Furniture Painting Tips

Furniture and cabinet Painting Prep Tips for DIY Decorators that will make the job easier.

When Painting Furniture or Cabinets

• Always fill holes from old drawers pulls or blemishes in the surface with wood filler before painting.  Once the filler is dry, sand with 100 grit sandpaper, followed by 220 grit to smooth. Clean off grit and then paint.

• When painting laminate furniture or cabinets: Use 100-grit sandpaper on a hand sanding block to rough up the laminate surface. You just need to scratch the surface to provide some “tooth” for the paint to grab onto.  A 5 minute going-over is all that is needed.

• It is important to clean what you are about to paint. I use a bucket of hot water, dish detergent and a scrub brush. I use an SOS pad to scrub around the molding  or any detail on an item to make sure no dirt or grease is still on the surface. I dry the item with a big towel immediately after I rinse off all the soap.
• For walls use a dust mop or Swiffer dust mop on the wall to remove dust before painting.  If you roll paint on a dusty wall, your paint color may look grey and the dust clumps will show up as texture in your painted surface.

• Before priming and painting, go over your entire item with a tack cloth. Tack cloths are sold in the paint aisle at the home improvement store. They are sticky cloths that you wipe over the surface before painting to pick up dust, dirt and sanding grit before painting. They come folded.  To use, unfold and cut a section off with scissors, place the rest back in the bag to use for another project. Throw away the used cloth when it loses its stickiness or gets dirty.

• When painting furniture with doors that you don’t want to remove. I always paint the outside of the doors, but sometimes don’t paint the inside of the doors. To make the doors look seamless with the base, I tape around the lip on the back of the door and then paint the front and around the perimeter edges on the back of the door. When the painter’s tape is removed, the insides of the doors look nice and neat with the outer edges painted only.

What is the Easy Way to Paint Cabinet or Furniture Pulls and Knobs?

•  The fast and easy way to paint furniture knobs is to use Styrofoam from packaging to create a tray of sorts.

• For drawer pulls with a base and movable handles – Use toothpicks to hold the knobs away from the surface so that you can spray all parts of them at one time.
• If using the knob’s screw – Punch the drawer knob screws up from under a thin piece of Styrofoam and then screw the knob on.  The knobs are secure, but you can move the Styrofoam all around with one hand and paint with your other hand to reach all sides of the knob.
• If using spray paint, cover the Styrofoam with paper or foil first or use a piece of cardboard instead of Styrofoam.  Spray paint will eat the foam.

What is the Best Drop Cloth to Use When Painting Furniture?

THE BEST DROP CLOTH is not a cloth at all. It is a flattened cardboard box. It makes the best drop cloth when painting furniture for a few reasons:

• When I get lazy and don’t want to carry a piece of furniture to my garage or basement to paint, I have found the best drop cloth to use is a flattened cardboard box.
• When you place the item on it you can easily turn it around to reach all sides of the piece you are working on from one position. You can just swirl the cardboard to view the side you need to work on. Since the cardboard slides easily on flooring it makes painting furniture in place or close to were it will go, so very easy.
• If you don’t finish painting in one day, you can simply slide the cardboard with the furniture still on it out of the way until you have time to work on it again.
• Easy clean-up. Simply fold the cardboard up and store it to use for your next project. I keep a few of the opened boxes propped up against the wall in my garage so I have them on hand when I want to paint.
• Using a cardboard box as a drop cloth is also good for the planet since you are repurposing it.

If you get a lot of packages (boxes) delivered to your home, flatten and save them. They are great to use all lined up around the perimeter of a room when you are painting the walls in a room. Plastic and cloth drop cloths move too easily and have to be taped down. Flattened cardboard boxes stay put and since they are thicker than cloth, if any paint spills, it stays on top and does not seep through like paint can when a cloth is used.

The Best Buffing Cloths for Chalk Paint

• When adding a wax finish to milk or chalk paint, use a brush or a cut piece of a worn t-shirt to apply the wax in a circular motion. After you apply the wax with a brush or old worn t-shirt, buff it with a soft lint-free cloth or another section of a worn t-shirt to create a nice subtle sheen over the painted surface.  

Band Edge Trimmer

• When you have a rough surface or unfinished edge on a piece of plywood or a piece of furniture that lost it’s veneer, you can easily fix this before painting.  Use the Band-It Edge Trimmer with Band-It Veneer Edging. It will create a seamless finish. See the full post here.  It is so easy to use…  you simply iron it on! Yes that is right – it is iron-on and will hold up forever.