Style is free – this is how you succeed with the Frenchic Paint series!

When you want to repaint your furniture or do home surface renovations, don't underestimate the importance of choosing the right paint for the final result – or the choice of painting style.

We want to help you get started easily.

Here you can pick the best advice and tips for your own painting project. Finally, we have compiled a checklist for you of the minimum you need to get started.

There are countless painting techniques and styles to choose from, which you can easily use and apply yourself to painting new or old furniture and achieving stunning style transformations, just like in interior design blogs!

"You'll surely be surprised how easy it is to renew and update old furniture into modern pieces with Frenchic Paint series with little effort and often a fraction of the cost of buying new furniture or renovating!"

"Recycle your old but intact and sturdy furniture back to a prime spot in your home – you don't always need to buy new."

"See here various furniture painting techniques and tips with which you can create a unique, personal, and altogether stunning new look for your furniture to suit any interior style."

"Read here also our customers' experiences and feedback about the Frenchic Paint series."

"Choose a style that suits you and your home and get inspired by recycled interior design, reusing old furniture, and DIY together with the highly popular Frenchic Paint series!"

"First, choose your style!"

"Perfect, smooth matte surface"

"Today's trend is to paint furniture in solid colors, with a perfectly flawless matte finish."

"Take a step forward from this style and add a hint of gold or copper to the matte black surface; it immediately makes the furniture a level more stylish and timeless."

"The Frenchic Paint series has a completely new feature that makes the surface easily smooth and even. The 'Self Levelling' feature levels the surface by itself, leaving little or no brush marks on the finish."

"Do a test painting and try out the paint and tools"

"If the Frenchic Paint series is not yet familiar to you, do a few test paintings before a bigger project to get a feel for how the final result will be with the painting tools and techniques you use."

"You can also achieve a smooth surface by dipping the brush, just a little, in water during painting or using the so-called spray bottle technique. Read more about this technique in the Frenchic Guide."

"Wall painting and the popular 'Colour Block' style"

"You can also use Frenchic Paint furniture paints for wall painting!"

"Create an easy and trendy 'Colour Block' color area with any Frenchic Paint shade. This style doesn't require much paint."

"Many 'Colour Block' designs have actually been born from leftover paint at the end of a furniture paint can!"

"A 'Colour Block' is a painted colored area on a wall or ceiling: a circle, rectangle, square, stripe, or arch."

This fun technique is easy to implement and it gives a completely new atmosphere to the space, frames or serves as a background for the hallway wall, mirror, or double bed in the bedroom.

'Colour Block' is now IN in interior painting and you can see them in the pictures of interior influencers on Instagram.

Frenchic fans have also gotten excited about the style, and you can see their pictures and videos in Frenchic groups and on our social media channels.

In the picture, the old pine dresser is painted with different Frenchic shades, and tape has been used for the pattern borders.

The dresser has received new handles matching the theme and the wooden part is finished with Frenchic waxes.

A fun 'Colour Block' has been painted on the wall. You can see 'before and after' pictures of this dresser in our FB group. The painting work was done by Kerry Morgan.

Metal colors – finish the details

Forget old-fashioned, toxic, and bad-smelling metal paints and get to know the metal pigments of the Frenchic series.

Completely odorless color pigments are fun to use.

Try them and you will fall in love with their versatility in all kinds of interior painting and various DIY projects.

You can use Frensheen series gold, bronze, copper, and silver pigment paints on all furniture, highlights, and decorative items – for example, on the frame of an ornamental mirror.

Do you like customizing different home surfaces and furniture?

Paint the old hanging lamp shade outside with matte black Blackjack shade and treat the inside of the lamp shade to a stunning copper or gold shade!

This way you made a stunning lamp yourself, just like from a design store, but realized on a small budget. 

For example, if you don't want to buy new handles for your furniture to be painted, you can renew the handles stylishly in gold or copper shade.

Frensheen metal pigment is mixed together with Finishing Coat, so the shade becomes durable immediately.

You can find several technique videos in our FB group on how easily you can mix non-toxic metallic shades.

Take a look here at what an armchair painted in Bronze shade looks like!

With metallic shades you can create striking decorative paintings, stencil patterns or borders on furniture, inside and side edges of drawers, or under crackling.

If you want to try a really bold combination, try green metallic shade together with strong, bright shades.

You can mix Frenchic series metallic shades together and create your own antique gold or rose gold shades.

Paint an entire piece of furniture in a metallic shade – how about a dresser entirely in champagne shade?

Then combine gold and silver powder.

FrenSheen pigments are fun to use; you can combine waxes on the surface to create a lively surface, patina, and texture.

