Painted Furniture

I love painting furniture.  I particularly like taking things from the trash and putting new life into it.  Sometimes a little wood putty and a coat of paint can really make a difference.

I have some wood chairs that I wanted to bring into my kitchen.  My kitchen/dining furniture is done in a distressed/antique style. I like the way it looks and it’s also effective since my kids are pretty rough on furniture.  The additional scrapes and nicks won’t even be noticed.

Here’s the chair (solid wood).  All I did was wash it—no primer, no sanding.

I put several coats of white semi gloss on this chair.  It’s quite dark wood and hard to coat.  I used semi gloss because I had it around and was planning on scuffing it up and adding antique finish to it.  Normally when I do furniture I don’t use a paint with any shine to it.  After painting, I sanded it down on all the spots that would normally get worn.  I used a regular sander and just blasted over all the edges to highlight them.

To antique the piece you can use stain (which works well but is very smelly and takes longer to dry).  I found this antique polish in Michaels by FolkArt.  Works great.  I apply it with a handiwipe towel.  Use a glove on your hand, it’s pretty tough to come off.  Just put dabs on the towel and start wiping it on the furniture.  Work quickly because it dries lightening fast.  The antique polish comes in many colors.  I had dark brown on hand (I tend to work with whatever I have laying around—and there’s usually tons laying around).

Finished chair.

I recently needed a bookcase in my kitchen for cookbooks.  I had one in the shed.  It was green and just kind of boring.  I found these little wood details (guess where?) and glued them on.  Then painted the bookcase a beige brown (a paint store “woops” color.  An entire quart of Benjamin Moore paint for 1.50!  Excellent deal—I always check the woops paints.)

 

Right now the books are not stacked the way they normally would be and I have fabric placemats on each shelf.  Paint takes a solid 2 weeks to cure.  If you’re not careful, the paint will peel off, stick to whatever you put on it, be a general mess.  So use fabric barriers until at least 2 weeks have gone by and you’ll be in good shape.