All in One Paint for Furniture + Cheap Herringbone Accent

This week I’m spraying and sharing my updated thoughts on Heirloom Traditions All in One Paint for Furniture.

Learn more about Heirloom Traditions Paint here.

all in one paint for furniture text overlay with grey painted cabinet in background

A few weeks ago I tried out and reviewed Heirloom Traditions All in One Paint for the first time, and I loved it… but I didn’t care for the textured finish that I got.

So here I am trying to spray it on instead to get a smooth, texture-free, and brushstroke-free finish. Here’s more about how to paint furniture without brush marks.

I added a cool herringbone accent to the drawer too, and I’ll share how that went down as well.

Table of Contents

Supplies Used for this all in one paint furniture makeover

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Heirloom Traditions All in One Paint – Weathervane
Real Milk Paint Soft Wax
Krud Kutter
150 Grit Sandpaper
220 Grit Sandpaper
KwikWood
Tack Cloth
SurfPrep Sander (Use code RAY10 to get 10% off your order)
Shop-Vac hooked to the SurfPrep Sander
JigSaw
Clear Shellac
Black Aqua Lock Primer
Paint Filters for the Paint Sprayer
Respirator while spraying
Beginner Level Paint Sprayer
Fine Grit Foam Sanding Pads (Use RAY10 to get 10% off your order)
Jumbo Popsicle Sticks (the wide ones)
Sharp Scissors
Gorilla Glue
Glue Brush (Makes it so easy to spread glue!)
Oscillating Multi-Tool
Wood Filler (Natural and Golden Oak)
80 Grit Sandpaper
Matte Topcoat (for herringbone drawer)
Foam Sponge (to apply topcoat on drawer)
Black Cabinet Knobs
Black Drawer Pull

Alright, so here is the piece I worked on. A cute little farmhouse, homemade cabinet that was at the thrift store for only $25.

white thrifted cabinet with glass doors and a drawer on top before makeover

I’m not sure what it was painted with… whatever it was, it was stuck on pretty well. But there were a lot of drips and brush marks, and just not very good coverage overall.

Take Cabinet Apart and Make Repairs

First, I took everything apart. I removed the knobs, pried off the wood things to remove the glass, pulled off the back, and unscrewed the hinges to take off the doors.

That drawer kept getting stuck when I tried to close it, so I brushed some wax onto the tracks and sides of the drawers… and then it worked like new! It’s like magic!

Read this post to learn more about how to fix old dresser drawers that stick.

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Then I cleaned the cabinet really well with Krud Kutter to make sure there wasn’t wax, grease, or dirt on anything else. Read more about how to clean furniture before painting here.

And then we sanded everything with 150 grit sandpaper to get rid of all of the brush marks in the paint.

Using a SurfPrep sander and 150 grit sandpaper to sand the cabinet.

When they were all gone, we went back over everything with 220 grit to make sure the 150 grit didn’t make everything too rough.

Learn more about sandpaper for furniture painting here. And learn about the best sanders to remove paint here!

It’s funny the things that you don’t notice until you start working… while we were sanding, we saw that the back leg was a little damaged, so I filled that damage in with KwikWood.

Read all about how to use KwikWood here and why I love it so much!

Cut Cabinet Base

I wanted this cabinet to look more modern and less primitive, so I marked some straight lines, and cut the v-shaped base off with a jigsaw.

Cutting the base of a cabinet with a jigsaw

And then I sanded it to make my janky cuts look straighter.

Prime Cabinet (Usually Optional)

The next day I moved the cabinet into my little paint room and cleaned it off.

If you look closely at the paint, you can see that there were a lot of bleedthrough stains coming through the old white paint.

And even though I was planning to paint a dark color, I didn’t want those stains to come through my paint job. Learn more about how to stop stains from coming through paint here.

So I took the time to prime with my favorite stain-blocking primer, this clear shellac. Learn more about the best primers for painting furniture here.

Priming cabinet doors with clear shellac.

And then, I did another step that most of you will probably roll your eyes at. I primed it with a black primer, called Aqua Lock. I thinned it out so I could spray it with my sprayer and have no texture.

Spraying a cabinet with aqua lock primer

Why Prime 2 Different Times??

The cabinet was all spotty. Some spots had paint on them, some were down to bare wood. When you paint over spotty stuff like that, you’ll be able to see a difference between where there was raw wood and where there was paint.
Clear shellac doesn’t do much to help with the coverage.
And the Aqua Lock doesn’t provide true stain-blocking power like shellac does.
I love that this Aqua Lock primer is black. True black. If I would have primed with a white primer, I would have needed more coats of my dark paint to cover all the white primer. Yeah, a grey-tinted primer would have worked well too! But I have a gallon of this Aqua Lock primer that I need to use.

A quick note though, I didn’t prime to help the paint stick. I’ve tested Heirloom Traditions Paint over slick laminate, without sanding and without a primer, and it sticks very very well. So if you aren’t worried about good coverage over raw wood, and if you aren’t worried about bleedthrough… no primer is required.

Check out the best primers to stop tannin bleed here.