Be bold and creative – try it and you will surely get inspired!

Peek for more ideas in our FB group!

Bright shades refresh and bring good cheer

Sometimes a splash of color is needed in the decor to add warmth and interest. "Statement Pieces" – those eye-catching, uniquely colored pieces of furniture are back in decor.

Choose a shade that you like yourself

You can get an idea for the shade from a rug, wallpaper, or pillow coloring.

A good tip is to choose a shade that is not the main focus but is found only a little. A pastel-colored piece of furniture looks good in modern decor but also suits boho style or a rustic romantic home.

If you like subdued, powdery shades, you will definitely like these shades:

Nougat, Dusky Blush, Duckling, and Wise Old Sage. It's easy to compare colors here, you might find a new favorite shade!

The dresser in the picture is painted in the shade "Kiss Me Sloely" from the Al Fresco series.

You can paint a splash of color in your home, small or large 

Try one chair, dresser, or chest of drawers in a bright and strong shade that differs from the rest of your decor, such as Mediterranean or Mexican-style shades (try pink, blue, yellow, green and red), which will make your furniture stunning and unique.

If you love strong shades

At least check these out: blue 'Kiss Me Sloely', wine red 'Plum Pudding', green 'Victory Lane', petrol 'Steel Teal', ink blue 'After Midnight' and red 'Flamenco'.

The dresser in the picture is painted with the 'Flamenco' shade from the Original Artisan series.

From dark to white - is it possible?

Yes, it works. And that Tip!

Paint the first layer with gray shade if your new shade differs a lot from the base shade.

Gray shade tones down redness and dark shade, and you can use fewer white layers.

You can choose a medium gray shade, for example, from the Al Fresco series' City Slicker or Swankypants shades.

Often that small can of gray is enough for one piece of furniture, and then you can use fewer white layers, for example.

Gray is a good base color from any series to tone down reddish wood color.

Did you choose white paint?

White pigment should be mixed carefully in the paint can before painting and during the painting project; careful mixing affects coverage.

Also let the paint layers dry according to the instructions for 1-2 hours depending on the paint series you use - drying time also affects coverage.

The Frenchic Paint series has many stunning whites to choose from!

Explore the dazzlingly clean white Dazzle Me! shade, the soft Wedding Cake shade, or the paper-white Virgin shade.

The dresser in the picture is painted with the Wedding Cake shade from the Lazy Range series.

Leave part of the furniture with a wood surface

Combined wood surface and painted surface always works.

In this technique, of course, less paint is used, but the result is still warm and cozy.

When you prepare the furniture for painting: you clean the surfaces and sand them, you get to see what the wooden surface looks like when sanded clean.

Sometimes a really beautiful wooden surface is revealed under the old paint, leaving it visible takes the furniture to a whole new level!

Only part of the legs of the small table in the picture has been painted with the neutral shade 'Salt of The Earth'.

The rest of the surface is waxed with brown Frenchic wax. The pattern is a transfer, which you can view here.

With waxes, you can revive wooden surfaces beautifully and at the same time they care for the surface. Frenchic waxes are natural waxes, they are beeswax-based and certified, solvent-free.

Learn to use waxes

Try waxes, these techniques will sweep you away!

Of the various distressing techniques, this is the easiest:

Start by preparing the wooden surface. Clean it with Sugar Soap, lightly roughen the surface if needed and wipe clean and dry. Paint the first shade on the surface and let it dry completely.

Then the trick:

add clear furniture wax to areas you want to look worn, such as corners, edges, handles). The wax repels the new paint layer from these spots, giving a worn effect.

Now add a second coat of a different shade to the furniture, also over the waxed areas. Let dry. Wipe the furniture with a soft, lint-free cloth; the paint easily comes off the wax.

If you want to add more wear, you can lightly use steel wool or a sanding sponge to remove the paint surface.

Finally, wax the furniture all over - this protects even worn areas and makes the surface durable.

This is how you made a stunning piece of furniture yourself - like it was just bought from an interior design store!

Always choose a non-toxic natural wax for waxing, such as the softly spreading furniture waxes from the Frenchic Paint series.

Learn more about using waxes in furniture painting here.

Stencils - stunning tile patterns are now IN in interior and furniture painting

Stencil painting is now super trendy. You can pattern walls, floors, furniture with a stencil... It's quick and doesn't require much paint.

You can choose from many different themes according to your project, there is plenty of choice.

You can do just a little patterning, surprise moments are always fun

You can easily do this on your own furniture: paint beautiful stencil patterns on the outer edges of drawers. This way the patterns show every time you open the drawers.

