Beginner's guide
Painting furniture is now IN - and for good reason
Recycled interior design is on the rise, and refurbishing used furniture is fashionable and sensible - DIY, recycling, and reusing old furniture is hardly a passing trend.
Get creative and repaint your old furniture into beautiful and modern pieces yourself - you don't always have to buy new!
If you have ever thought that chalk paints are not durable or high quality, now is the time to try Frenchic!
The painting instructions for a successful result are ultimately very simple with Frenchic Paints:
- Wash and clean the surface to be painted carefully and let the surface dry.
- Sand thoroughly and wipe off sanding dust.
- Paint at least twice on a dry and clean surface, with carefully mixed paint.
- Let dry according to the instructions.
New features in our paints!
Our paints have award-winning, completely new features that you won't find in other ranges!
Like the fine 'Self Levelling' feature, which means the paint levels itself, resulting in a perfect, even, and smooth surface whether you paint with a roller or a brush.
Or 'Self Sealing', which means the surface seals itself, and you don't need to apply wax or varnish separately on the surface, as with conventional chalk paints. The furniture becomes very durable in everyday wear just by painting.
'Self Priming' means that you don't need special primers or bonding paints when using Frenchic Paint series paints. Frenchic Paint series paints have excellent adhesion.
These features, combined with non-toxicity and powdery matte finishes, have quickly made the Frenchic Paint range the most popular chalk paint series among interior and furniture painters.
Why would I paint my furniture with chalk paint?
With chalk paint, work progresses quickly and pleasantly even when painting indoors.
Frenchic Paint chalk paints are non-toxic. Water-based Frenchic Paints are pleasant to paint indoors, dry faster than conventional furniture paints, are odorless, and tools clean easily with water and mild detergent.
Get to know and test first, before a bigger project.
Get a small 250ml test can and try the paint.
Texture and shades
Chalk paints often have much better pigment and coverage than conventional furniture paints - the texture is often thicker and drip-free.
A beautiful matte finish is perfect for both modern interiors and old buildings. Powdery pastel shades remind us of our traditional colors and pair well with wood surfaces or white and gray.
Do an eco-friendly act and save your old furniture from the attic or basement back to a prime spot.
Often older furniture is solid wood and made to last - but yellowed or darkened wood surfaces no longer fit today's interiors as they are.
However, it is not always sensible or necessary to buy new furniture; with a small amount of paint, you can easily renew cabinets, dressers, and other small furniture stylishly - without the price tag of designer furniture!
Make your home your own and use the shades you like - only with colors do you create that new atmosphere. Don't hesitate to repaint - you can change the color of walls, doors, or furniture often - your home lives in time and that should show in the colors too - by painting, you easily change the mood of the space.
Besides furniture, you can start by looking for smaller painting targets in your home.
From walls, trims, frames, or stairs, you can find more small projects - a colored floor or an arch-window-shaped colored area can make an impact, for example, in a children's room.
You don't have to paint the stairs completely right away; you can try painting the front panels of wooden stairs or just the railings.
Easily come up with a colorful half-panel height paint stripe on the hallway wall, a gingerbread-edged half-wall painting, or a dramatic dark rectangle on the bedroom's headboard wall!
Powdery and soft Frenchic shades fit beautifully with Scandinavian interiors alongside wood tones, while darker shades suit a bold interior style.
Whether you plan to paint furniture for yourself or professionally for sale - a high-quality chalk paint intended for furniture painting is an excellent choice.
Thinking about painting kitchen cabinets?
Do you have a bigger painting project in mind, like painting kitchen cabinets or something similar? First, get a couple of small 250ml test cans of paint, a brush, a roller, and a color chart.
If you haven't painted much before, we recommend doing a small practice project.
Get a small piece of furniture with a drawer and a door – like in your kitchen – and try a few shades you were thinking of choosing for your bigger project.
In this practice piece, you get to try different tools: sanding sponge, brush, and roller – and notice how the paint behaves; dries and covers.
Make the same preparations on this small practice piece of furniture as you would for a larger one: wash surfaces with Sugar Soap furniture cleaner, rinse off the cleaner and dry the surface – remove handles and inspect the surface to see if filling holes is needed. Paint.
Take before and after photos for yourself!
Furniture painting – how to succeed
1. Choose paint and explore options
As a rule of thumb, one liter of chalk paint covers about 13m2. This is roughly the size of a normal dresser or cabinet. The coverage of Frenchic Paint series paints is approx. 13.5m2 per large paint container, 750ml.
You can choose a shade for indoor furniture from any Frenchic Paint series.
Due to the strong adhesion properties of chalk paint, it can be used on various materials such as metal, wood, glass, concrete.
