DIY: Painted Furniture

Refinishing furnitures!

You can turn a old piece of furniture into something new and bright with a bit of elbow grease and I am only talking about painting! You might find different opinions, different products and techniques around but I like to do it in in traditional way, especially if that's a glossy or varnished furniture.

Get a pice of sandpaper and sand down carefully the paint or gloss on the old furniture. Make sure to do it outside and wear mask or cover your mouth or nose with a scarf not to inhale the dust. this is the least fun at messiest part. At this point adding primer is always a good idea for better results with less sanding and for long lasting paint but as this one was a very small piece I sanded it well and I actually skipped that step, right away after cleaning the dust I started painting. First, I took some white acrylic paint and mixed it well with couple drops of black paint pigment to create darker grey and painted two coats. These paint pigments are very intense and could be mixed with acrylic or wall paint to get  different colours, I find them very useful to create ombre effect but any darker colour of your choice would do the same job. After completely dry, I created the shape with masking tape (OK, I actually wanted chevrons but I ended up with these arrows which I am pretty happy with as well). The masking tape should be a very good quality one for clean lines otherwise you might need to paint the base and start over again. For lighter grey I simply added more white and mixed, painted with brush/foam paint roller inside the shape that I created with tape.

You can of course just leave it as one bold colour, freestyle if you are good in painting or create shapes with stencils as well, even decoupage , wallpaper or cover with fabric! Sky is the limit! Check out my pinterest board for more examples and inspirations for painted furniture.

Tools I used:

• Sanding paper
• Brush and/or foam paint roller
• White acrylic paint
• Black paint pigment (or black /grey paint )
• Masking tape

It actually has a small storage inside when you pull the top like a chest to store some goodies and it's quite useful especially in the kitchen to reach upper cabinets.

If you never tried painting a furniture before it's easier than you think! Counting into the drying time, I'd say it's a perfect weekend project. Here is a close up as well. Hope it's useful and hope you will give a new life to an old furniture!