You can use the same trick: paint a beautiful pattern inside a drawer, on the inside of dresser doors, or just along the bottom edge of the frame around the furniture.

You can apply these tips also to furniture you don't want to paint much more - a small 'update' and your furniture brings a new kind of atmosphere to the space!

Most stencils are made of thin plastic film, which easily shapes to the contours of furniture in furniture painting.

Here's how you do it:

Prepare the furniture or area to be painted, place the stencil where you want it, and paint. You can paint by dabbing with a stencil brush or even with a narrow roller. You can find many different examples and technique videos of stencil painting in our FB group.

Taping helps the stencil stay in place, and measuring helps you align the stencil to the center of the furniture or area. Start from the center if the pattern doesn't line up perfectly in the area - you can finish by doing the edges and cutting the stencil in half to make edge patterning easier. Sometimes it can be useful to use two identical stencils to speed up the work.

Test and experiment before a bigger project

Use paint sparingly until you get a feel for how the pattern forms. Try the stencil on some surface first if you haven't done stencil painting before.

At the same time, you'll get a feel for how your chosen tools work and what kind of finish they produce. A fun and quick method is to make patterns with a small roller and several shades at the same time! This way you easily get a beautiful and natural gradient in the pattern.

Keep your stencil clean throughout the project

In larger areas, wash the stencil and tools often; with a clean stencil, the pattern repeats beautifully and precisely.

Tools: brushes, sponges, and rollers should always be washed before starting.

Dry them until damp, water must not get under the stencil sheet when working on the pattern. Practice first. Check out the amazing stencil paintings and useful project photos in the 'Frenchic Paint Finland' group.

Tip: start with a small amount of paint on the brush or roller to get sharp and clear patterns

A faded surface and color wash leave the wood grain visible - a popular 'White Wash' technique

A faded surface or color wash with thinned paint are fun furniture painting techniques - a surface faded by sun or water over the years. These furniture painting techniques don't require much paint and are perfect for beginner furniture painters!

Faded surface with two different shades:

Start by painting the base color (preferably a dark shade). The surface does not need to be perfect. Let the paint dry completely.

Then paint the next layer with a lighter shade, covering the furniture completely again. The painting technique can be 'here and there' style, as long as the furniture is covered with paint – the surface does not need to be beautiful. 

You can start wiping off the paint even before it begins to dry on the furniture. Wipe off just as much as you want, here and there – depending on how dark or light a result you want. Repeat to achieve the desired result. Occasionally look at the furniture from a distance and from different angles.

You can also add the 'Dry Brush - 'Kuivaharjaus' technique here to get more lightness and more varied effects on the surface. Finish the furniture surface with wax if you have used shades from the Original series.

Hopefully you were inspired by these furniture painting ideas!

Checklist - these are at least what you need when you start painting furniture or walls:

1. Cleaner that effectively removes dirt and grease. Sugar Soap is an effective furniture cleaner from the Frenchic series, intended for cleaning furniture and other painted surfaces before painting. It is also advisable to wipe the wall clean and dry before painting.

2. High-quality brush or roller. This is not the place to save money. Read tips for choosing the right brush here.

3. Sanding or roughening supplies. Depending on your furniture and technique, you will need sandpaper, a handy sanding sponge, or an electric device for roughening/sanding the furniture surface.

4. Paint. Choose a high-quality furniture paint, such as the Frenchic series paints. If you haven't tried the Frenchic series before, start with the award-winning Lazy Range series.

5. All other Frenchic paint series are also suitable for painting furniture or walls. For painting tiles, Al Fresco is suitable, and for painting floors, the wall paint Chalk Wall Paint.

6. You might still need wax, stencil, finishing coat, metal pigment or craquelure agent depending on what kind of painting technique you plan to implement.

7. Also remember quality tape if you are doing masking

Must have - tips

Tip! If you are an eager handyman or painter and do many different DIY projects, two Frenchic products are - "must have"- trusted products for DIY makers that you should always have available on your paint shelf when the urge to create strikes: Frenchic wax and Finishing Coat. These versatile Frenchic products are well suited for various home projects. And of course white and black paint, which you can use for your own color mixes, for example pure white Wedding Cake and black Loof.

Explore the Frenchic range and admire our customers' project photos in our FB group! We have gathered for you in our FB group inspiring images easily searchable under keywords: kitchen, wall paint, color mixes, etc.

The award-winning and safe Frenchic Paint range offers you versatile and solvent-free products for painting furniture and all kinds of home surfaces. You just choose the shade to start with!

If you are a beginner in furniture painting, read more from other blogs; you can find the best tips for example in this article.

Frenchic Paint is active on social media: you can find us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, and YouTube...