Repainting Furniture, Breath New Life Into That Old Furniture

Repainting furniture is not all that difficult, and just about anyone can do it. However, it seems that today there is a lot less pride taken in furniture making than in years past. Beside the poor craftsmanship, the quality of the materials used to make the furniture is often quite sub par. That’s not to say that quality furniture can’t be found these days, but if you do find furniture of any kind of quality, it will cost you a small fortune.

There is however, an alternative to paying through the nose for high quality new furniture. A lot of people own furniture that has been handed down through the generations of the family. Another way is to attend yard sales, garage sales, flea markets and swap meets. When you find furniture in these places it often a simple coat of paint or stain would bring these pieces back to life.

Choosing Furniture to Repaint

If the furniture that you want to paint is made of wood there are some factors that need to be considered before you decide to start painting it. Not all furniture should be painted.

First of all you need to examine the piece of furniture to be painted. You need to determine what type of wood that it is constructed of. A lot of the furniture that is sold today is made of particle board. This particle board is often either painted, covered with a veneer sticker or veneer piece of wood to make it appear to be of higher quality than it really is.

Unless you really like the piece of furniture, any furniture constructed of particle board is not worth the time or effort to repaint.

Making Repairs Before Repainting

Before you begin repainting furniture, you also should give it a once over. Check for loose screws, drawers, legs cracks in the wood or past repairs. If you are repainting furniture that needs some minor repairs, for instance replacing old screws with newer and if possible longer ones.

If you do decide to use longer screws, first be sure that the screws that you are using will not come through the surface of whatever they are being screwed to ie, a table top or a side panel. Any holes in the surface of the piece of furniture can be filled with wood putty.

Also if you are going to use wood putty be sure that you use paintable or sustainable wood putty. And choose one that is as close to the color of the wood that you are working with as possible.

Prepping Furniture For Paint

Once any necessary repairs have been completed your next step is to remove any old paint or stain. There are numerous effective ways to accomplish this. The first being chemicals.

Repainting Furniture There are a number of chemicals that will remove paint from wood. Paint remover/stripper would be the first choice and probably the most effective. Before purchasing a stripper or paint remover you should read the entire label, making sure that the stripper you buy is the correct one for the job at hand. There are strippers available on the market for paint, stain, varnish and just about every other surface covering imaginable and most are not interchangeable.

There are also specific strippers available for each surface. Using the wrong stripper for the surface that you have can be catastrophic, the wrong stripper can damage the wood that you are trying to restore. In any case when applying stripper ALWAYS WEAR SAFETY GLASSES and use a cheap brush as you wont be able to reuse it.

Once applied you must be patient, the strippers label will tell you how long to let it sit before removing it. Once the proper amount of time has passed, using a plastic putty knife, scrape away the paint and stripper. If you want a smooth surface, sanding the item with 100 grit sandpaper is recommended.