Painting your wood furniture is a good idea to give it a fresh look or to make it even more fitting to your room’s atmosphere. It takes a little work yet it is easy enough even for a beginner. Learn from the steps below.
Step 1. Supplies
Before doing the painting, it is better to collect the supplies first. In this project, the supplies collected for painting the wooden furniture are:
- Murphy’s oil soap
- Fine grit sandpaper
- Medium grit sandpaper
- Tack cloth
- Primer
- Paintbrush
- Paint
- Foam roller
- Topcoat
- Paint sprayer (optional)
Step 2. Prep the furniture
After the supplies are gathered, the first step to do is to prep the furniture. Prep means doing proper cleaning on furniture before applying the paint coat. Prepare drop cloth on the floor and place the furniture on it. Open all windows and doors to provide lots of ventilation.
Remove any hardware from the furniture like pulls, knobs, or any hardware that can be easily unscrewed. Then, wash the furniture using Murphy’s oil soap to remove any dust, especially if the furniture has been in the garage for a long time. Don’t forget to remove the drawers prior to painting and deal with them separately.
Step 3. Sand the furniture
After the furniture is completely dry, the next step is to sand it. The sanding can be really useful to obtain a glossy finish. It will provide the paint with a fine surface to attach to, Sand the furniture using medium-grit sandpaper. If the furniture surface has been dull, you can skip the process of sanding.
Step 4. Apply the prime
After the furniture is clean and dry, apply some primer to it. The primer will help the paint stick onto the furniture better. It will also help to cover any discolorations or stains on the wood. The primer used in this project is Kilz primer. It is better to use oil-based primer as it gives a better result.
Step 5. Sand the furniture once more time
After the primer is dry completely, sand the furniture once again. Use fine-grit sandpaper on it. Sand the furniture lightly all over the paint coat. It will help you obtain a much better and more professional finish later on. Make sure to remove any sanding dust. Use a tack cloth to remove them.
Step 6. Paint the furniture
After the furniture is primed and nicely ready, paint it. The paint for furniture is best using interior latex paint as it will give a semi-gloss finish. Use any paint which doesn’t give any flat finish as the flat finish will display any flaw or fingerprint and they are all hard to clean.
If the finish is much glossier then it will be easier to clean later on. Paint the furniture with thin coats and do the sanding between every coat. Paint at least two to three coats. It is a very important step if you expect any even finish on the furniture.
Step 7. Give some protection
After the paint is dry for 24 hours, seal it. The furniture sealing will help you provide additional protection to the finish as well as create an easy-to-clean or wipeable surface. If you want to apply any clear or light paint, don’t use polyurethane as it can turn yellow later on. You can use Minwax wipe-on poly for the protective coat. you can learn more about woodworking on prettywoodworks.com for more interesting tips.
