Sometimes just a little paint is enough to breathe new life into a piece of furniture instead of buying something new. Together with Landholz, I’ll show you how you can easily paint your furniture yourself!
Painted: A new, light look for my dressers
I’m currently in the process of gradually moving into our new apartment to design and to decorate. Now it’s the bedroom’s turn. Here we already had a wall with one in winter exciting jungle wallpaper designed. Now the other side of the room was on my agenda: This is where my two Ikea chests of drawers from the IVAR series made of pine wood are located. They should become part of a small plant corner that visually matches the jungle wallpaper, but should still appear airy and light, as the wallpaper itself is already very dominant. I really like the design of these chests of drawers, but on the one hand the untreated pine wood is very delicate and on the other hand the color of the wood and the black feet didn’t really fit my idea of an airy, light plant corner.
Painting furniture – everything you need in one box | Country wood
So it was quickly decided: This is where color comes into play! That’s when it came to me Landholz asked if I would like to try out one of their Color Up Boxes. The boxes contain everything you need to transform your old furniture into truly unique pieces: paints, glazes and high-quality painting tools. They also come in different styles with different colors – there is a box to suit everyone. But of course you can also buy all the colors individually from Landholz.
The Allrounder Box really has everything in it so you can get started straight away: selected colors and glazes that suit the respective style, painting hangers, painting rollers, glazing brushes, bristle brushes, wooden color palette, wooden spatula, sanding pad, apron, base, gloves and masking tape.
I chose that Nordic Lover Box decided because it contains white, light gray and a light oak glaze. The subtle colors are the perfect basis for my airy make over with a color gradient. My idea was to make the base of the chest of drawers entirely white in order to make the massive furniture appear a little lighter. The upper area, on the other hand, should be designed a little darker in a light beige, which forms the perfect, subtle base for the plants and at the same time picks up on the color scheme of our jungle wallpaper.
I’ll tell you in my tips below how I went about painting, how the light beige came about & how I finally painted the metal feet with the paint!
Instructions for painting furniture – my tips & tricks
Would you like to breathe new life into a piece of furniture with a little color? Then I have summarized all my tips for you here that you should keep in mind when painting furniture.
Prepare surfaces & take apart furniture
To ensure that the paint adheres well, the piece of furniture should first be sanded with a sanding pad. Afterwards, you should definitely wipe off the resulting dust with a dry cloth or sweep it off with a small hand broom.
It is also important that you disassemble the piece of furniture as best you can before painting it. For example, I took out all the drawers and painted them individually.
Mix the colors and mix them together
With any paint, it is important that you first stir it thoroughly, for example with a wooden spatula.
You can generally mix the Landholz varnishes with each other to achieve your desired color. Pro tip: You can also mix white lacquer with wood stain. That’s exactly what I did to create a subtle beige. For this I mixed approx. 1 can of white varnish with 1 can of glaze (both containing 375ml each). Important: When mixing, make sure that you mix the two colors together thoroughly so that you end up with a homogeneous color. I also recommend that you first test the mixed paint directly on a wooden palette or on an inconspicuous area on the piece of furniture.
Painting – paint roller for larger areas
I painted the large drawer fronts with the paint roller. It is important here that you work with a high-quality tool in order to achieve a nice result.
Painting rollers are particularly suitable for larger areas because the paint can be applied evenly and very quickly.
Especially with lighter varnishes, you will need several layers of paint to get an opaque result. Remember to let each layer dry before applying the next one.
On both chests of drawers I painted two drawers in beige and one drawer in white.
Small brushes for details
The easiest way to paint small details is to use a brush. For example, I used a fine bristle brush in the handle area of the drawers. Here I can really recommend that you only use high-quality brushes. I’ve had the experience myself that cheap brushes quickly lose their bristles, which I then had to pick out of the still-damp paint.
Paint in two colors – properly mask with painter’s tape
To create clean colored edges, you need to mask them off! I first masked off the area on the body of my chest of drawers that I wanted to paint beige. Make sure to trace the edges of the painter’s tape again with your fingers so that no paint can get under the tape.
I then painted the upper area of the chest of drawers in beige. This time I worked with a brush instead of the paint roller. It was important to me to also test the brush from the Color Up Box from Landholz (and yes, the brush is really great too).
Then it’s time to remove the painter’s tape and let it dry. Only when the beige colored area was completely dry did I use painter’s tape to mask off the edge of the white area. I then painted the lower part of the chest of drawers with the white paint.
Painting metal feet – hack with baking soda or baking powder
Now I wanted to paint not only the wooden surfaces of the chest of drawers, but also the metal feet. However, I didn’t want to buy a special paint for it. I didn’t have to, because with a simple trick you can use ordinary paint homemade chalk paint which also sticks to metal thanks to its texture. The miracle cure here is baking soda (or alternatively baking powder), which is stirred into the paint. My mixing ratio: approx. 4 teaspoons of baking soda for 250 ml of paint.
I then brushed the homemade chalk paint onto the metal feet in several layers. Since the feet were originally black, 4 coats were necessary. Of course, it is important that each layer dries before the next one is applied.
Tip: Homemade chalk paint is a real all-rounder; you can even use it to paint foiled furniture.
The little make over is done! Do you like the new look? I think the chests of drawers now look much more airy, and the subtle colors harmonize perfectly with all the plants that have now found their new home in the corner. The bedroom is now completely redesigned. What’s next? Let’s see, maybe the balcony!
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Source: www.schereleimpapier.de