Tip! When painting from black to white or vice versa – or dark and reddish wood to white: paint the first coat with a gray shade. It tones down the darkness and redness, and you will need fewer white coats.
Choose furniture or wall paint that contains no toxins or unpleasant odors – this is important when painting indoors or professionally a lot. You can also choose easy-to-use paints for furniture painting that already have protective properties built-in – ‘just paint and go!´
When painting utility furniture, avoid tube paints and hobby paints intended for crafts.
Durable Frenchic Paint series paint for painting furniture or kitchen cabinets
Choose chalk paints for furniture painting that don't require adhesion or primer paints, 'Self Priming', and paints whose surface levels beautifully by itself, 'Self Levelling', and paints whose surface no longer needs protection like conventional chalk paints, 'Self Sealing'. You can read more about Frenchic Paint's 'Self Priming' feature.
Restoring, painting, and reusing old furniture is recycling interior design at its best!
Invest in a brush and avoid disposable tools
It's worth investing in a high-quality brush made for furniture chalk painting. Using old, worn-out, and dirty cheap brushes can result in a finished painting project far from satisfactory.
Image: The best brushes for lime painting are oval-shaped.
Instructions and a blog post on choosing the right brush, read it here.
Paint only clean surfaces
You get started by cleaning the surface to be painted.
Remove handles and knobs if desired. Wipe away all dirt and grease - always paint only clean surfaces. Sugar Soap is the Frenchic Paint series' own paint cleaner intended for furniture cleaning.
Even furniture that looks clean can have a lot of dirt. Frenchic Paint series paints have excellent adhesion properties, so ensure thorough cleaning so that nothing extra remains between the surface to be painted and the paint.
The economical Sugar Soap concentrate easily cleans surfaces for painting. Whatever detergent you use, rinse the used detergent off the surface with clean water at the end.
Tape and mask the areas you don't want to paint
Taping is a handy way to limit paint where you don't want it: door handles, knobs, or glass edges. Taping makes paint edges neat. Choose a quality tape when you want really precise edges. With cheaper painter's tape, you can attach protective papers.
Start painting with carefully mixed paint
Once you have protected the floor under the furniture to be painted, it's time to paint!
Use your brush lightly from bottom to top. Paint with long strokes following the wood grain - remember that lime paint dries quickly.
Do not overwork a paint surface that is already in the curing process; instead, let the coats dry according to the instructions - then return to spot painting. Too thin paint layers can leave brush marks clearly visible as the thin paint layer dries quickly.
Frenchic Paint series paints have a "self levelling" feature that smooths the paint as it dries. In this case, the coat should not be too thin. Frenchic Paint does not need to be thinned.
If you paint dark to light (or vice versa), you may need to apply several coats to cover the surface completely and evenly. A tip for this: paint the first coat with gray, so you can get away with fewer coats.
Luckily, you don't have to wait long because lime paint dries quickly and you can continue soon. If you want a slightly more worn look, two coats may be sufficient.
With Frenchic Paint's range, always apply at least two coats.
Distress to look old (if you want)
This step is definitely not mandatory, but we mention it because it is such a popular style. The most important thing in wear is to make it look natural, so wear should naturally be done on areas that would wear on the furniture: around handles and knobs, edges, corners, and maybe a little more here and there.
You can create wear effects with many techniques: use a sanding sponge and lightly roughen the surface until it breaks, or use a damp cloth and rub the paint open with circular motions - this makes the worn areas naturally soft-edged.
After wear/sanding, wipe the surfaces clean again. Learn to create different wear effects and techniques, read the instructions here.
Finish with wax if you wish
Wax protects the chalk-painted surface and adds durability. Wax also deepens the chalk paint's shade and keeps the surface in good condition for years to come.
Colored wax creates a beautiful patina on the surface.
When the surface is dry and clean, apply clear wax to the desired area using a wax brush. Take only a little furniture wax on the brush at a time; it is very economical and easy to spread. So wax sparingly at first - you can add a new thin layer if you wish.
After waxing, always wipe off excess wax with a lint-free cloth. The wax becomes touch dry quickly but cures for about 21 days at normal room temperature.
Read more about using waxes here.
If you use Frenchic Paint's Lazy Range, Trim Paint, or Al Fresco range paints, and you don't wear down the painted surface, you can skip this step if you wish.
Frenchic Paints already have protective properties built into the paint.
Of course, you can also wax when painting with these ranges - adding patina and depth to the furniture.
Step back and admire!
Your furniture is ready to be sold or placed in a prime spot in your home. Now you can start thinking about new painting projects!
Get inspired and admire Frenchic Paint projects in our Facebook group!
