Paint the old beautiful again!
A splash of paint on the walls and doors is the fastest and most effortless way to renew the look and interior of your home. You can also do the same for furniture by using high-quality chalk paint. With the help of colors, you can make even big changes cheaply and all by yourself.
With the help of chalk paint, you turn ordinary furniture into an old and elegantly aged one - suitable for a country-romantic or vintage-style home. Is your style minimalist or gritty bohemian? Make your own furniture in your own style by recycling old wooden furniture in good condition - give it a new style with colors!
By using black or neutral tones, you paint the furniture in a modern, Scandinavian or boho-style interior. A touch of gold or copper?
Whether you are planning to renew an old pine bench or a table, a bookshelf or a chair with fabric covers, with these instructions you can renew the look of one piece of furniture or the entire home, recycle and save - repainting old furniture is a real eco-deed - you don't always have to buy new.
Renovate using chalk paint intended for painting furniture
1. Choose a brush
In chalk painting, the final result is influenced by the choice of brush - that's why there is a blog post about it here. Of course, you can use any old brush you find around the house - but oval-shaped brushes are best with chalk paint. The rounded brush head is just perfect for picking up chalk paint.
The bushy-bristled oval brush speeds up your painting work and makes the project pleasant, as the brush can easily reach all corners and nooks and crannies of the furniture. The hand-made Italian brushes in the series are a thoughtful mix of synthetic and natural brushes, which help you get the best possible result in your furniture painting projects.
2. Clean the furniture to be painted
One of the advantages of lime paint is that there is no need for complex and time-consuming preparations or ground work. However, it is important that you only paint a clean surface, so start by washing and wiping the furniture with Sugar Soap furniture cleaner, especially if the furniture has grease, oil or other surface dirt. If the furniture is only dusty, wipe the dust off with a damp cloth.
Sometimes the furniture can look clean, but stubborn dirt comes off when washed as brown dirty water. The furniture can also smell bad. There is also the right product from the Frenchic series for that - treat washed and dried furniture twice with Finishing Coat. It seals in the smells and you can paint right away - convenient! Now you have a clean surface and odor-free furniture to paint, and the paint adheres well to its substrate, which in turn increases durability.
3. Sand (if necessary)
Sometimes you can skip this step. However, check if there is any chipping or flaking old paint on the surface - you should wipe them off with sandpaper. The surfaces do not need to be sanded down to the wood surface, only a few minutes of light roughening with a medium-coarse sanding sponge is often enough. Shiny and slippery surfaces, such as metal or veneer, benefit from a light roughening of the surface, which gives the paint a good adhesion surface.
Tip: run your hand over the surface of the clean piece of furniture - is the surface slippery, shiny and smooth? Then a light roughening is in order.
You should not be afraid of sanding and roughening the surface, it is an essential part of the preparations before painting. As a rule of thumb when repainting old, previously painted surfaces, you should consider, for example, this: the harder the surface is subjected to wear, the more important it is to sand the surface before applying a new layer of paint.
4. Mix the paint
If you open a new can of paint, you can shake it lightly before opening with the lid closed. Open the paint can with the intended paint can opener , and you can also close it nicely and tightly - the lid remains intact and straight. Mix the lime paint carefully before the start of the painting job and also occasionally during the painting project. If the pigment has time to sink to the bottom, it affects the coverage.
5. Paint!
Dip the brush lightly from the tip into the paint.
Pictured: Plum Pudding, waxy chalk paint, Lazy Range
6. Let the first layer dry and assess whether a second layer is needed
Depending on what kind of end result you are aiming for, you may not need a new layer. If you want the surface to be completely smooth and covering, at least two layers are needed.
Try these easy techniques:
'Color wash' or 'White Wash': If you want, you can try different painting techniques . You can add water to the lime paint: with thinned paint you make a translucent paint wash. Always thin the paint in another container, not directly in the paint can.
Paint with unthinned paint and an oval brush to get that chalk paint texture and aged look - on new or old furniture.
