Painted furniture goes back to the Georgian period, from 1760 to 1800 and was started by the Adams brothers in order to produce light coloured furniture.
Painting pieces of furniture or your kitchen units is a great way to make it more personal. If you want to up-cycle furniture rather than throw it away and replace it with something new, painting it is a great solution, but let me explain… it’s trickier than you think. It’s not just about slapping on a bit of paint. There’s skill required and lot of patience to produce a revitalised piece of furniture.
Preparation
Wooden furniture is likely to have been treated with paint or varnish, and will have collected dirt and grease over the years. Before applying any paint, you will need to properly prepare the surface. You can either:
– Wash and abrade the surface using wet and dry paper with a mild detergent.
– Sponge down the surface then use an appropriate primer.
Paint & Painting
Wood primer should only be used on bare wood furniture. If your furniture has previously been painted or varnished, use a multi surface primer. My recommendation is Zinsser bin.
Once all the furniture has been primed, lightly sand down, clean off dust then apply 2 oil-based undercoats, then finally apply 1 coat of oil-based eggshell paint.
Eggshell paint is a type of paint finish that does actually look like the surface of an eggshell. Comparing it to more commonly found finishes in the UK; it has less of sheen than satin or silk but more than that of matt emulsion paint or ‘satinwood’
It is durable and can be washed or wiped down.