The desire to change the interior can be realized with minimal costs. It is not necessary to throw out old furniture. It is enough to repaint a boring, boring closet and it will turn into a highlight of the home environment. The main thing is to keep in mind that each material requires its own materials, which are best suited in properties.
Most of the furniture is made of chipboard or wood, but there are metal parts and even structures that require their own paint.
Ideas for decorating old furniture with paint
By repainting an old piece of furniture, you can get an interesting design solution. Boring shelves or cabinets can become bright and interesting. Depending on the material, choose a decorative finish. The painting can be supplemented with decoupage, stenciling, patination or craquelure creation.
Paint selection
Painting furniture will require 3 components – primer, paint and finish coating. Let’s tell you what you may need to implement the idea.
1. Primers
Its task is to increase the adhesive properties of the base, plus to saturate the upper layers of the material in order to eliminate overspending of the coloring composition. To simplify the application of a decorative paint layer, you need to select the shade of the primer as close as possible to the color. Thus, when applying paint, the primer will not glow from under the finishing layers. This will allow you to get a result with less paint.
2. Stains, varnishes, waxes
To emphasize the structure and restore the attractive appearance of wood, waxes, varnishes and stains are used.
- Varnishes can be transparent and colored. The first form a beautiful protective layer that prevents damage to the decorative coating. The shade of the varnish can also imitate valuable rocks.
- Waxes can be solid, liquid, colored, for exterior and interior work. A velvety film forms on the surface. Wax treatment strengthens the structure, prevents the effects of moisture and the development of fungi.
- Stain – also allows you to emphasize the texture, can imitate the shades of valuable wood species. An alternative to a stain can be drying oil, shellac.
3. Paints
The composition with a colored pigment is applied to the base, completely overlapping the structure and the original color. For each type of material, you need to choose a specialized paint. For example, for work on wood, plastic or metal, the colors will be different.
Manufacturers offer a large number of shades. You can also make a different surface effect – matte, glossy, satin, textured. It is important to take into account the resistance of a particular paint to abrasion, hiding power, ease of application.
If the furniture will be installed in a residential area, choose environmentally friendly paints. Texturing agents also give an interesting effect, due to special fillers.
Stages of painting old furniture
This part provides an analysis of a universal technique for painting furniture items that can be used in everyday conditions. This option is good for decorating typical cabinet furniture – chest of drawers, wardrobe, table, as well as for the restoration of old furniture.
Preparation for painting
The first stage, regardless of the method and type of furniture that you are going to paint, is preparation. A carefully performed procedure will ensure a smooth surface for painting, without defects and protruding fibers. Preparation ensures long-term preservation of the paint layer.
Each type of material has its own preferred compositions. If you do not take into account the specifics of the colors, the result may disappoint. When preparing coloring compositions, it is important to follow the manufacturer’s instructions.
Stages of preparation for painting old furniture:
- Before painting, the piece of furniture is disassembled into individual parts. Remove all accessories. Take out the shelves, remove the doors, unscrew all fasteners. Cover with masking tape all the elements that cannot be removed – it can be glass or mirror inserts, vintage decor.
- It is important to remove dirt and grease from surfaces. A little detergent diluted in warm water will help to gently dissolve the dirt. It is important not to overdo it with water, especially if you are dealing with veneered or laminated slabs. Due to excess moisture, the plates can deform and swell. Each element is thoroughly dried.
- It is necessary to sand the surface of the parts with fine-grained sandpaper. So the adhesion will be higher, the coloring pigment will hold better. Cleaning is especially important in the case when the product was varnished or covered with polishing. If you have the skill, then you can use a grinding machine. It is important to be careful not to damage the base in the process.
- To remove dust from the parts after stripping, you can use a dry rag, brush or vacuum cleaner. Do not wet the tools, otherwise all the dust particles will remain in the cracks. The next step is preparing the composition of the primer and carefully priming the surfaces. Make sure that there are no untreated areas left. Usually 1-2 layers of primer composition are enough.
- Each element of the housing must be inspected for defects: chips, cracks need to be plastered. To make the mass completely fill the recess, use a spatula made of soft rubber. After the putty has dried, the surface is cleaned and primed.
- After the primer layer has completely dried, the surface is carefully sanded. The base is almost ready. Before proceeding to the coloring stage, you need to thoroughly clean the dust from the cracks and corners. Remember that the brush or rag must be completely dry.
Thus, following the described sequence, it is necessary to prepare all the details of the furniture case. After all the components are ready, proceed to painting.
Painting and drying of furniture
Before you start painting furniture, carefully prepare the workplace. Remove everything that can get dirty, take care of the place for tools and the work surface on which to put the parts.