Check out this 1 day dresser makeover using Heirloom Traditions Paint just for proof that you totally can use this paint without sanding or priming!

Also, check out these Heirloom Traditions Paint before and afters for more inspiration!

Spray Heirloom Traditions All in One Paint

Alright, so now that is out of the way…

Can you water down Heirloom Traditions Paint?

You can! The back of the can says “do not thin,” but I have added water to Heirloom Traditions All in One Paint.

I brushed 2 thin coats of paint, letting it dry between coats. And it passed a scratch test after 24 hours of drying. (This was on a wood surface that had not been prepped, other than cleaned off.)

While it’s not recommended by Heirloom Traditions Paint, I fully believe that you can thin it out without compromising its durability and adhesion.

Check out this guide for painting furniture with Heirloom Traditions Paint.

Can you use Heirloom Traditions Paint in a sprayer?

Yes! You’ll want to thin it out with some water to make it spray to a finish that doesn’t have texture and to make it spray easier.

I added about 20% clean water to the Heirloom Traditions Paint and then mixed it really well. So I had 15 ounces of paint and added about 3 ounces of water to it. And then I mixed it really well.

Check out this post to learn more about how to thin paint for a paint sprayer.

I tested out the spray, and then I sprayed everything…

Using a paint sprayer to spray a cabinet with all in one paint.

Close up of heirloom traditions all in one paint after being sprayed on a cabinet.

It sprayed with what seemed was going to be a lot of texture. After an hour or so, the paint was dry. And it was all smooth!

Sand Smooth and Paint 2nd Coat

Then I sanded everything with 220 grit sandpaper and fine grit foam sanding pads.

Between the primers and this first coat of paint, things were a little rough feeling, so this was to just make everything feel smooth.

Learn more about the best sanders for furniture here!

Then I sprayed the 2^nd coat of paint. I tried to spray it on thick enough that it didn’t dry within 5 minutes… but not so thick that there were drips and runs in the paint.

If you end up dealing with drips, here’s how to fix spray paint drips to ensure you have an even finish.

That middle ground thickness helped the paint level out, and feel really smooth when it dried. In the end, I think I used around ¾ of the quart of paint.

Read this post to learn more about painting furniture with a sprayer.

Make the Herringbone Drawer

Alright, let’s talk about the drawer.

Creating the Herringbone

I lined up some popsicle sticks and marked a straight line on them, so I would cut them all to the same size. Then I just cut them with some scissors.

I wanted to make sure that I did it right, so I laid out the design on the table… And then I glued them onto the drawer with gorilla glue.

Gluing popsicle sticks into a herringbone pattern on a drawer front

By the way, I saw this idea from Katie at Salvaged by K Scott and thought it was brilliant!

I put a piece of wood on the top and clamped it down to keep the sticks from moving. The next day I popped off the clamps, and used my multi-tool to cut off the sticks….

Using a multi-tool to cut overhanging popsicle sticks off the drawer front.

It went really well until I cut the bottom. The bottom of the drawer wasn’t completely flat, so the sticks didn’t stick as well to the bottom…

So I filled that little detail in with wood filler.. and then glued the sticks back on. Discover the best wood fillers for furniture here!

The next day I cut the sticks again… and failed again in some spots. At this point, I was so close, so I sanded the edge of the sticks with 80-grit sandpaper.

I didn’t want them to stick out past the edge of the drawer, or to be able to snag on anything. And then I glued those last couple of pieces back on…

The next day I cut them again, but I got a little bit smarter, and I clamped a piece of wood over them so they wouldn’t wiggle off from the saw. It worked!!

Finishing the Herringbone

So then I put some natural colored wood filler all over the sticks to fill in the gaps.

Filling in gaps between popsicle sticks with wood filler

Once it was dry, I sanded the wood filler off… I ended up doing the wood filler 2 times to make sure everything was filled in. It looked SO good!!

So then I cleaned everything off and top-coated the drawer with 3 coats of matte poly and a foam sponge. Learn more about the options of topcoats for painting furniture.

closeup of natural wood herringbone pattern on drawer

Clean Hardware and Reassemble Cabinet

Before I put everything back together, I cleaned the paint off the hinges. I just put them in boiling water for a few minutes, and then the paint came off pretty easily.

For tougher jobs, here’s how I really clean furniture hardware.

Watch the process of painting with all in one paint and adding the cool herringbone accent here:

And here’s what it looks like now!!

closeup of diy herringbone drawer and grey painted cabinet

full photo of dark grey cabinet styled with modern decor, and basket and a rug

More Before And After Makeovers

Click any of these “before” photos below to view the “after” of that makeover.

side view of heirloom traditions all in one painted cabinet with no texture

closeup of dark grey painted cabinet and herringbone drawer

I love it!!! The paint sprayed on SO well. The finish looks absolutely amazing! And it’s durable! Oh, and I didn’t have to topcoat it. Haha

I think this stuff might just be one of my favorite all-in-one paint for furniture. Learn more about the best all-in-one paints for furniture here.

The herringbone drawer is my favorite though. It definitely wasn’t easy… and I don’t know that I would want to do it on multiple drawers, but I love the way it looks! What do you think?