Painted Furniture

While I'm sure many of us would love to purchase new sets of furniture every 8-10 years it's usually just not possible...but repainting it is!  I've found a few people who do great work refinishing furniture at very reasonable prices and April is one of them.  Our friend Kallee had these tables that she wanted a new look for...

and look at the beautiful results!

These pictures (and a full post on the refinish) can be found on April's blog, thepaintedcupboard.blogspot.com.  She really does great work and has reasonable prices.  It's fun to see what people are able to do with unique pieces they find.  I wish I had the painting patience...I just don't! 

I'm hoping to get our crib repainted white in time for baby girl.  Our first little boy used it as his teething toy and it could use a new look.  We'll see...

Making Old Things New

With a new baby coming its time for the bedroom shuffle.  McKay's bed from childhood has been sitting in our garage for years and we decided to refinish it...

My sister in law Melissa had refinished cabinets and instead of sanding they used a primer that worked right over finished wood.  So we decided to give it a whirl and avoid the sanding process.  It worked like a charm!

We've been through the painting process a few times on this blog.  We did two primer coats and two coats of this great blue color...Martha Stewart paint in Hydrangea (semi-gloss).  It matched a blue color in Peyt's bedding perfect. 

The last step was this laquer spray to give it a finish coat.  Lisa told me about it...much easier to use than the oil-based top coats!

And here is the bed all ready to go in his room.  I really love how it turned out!  Thanks to my husband McKay for his work on the project...I'm staying away from paint until January!

Don't let old furniture go to waste!  There's nothing a great color of paint won't fix!

The finished product

The second part of my refinishing project was much easier than the first...although with paint you have to be patient waiting for each coat to dry.  I'm one to like everything done in one sitting so it definitely helps me work on patience :) 

I used black furniture paint from Four Chairs Furniture in Lindon.  They give you a step-by-step instruction sheet on what to do to help you as well.  They say to use a foam brush (the .50 ones from Roberts) instead of a bristle brush or roller to get nice, even strokes. 

When I did my first test strip the paint was really runny and looked more like a stain.  I solicited Lisa's help more than once through this project as she's painted a few items of furniture, and she reminded me I needed to shake the paint!  After I'd done that it went on great!

This was halfway through my first layer.  You want to use long, even strokes so you don't end up with choppy lines throughout the furniture (again, thanks for the tip Lisa!). 

The paint dried pretty quick which was nice.  Four Chairs recommends a light sanding in between each layer of paint (with a 450-600 grit sand paper) to get rid of any rough spots.  My piece of furniture was quite smooth so I didn't worry as much about this step...I was also pretty careful to keep the paint smooth without any runs or globs left behind.  To completely cover the red it took three coats of paint...although I only did two in the parts that aren't quite as visible.

After the paint was completely dry, I applied two layers of top coat to seal the paint to prevent chipping.  I used a water based top coat that you apply with the foam brush (also bought at Four Chairs).  Unfortunatley I should have paid more attention to the temperature restrictions as my top coat turned out a little streaky.  Again, this is where more patience would have paid off!  So my finished piece isn't quite as smooth as it should be...but it's done :) 

 Tada...this is what it is now!

 I really love the addition of the knobs...gives it a fancy look!

I rearranged and added a few decorations to the top of the armoire and really like how it turned out.   Changing the armoire from red to black has really changed the look and feel of the whole room and I really like the "new" piece of furniture!

I hope this has given you motivation and not discouragement in finishing a piece of furniture!  However, I'd recommend waiting until Spring so you don't have to slave away in your cold garage! 

Happy painting!

Out with the red, in with the black...

The armoire in my family room used to look like this...

When we bought it I was in love with the red...times have changed.  I've decided I'll never buy a large piece of furniture in anything but black, cream or natural wood.  Too much work to change :)  However, I am very pleased with the finished product and very glad it's what I want for the space. 

To get started, take every piece apart...knobs, hooks, screws...everything.  It's much easier to paint and can easily be put back together in the end.  Put your furniture in a space that can get dusty...sanding creates a nice layer of colored dust (in my case red) over everything in the room. 

Any refinishing project is SO much easier with an electric sander.  In my case the armoire would have been impossible to sand by hand.  Electric sanders really aren't too expensive (the one pictured is $20 at Home Depot) and they are so worth the money!  I went through about 10 sheets of 150 grit sandpaper for my project.  

Unless you plan to antique the furniture after painting, you really only have to sand the top layer of paint.  Once the shine is gone from the paint it usually means you're good.  You can always paint a test strip to make sure the paint will adhere to the wood.  If you do want to antique, you can also plan out the spots around the edges and make sure you sand down to the wood in those areas...you wouldn't necessarily need to strip the whole piece down to the natural wood. 

After sanding, use a damp cloth to wipe the entire piece down to remove all the dust.  Let dry and wipe with a dry cloth to get rid of any excess dust.  It took me about 6-8 hours to sand my armoire to give you an idea on time.  I will admit sanding is a royal pain and feels never ending at times.  There were multiple nights I came into the house looking like a tomato.  However, it can be done and as I said before, the results are all worth it!

Tomorrow I'll show you how I painted and finished the armoire!