Have you ever painted furniture and thought: There has to be an easier way? Well, there is and I have a few tips today to help you get the best results and in record time.
As long as the furniture piece doesn’t have huge dings, peeling paint or broken off pieces, you can paint without sanding or stripping the furniture. Say what?! There is also an alternative to using a paint sprayer that will leave the finish brushstroke free. Plus, there are a few tips for paint and keeping a customized color consistent when mixing more than one batch of paint. Let’s get started.
Where did this desk come from?
First, a little backstory on this awesome Mid Century Modern desk. Purchased from my local online garage sale site, of course, this desk was a steal. It is solid wood. Solid. Originally it came from some professor at the University of Texas in Austin. The folks I purchased it from originally brought it home when the school was updating furniture and they took the desk to paint it. Years later they were selling the MCM desk and that is where I came in.
Should I stain or paint?
The desk was painted brown. Not quite a happy enough color for my liking so I decided to strip the damaged paint with a heat gun, sand, and start over. When peeling off paint layers I found out that the desk was first painted a lovely *cough, cough* shade of peachy flesh tone. On top of that was the orangey medium brown. I stripped the paint, I sanded the finish, I got it down to the bare wood. Unfortunately, there were some serious water stains on the desk top that claimed the wood and were not budging. Looks like staining the piece wasn’t an option.
Priming the desk to seal in the water stains and painting it in a fun blue seemed like a good choice. My go to at this point was Kilz primer and regular house paint. Here’s the problem with regular house paint on furniture- it sucks. The finish always has a plastic-like feel to it and my sewing machine would make a horrible sticking noise each time it was lifted from the desk top. Not ideal. Fortunately, I primed and painted really well so the paint job was solid, it just wasn’t a desirable top coat.
Choosing a Color
The desk was the first item in my creative space. A perfect large work surface with storage and really heavy. I didn’t have much of a design plan before I painted it. Once I found a chair that I loved, came up with the idea to paint a mural and the color scheme, the desk needed to be refinished once more.
You would assume that refinishing would mean sanding down to the bare wood again, right? Nope. All that needs to happen is to use a degreaser/de-glosser and paint designed for furniture. Thank goodness because that desk was a beast to get up the stairs the first time. With degreasing and de-glossing, the desk could remain upstairs while being repainted. Hooray!
The color customizing was done by mixing together two paint colors from the Heirloom Traditions Paint line. The goal being to compliment the wall color, draw more attention to the mural and chair, and to minimize the sheer mass of desk in the space. The color mixed reminds me of eucalyptus; it is a greenish, blueish, grayish color. Even though there is dark blue on the accent walls, they go together because of the green undertones in the dark blue wall paint.
Supply List
- Liquid Sandpaper (degreaser/de-glosser)
- Scotch Brite Pad
- Container for the liquid
- Gloves
- Clean, dry rags
- Screwdriver to remove hardware
- Plastic Baggie for hardware storage
- Spray Paint- Rust-Oleum Metallic Spray Paint in Flat Soft Iron
- Cardboard or tarp
- Paint- Heirloom Traditions Paint in London and Irish Garden
- Stir Stick
- Liquid Measuring Cup
- Rubber Spatula
- Plastic Wrap
- Paint brush
- 6″ High Density Foam Roller Cover
- Roller
- Paint Tray
- Masking Tape
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Instructions
Step 1:
Inspect your furniture piece for any dings, imperfections or places that may need wood filler. Repair as needed. Remove all drawers from the desk and empty the contents away from your work area. Great time to sort and purge! Move the desk onto a tarp, leaving plenty of room to maneuver with a paint tray.
Step 2:
Pour some of the degreaser/de-glosser into a shallow container; I used an empty lunch meat container. Use Liquid Sandpaper to make things easy because it does not need to be deactivated with water. When wearing gloves, dip the Scotch Brite abrasive pad into the de-glosser and scrub on the surface of the furniture. Wipe off with the clean, dry cloth. This step may need to be done more than once depending on the condition of the furniture piece. Repeat the process until the cloth comes away clean. There are instructions on the Liquid Sandpaper bottle that give more details.
TIP:Â Remove the hardware before cleaning the furniture and protect any sections of the furniture with painter’s tape, if needed. This desk has two varnished writing trays that I wanted to protect from the Liquid Sandpaper, so I taped them off before beginning this step.