'Dry Brush', in the dry brushing technique there is almost no paint in the brush. Paint lightly, starting from the edges and corners, for example. You get more look and texture when the strokes of the brush go crosswise on the surface. In this technique, no water is added to the paint. Good technique videos about this technique can be found in our FB group 'Frenchic Paint Finland'.
Did you want that shabby chic look? Take sanding paper or a sanding sponge and wear the paint surface in the places you want - the natural end result will come when you make the wear where the usage stress is naturally hard, such as edges, corners and places of pulls. Sand the paint surface as little or as much as you like - there are no rules in this technique. Finally, wax again to give the worn areas a protective surface. Learn more about using waxes.
7. Wax the furniture and do the wear and tear
Apply wax to a completely dry surface using a wax brush . Apply a generous amount of wax to the surface and wipe off the excess with a lint-free cloth. The wax must be absorbed through the lime paint into the wood surface in order to protect the paint surface.
Alternative ways
- Old furniture can be livened up with just a small change. Try adding a gorgeous metallic shade to the moldings, edges or trim of the furniture - or just paint the legs or frame of the furniture - sometimes less is more.
- Do you want more texture on the surface of the furniture? Add Easy Crackle crackling agent between the layers of Frenchic paint and you will get a fun cracked paint surface even on new furniture.
- Trendy stencil painting fits the furniture and will certainly make your furniture unique. Try different patterns on the inner wall of the cabinets, the sides of the drawers or the front panels.
Why would I use chalk paint?
Haven't you tried chalk paints intended for furniture painting yet? Dare to experiment and choose a high-quality chalk paint intended for painting furniture, which already has protective properties in the paint!
- You save time and effort when you don't need complex primers or primers. The quick finish is especially suitable for fast painters who can't wait to see the final result!
- Frenchic chalk paints are pleasant to paint due to their non-draining composition
- Frenchic chalk paints are almost odorless and dry quickly
- You get a covering and durable result more easily than with conventional furniture paints
- By choosing a high-quality lime paint intended for painting furniture, you get a durable and beautiful matte surface
- The furniture does not need to be sanded down to the wood surface before painting
- Furniture lime paint is suitable for many types of surfaces
- High-quality furniture lime paints are non-toxic, made with the environment in mind, and no VOCs or other toxic ingredients have been added to them.
- When using lime paint, you can try several different consumption and painting techniques
By using high-quality lime paint when painting furniture, you save time and effort without compromising on the beautiful end result.
The most difficult thing of all might be choosing the shade! The best thing about furniture painting is that you can use chalk paint on any type of wood, varnished, unvarnished or, for example, MDF furniture. - even for metal and plastic. We've conveniently gathered all the Frenchic shades together here! Get the Frenchic color chart, so you can choose the shades at home and the names of the shades will stay with you. Tip! Try the search function in the FB group and search for the shade by name, and you will get all the pictures of our customers painted with that shade!
Whether you want your furniture to have a beautiful flat surface or a vintage-type worn and bohemian look, you can easily do all this with a high-quality furniture chalk paint intended for painting furniture.
Feel free to start with furniture chalk paint
Chalk paint, a high-quality durable chalk paint intended for furniture painting, is the secret to wonderful new tunings, renovation paintings and professional furniture painting.
At Frenchic, we produce different sets of high-quality, wear-resistant lime paints intended for furniture painting and interior painting, several dozen ready-made shades, as well as the necessary crackling agent, metal pigment powders, stencils, brushes and much more.
If you are a beginner in furniture painting or chalk painting - or you have not used the paints of the Frenchic Paint series before - try the shades of the Lazy Range series , you will definitely fall in love with it - it is an innovative and award-winning chalk paint series with wax already in the paint! Simply paint and go!
Take a look at international and domestic homes and gardens, see inspiring pictures of Frenchic projects on the series' own FB page and join the interior painting group: 'Frenchic Paint Finland'.
