primer, then painted it black.  He also put some type of protective coating over it, but I don't remember what it was called.  Because of all of the dresser drawers, it was a bit tedious, but overall not that bad according to DH.  The paint job held up well for the 4 years we had it and then we ended up selling it on Craigslist for a decent amount (there was actually a bidding war, lol!).

We are looking to update our cabinets by possibly painting them - I have a bunch of different instructions pinned for this, but I really don't want to mess these up or look cheap, so we may hire someone to do it when the time comes.

MandyMilller

Kris, I would consider that if it wasn't too expensive. It's one of those things that doesn't have to be done, and we're spending a bunch on other things (moving to a house w/ 2xs the square footage is expensive!), so it would have to be realllly cheap for me to justify the cost.

MandyMilller

Sami, did you actually use the power sprayer?

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MandyMilller:

Kris, I would consider that if it wasn't too expensive. It's one of those things that doesn't have to be done, and we're spending a bunch on other things (moving to a house w/ 2xs the square footage is expensive!), so it would have to be realllly cheap for me to justify the cost.

But if you would be upset if you ruin it, it may be worth saving up to do it. I am not very good at painting, so there is no way I would attempt to paint anything I actually liked or had sentimental value.

AmandaJLewis

I would paint something like that myself, with enough reading/learning before hand as possible and wouldn't underestimate the prepping the surface before to ensure a good outcome. However I paint walls in the house and stuff so it wouldn't intimidate me much. I have a vanity I wanted to paint for EJ's room... but she doesn't really have room for it in there just yet so it will wait until she is over the toybox phase I think.

MandyMilller

My former BIL refinished my childhood dresser for Lanna's room and it's one of the prettiest pieces of furniture in our house. He used some kind of industrial-strength car painting jigger though, and we don't talk to him anymore, so we're on our own.