Step 3:
Now to mix the perfect color of paint. To figure out the ratios, do test mixtures using teaspoons of paint and paint swatches until the color looks right. I knew that my paint “recipe” was to have 2 parts London to 1 part Irish Garden.
Use the liquid measuring cup to measure out paint after each color has been thoroughly stirred with the stir sticks for two minutes. Using the liquid measuring cup allows you to get exact ratios and ensures that the color is consistent for each batch of paint mixed up. No one wants the color to be slightly off in different places on the furniture. BTW, this is a dedicated measuring cup for paint, not one I use for cooking.
TIP:Â Use plastic cling wrap over the open container of paint before replacing the lid. This will prevent the paint from getting into the threads of the lid and drying, virtually gluing the lid to the container.
TIP:Â Use a rubber spatula from the dollar store to scrape out the last bits of paint from the paint can or from the measuring cup. Use an empty and cleaned paint container to store any left over customized paint color.
Step 4:
Once paint color is completely mixed, pour some into the paint tray. Place high density foam roller cover on roller and roll up and down the sticky side of a piece of painter’s tape. Doing so will remove any lint or loose bits of foam from the roller. It pretty much looks like a paint version of a Biore nose strip when done.
Using a high density foam roller will give a smooth finish to the paint. If the furniture has a lot of detail and ornamentation, then this roller would not be ideal for those areas. The high density foam roller is best on smooth surfaces, which this desk was mostly comprised of.
Step 5:
Apply paint to the desk. Start with the difficult to reach areas, like the legs of the desk and the space under the desktop.
When rolling, load the roller and use the bumpy area of the tray to even out the paint on the roller by rolling over the tray bumps a few times. Next, apply paint on the surface of the furniture in long sections. Once paint is mostly off of the roller, lightly -like a butterfly touch- roll over the painted areas to knock down any bubbles. There is no pressure applied to the roller when doing this last step. That, my friends, is how to get a super smooth finish.
Step 6:
Paint the drawers after applying painter’s tape along the sides to keep the painted edges crisp and professional looking. (See picture in Step 2) I used the roller for the drawer fronts also. Confession: I didn’t want to have to clean a paint brush so I used the roller on the inside corners of the desk. Smooshing the roller into the corner and then smoothing out the paint did the trick for me.
In all, it took two coats of paint and a few areas of touch up. When I needed to mix more paint it was easy to get a spot on match because of the measuring cup. Work smarter not harder.
Step 7:
In between applying the coats of paint to the desk, I worked on the brass hardware. The hardware is solid brass so it could be polished up to a bright and shiny finish. See post here on the best method to polish brass. The yellow tone of the polished brass is too warm for the cool paint colors. Once the hardware was wiped clean, I used Rust-Oleum Metallic Spray Paint in Flat Soft Iron. Place the hardware on a piece of cardboard, newspaper, or a tarp when outside and spray paint.
Step 8:
When paint is dry on both the hardware and the desk, replace the painted hardware and return drawers to their proper locations. Refrain from using the desk for 7 days and then only use lightly until 30 days have passed. Paint takes a while to fully cure, if it is bumped, scratched or heavy objects are placed on it too soon, the finish is more likely to be damaged. It really is worth the wait. When hardened, the finish is really tough. I always equate drying paint to finger nail polish. Just like when your fingernails are painted, you have to let them cure and harden before use to prevent damage to the finish.
Once the paint was dry, I removed the tarp and pushed the desk into the proper location before adding the drawers. It just made things more manageable this way, no sense in straining as I moved heavy furniture. The only thing left to do is to add the tiny knobs on the pull out writing desk. I had to order them-not from Amazon-Â so it is taking quite a while for them to arrive, like weeks.
In the meantime, I am enjoying getting everything in its proper place, getting rid of stuff that I don’t need and making a space for me. Being the only girl and having a designated space just for me helps when making a house a home.
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Thanks for the tip on how to get a super smooth surface. That will come in handy when repainting a built- in shelf in my dining room.
Your work area looks beautiful!
So glad to be of help. Thank you for the compliment. I am pretty excited to finally get my workspace organized and fun. A much better area for creating now that things are in place and there is some inspiring artwork up. 🙂