How to Paint Furniture in 4 Steps
Painting furniture tutorials are all over the internet. If you like to paint furniture, or it’s something you are curious to try, there are numerous processes you can follow. Most of the ones I have done that skip steps end in disappointing results. The best way to paint is the old fashioned way, and I will describe that to you here. This is how to paint furniture in four easy steps.
My process involves the four P’s: prepare, prime, paint, and protect. Most of painting is about using the right tools. I painted this chair in just a day because I used spray paint. I would recommend spray paint for furniture that is ornate or has many nooks and crannies (like a chair).
So the tools I used were a scraper, then spray on primer, paint, and clear coat protective finish. I don’t necessarily promote Valspar from Lowe’s, although it worked fine. I simply found this matching set of three at my local household hazardous waste facility and you can’t beat the price (free).
Step 1 Prepare the chair by sanding and scraping off the old paint. The more paint you scrape off, the smoother the refinish results will be. This is why most people invest in a belt sander, but not me. I like to sand by hand to get out some aggression. Just kidding, I’m just too cheap. The chair was stripped down to wood in most places after 45 minutes and I moved on to the next step, priming.
Step 2 Priming was fun; I love spray paint! It’s important to throw covers over anything you don’t want paint on, though. I use a big old bed sheet and my driveway still gets splatters on it. This is an odd color for the primer, but here’s another tip: if you want to paint a dark color, use a darker-than-white primer. It will result in a truer paint color and it will not take as long to coat.
Step 3 Next we come to painting! The trick with spray paint is light coats using a long sweeping motion. Multiple coats are better than one thick and solid coat. It holds up better, too.
Step 4 Protect your piece using some kind of clear coat finish. This is an especially necessary step if your piece of furniture will get a lot of use, like a chair or table, or if it will be used outdoors.
I usually use a polycrylic finish instead of polyurethane because it tends to not yellow overtime as much.
The Valspar set had a spray on clear protective finish, so I gave it a whirl. It held up through one summer so far, but I will let you know if it peels or something nasty in the future.
So here is your before and after! It’s so nice to see the stunning shape of this mid-century modern chair instead of the paint chipping off. If you found this post useful, please share!
I would like to know what paint marker you used to paint the window glass. It looks very nice also the purple removable pen. Thanks, I just found and like your site.
Hi Susan! The white marker I used on the back is a window marker (this one to be exact http://amzn.to/2icBk6w aff link). It’s actually removable so that you can change the saying seasonally. Since it is behind the glass, it won’t rub off until you want it to. The other purple marker I traced my design with was a simple dry erase marker. Dry erase markers wipe right off of glass easily so I didn’t have to use a stencil because if I messed up, I just erased and tried again! Here’s a link to a cheap pack of them if you don’t have some already. http://amzn.to/2iHhdkP (aff link)
Melissa