5 Tips for Painting Furniture

Sharing is caring!

I’ve been refinishing furniture for about three years now.  I’ve painted dozens of pieces, but each time I learn something new.  There are so many types of paint, so many different little techniques, so many tips and tricks.  But what it usually boils down to are these things:

How to Paint Furniture:

1. Prep the surface
2. Paint the piece, using a good quality brush and brushing in the same direction.  Wait for each coat to dry thoroughly between coats.
3. Lightly sand the edges to distress
4. Seal with wax or poly.

Seems pretty simple.  However, there are little tips and tricks that help immensely.  Take this table, for example.  I knew this would be a very easy and quick project because A) it’s solid wood  B) it’s small and C) I was using Glidden® paint.  

The color I chose is called Glidden paint’s True Turquoise.  Glidden paint also has a simplified color palette for those of you who get overwhelmed by hundreds of choices in colors (which I totally do sometimes.)  But this was really the perfect color and I love it!  It had added such a fun pop of color to my house.  Painting is such an easy way to change things up and you don’t need any special skills to paint.  

A couple of years ago, I went on a painting spree and painted like everything in sight in my house.  I used a lot of Glidden paint during this time and I remember how easy it was to use.  Since then I had tried several different other paints, but for this project I purchased Glidden premium paint.  And honestly, it went on so smooth and creamy.  To some, it might seem like the paint is thin, but that’s perfect for furniture.  It goes on very smoothly and I had hardly any drips.  And despite the viscosity, the coverage was excellent.  I barely used any paint for this table (although yes, it was small.)  And best of all, it was very easy to distress.

 

So here are my best tips for painting furniture *:

1. Always prep the surface.  Every time I haven’t, I’ve regretted it.  This means clean it and rough up the surface.  The smoother the surface, the more you need to rough it up.
2. Catch drips and little paint brush bristles.  If you don’t catch a drip in time, let it dry and then cut it off with a razor blade (or sand it thoroughly if you can’t cut it off.)
3. If you are painting something white, don’t seal it with polyurethane, use polycrylic or wax.  Polyurethane (oil-based poly) yellows on white over time.
4. I used roller brushes for large flat surfaces, like for dressers.  This goes faster and usually more consistently smoother.
5. When using latex paint to paint furniture, let it cure for 24 hours before trying to distress it.  If you don’t wait, you will end up with a smudgy weird distress mark that doesn’t look natural.

Painting a dining room table?  Check out my post for advice.

Painting laminate or veneer?  Click here to see the best way to do it.

This post was sponsored by Glidden Paint through their partnership with POPSUGAR Select. While I was compensated to write a post about Glidden Paint, all opinions are my own.