Coloring compounds, especially quick-drying ones, may have a pungent odor. Work in a respirator and open windows and doors so that there is good ventilation. In summer, it is important to exclude insects from entering the work area. Midges and flies can land on the wet paint and stick, which will spoil the result of the work.
Paint application algorithm: preparation, tools, sequence of work:
- It is necessary to prepare the workplace: it is necessary to cover all nearby surfaces with plastic or thick film.
- The coloring composition is prepared in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. It is important that the pigment is distributed evenly in the total volume of the liquid base. To do this: the spray bottle with paint must be shaken. Liquid formulations are diluted with activators (if necessary) and must be thoroughly mixed.
- The painted part is laid on a flat surface. It is necessary to remove everything unnecessary so that it is convenient to work with a spray gun, roller or brush.
- Be sure to pour the paint in portions into the tray. This is especially true for quick-drying compounds, such as acrylic.
- When working with a roller, after dipping it in paint, be sure to roll it along the tray to remove excess. Otherwise, ugly streaks may form. All hard-to-reach places for the roller are carefully painted with a brush.
- The first layer of paint is thoroughly dried. In order for the color to turn out clean, you need to apply 1-2 more layers sequentially so that the base does not shine through the tone.
- For chipboard, the best option is painting with aerosol paints. The nozzle should be held above the painted surface at a distance of 30 cm. move your hand smoothly, make sure that the pigment lies down tightly, but without streaks (it will be difficult to get rid of them). If necessary, after the first layer is completely dry, you can apply another one.
All painted parts are thoroughly dried. It is very important to allow the coating to dry completely. For example, acrylic paints dry very quickly, but oil paints take a long time. The dye layer should completely harden.
Each subsequent stage of coloring or applying decorative layers is carried out only after the previously applied composition has completely dried. This is necessary when varnishing, decoupage or painting. It is worth applying the varnish in order to fix the paint layer and make the pigment shade more saturated.
After the finish coating is completely dry, you can remove the masking tape and start assembling the furniture frame. Assemble the structure in reverse order, be sure to replace the old fasteners and ugly fittings.
Features of painting different surfaces of old furniture
The general algorithm for applying paint on the surface of furniture will be the same. However, for the successful implementation of ideas, it is necessary to take into account the features of different materials that can be used as the basis of the case.
1. Chipboard
Given the variety of production technology options, it is necessary to proceed from a specific case. All chipboard is based on woodworking waste. Sawdust is impregnated with resin compositions and pressed under pressure with a certain temperature regime. The initial length of the fibers used may be different.
Each plate has a decorative layer – laminated with a film, veneered, pasting a thin sheet of wood. Also, paper strips are glued to the base and varnishes are used.
Depending on the initial technology, make a preliminary preparation:
- veneer and laminate only need to be sanded to improve adhesive properties;
- the paper coating will need to be completely removed.
In any case, a layer of primer is applied to the cleaned surface – this is an indispensable condition for high-quality paint application at the following stages.
Given the structure of the chipboard, it is important to use dense coloring compounds that will not “go inside” the plate. Suitable oil paints, acrylic, alkyd.
2. Wood
The process of staining wood is quite simple, if you know about the small features of the material. When using liquid formulations, wood fibers swell and the pile can “rise”. Enamels, varnishes or stain, their analogues can cause such a result. To prevent the resulting pile from interfering with the further application of paint, the surface is primed and then carefully sanded with fine sandpaper.
3. Lacquered wood
Over time, the varnish on wooden surfaces may crack, chip or become stained. For those who decided to update previously varnished furniture by painting, it is necessary to perform a number of certain operations.
The old varnish needs to be removed. There are exceptions when the coating is very high-quality, then it is sanded and a primer layer and a coloring compound are already applied on top. However, most often it is better to remove the old varnish, otherwise it will become a risk factor for the result of subsequent work.
You can remove the old lacquer coating like this:
- use a hair dryer to soften the layer with hot air;
- use special formulations to remove the varnish;
- apply a grinding machine.
Next, a coloring layer is applied to the cleaned surface in the selected way. The procedure for removing old varnish is time–consuming and painstaking work, but without it it is impossible to achieve high-quality preparation.
Painting furniture does not require special skills. Here, well-conducted surface preparation, choice of materials and scrupulousness in performing operations are more important. High-quality painting will allow you to update the interior items.
Painting is the best way when you need to bring a random set of pieces of furniture to a single style. Modern paint coatings are safe and keep well on the surface for many years. If you want to update the furniture again, the paint layer is simply replaced.