Ever feel like sanding makes DIY projects drag on forever? Don’t you love a good DIY shortcut? This no sanding furniture paint hack is exactly that! I’ll show you how you can skip this messy, time consuming step and get straight to the fun part in this DIY makeover.

Don’t miss these awesome painting furniture ideas like this that can save you time and effort without sacrificing results. Keep reading to learn about this awesome hack!

Woman leaning on an ornate wooden cabinet with before written above, in front of a gray siding wall.

Welcome to Furniture Fixer Upper day, where we join 4 of our talented furniture friends and bring you brand new makeovers! I’ll link to my friend’s makeovers after our after photos at the bottom of this post! Don’t forget to check out their masterpieces!! Okay, back to our makeover!

So, this is a really interesting ornate hallway cabinet I bought for $30 at the thrift store. It is made of mostly plastic, particle board, and MDF. There might be a tiny bit of wood on this, but it is, through and through, just not quality wood or furniture.

In this quick weekend makeover, let’s see if we can transform this piece without having to sand it or prime it, and if we can get the paint to stick onto this really slick surface without the usual prep work we usually do.

However, sanding is super important because it helps create a rough surface for the paint to stick to, especially on slick surfaces. But if we can skip it and still get good results, let’s save ourselves the time and effort.

Supplies Used for No Sanding Furniture Paint Hack

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Prepping Hallway Cabinet

So, first, we removed this really cool handle. I’m gonna keep this, possibly clean it up, and hopefully it’s brass, so it will just shine and be a pretty brass gold color. We removed that and set it outside.

A hand reaches for an ornate brass door pull falling off of a carved wooden door.

And then Taylor cleaned the piece with Krud Kutter and a damp rag to get all of the dirt, dust, grime, and grease off of it. These steps on how to clean furniture before painting help the paint stick and give us a nice, smooth finish to work with.

A hand sprays cleaner onto a detailed wooden cabinet door with ornate carvings.

With all of the details and ornate grooves, I really don’t want to have to sand all of this stuff. And I for sure do not want to have to brush paint onto all of it.

Testing Out No Sanding Furniture Paint

Then, I tested out some paint on it to make sure that it would stick without sanding or priming. I used Heirloom Traditions Paint in the color Bone, and I just brushed it on a couple of spots, and I let it dry for a few days.

I tested on the door that had some shellac primer on it, and then on a spot that did not have any, because I wanted to see what would happen if I used this specific paint, which I do know sticks very well. I wanted to see what would happen and what the difference would be.

It has held on well with laminate and wood furniture, but this cabinet is mostly a very sturdy plastic, and I haven’t been able to test it on something like this yet.

A woman brushes white samples onto a carved wooden cabinet door in a garage.

So, after I came back two days later, it was not scratching off with my fingernail, which is fantastic because that does not happen with every paint, and even with those that say that it will stick, it doesn’t.

So that tells me that this Heirloom Traditions Paint is going to stick very well to the surface, even if we skipped sanding or priming! Here’s another makeover where we used it for painting furniture without sanding or priming.

Sale

Vonforn Paint Sprayer

Paint Sprayer Cup Liners

Paint Filters

Spraying Furniture White

So after that, we got things set up for spraying. The weather was kind of cold outside, so we brought it inside to work on it using our Vonforn sprayer. This is one of the best paint sprayers for beginners on our list!

I thinned the paint with 15% water, and then sprayed the cabinet with a very thin coat. Get more tips on how to thin paint for a sprayer in this post.

A woman wearing a mask, spray paints a white cabinet on a table in a workshop.

Fixing Brown Stains Coming Through Paint

And this is where things turned for the worse. Very soon after I sprayed, I could see little brown spots, especially in some crevices, and this is a telltale sign of bleedthrough stains. I know from a lot of experience that these stains are not going to go away on their own.

Close-up of a decorative white wooden panel with a textured surface and brown stains in the grooves

If I kept going and added more coats over them, they’re just going to keep coming back unless I use specific products to block them. Typically, we would use clear shellac so that it dries really fast, and I could paint the next day.

But, since I was going to use white paint on this piece, and I had some white spray paint left over from other projects, I used that as a bleedthrough block instead. The great thing about using spray paint is that it’s oil based, so it will block the bleedthrough. It’s also tinted white, so I can easily see, once it’s dry, if it blocked the stains or not.

With the clear shellac, I can’t tell if it is blocked until I start painting over it, and I didn’t really have the time to find out on this one. I wanted this to be a quick makeover.

A hand spray-painting a white cabinet door with white spray paint.

The thing with the spray paint, though, is that it has to dry for 48 hours before I can apply another paint over it, which was okay because the next day was Sunday, and I don’t work on Sundays. The next chance I would get to paint this was Monday, which was 48 hours!

Applying White Spray Paint

I applied really thin white coats, letting them dry, and just making sure that I got it all over. I used Behr Premium Chalk Spray Paint in Linen White, because after I have tested multiple different types and brands in my chalk spray paint review, Behr is my favorite.

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I especially made sure to get it over the bleedthrough stains, but still really sprayed a good coat on everywhere. And I made sure that I didn’t have bleedthrough issues in other places. That dried for 48 hours and I didn’t see any signs of brown stains anymore!

Filling In Cracks and Scratches

When I went back to work on the cabinet, there were some scratches, cracks, and big gaps that were just really noticeable now that there was white paint everywhere. When everything was dark, we didn’t notice all these, really.

A hand sanding a white wooden surface with a piece of purple sandpaper.

But the white finish just makes all of those scratches show up so much because they’re all dark against the white. So I filled in those cracks and some bigger scratches and dings with plastic wood filler, and let those dry.

I also filled in the big cracks with white paintable caulking. The caulking is a little bit more flexible and fits into these cracks a lot easier than wood fillers.

A finger smoothing white caulk on a decorative white cabinet

Fixing More Stains Coming Through White Paint

When the wood filler was dry, I sanded it smooth, got rid of the dust, and then sprayed another coat of Heirloom Traditions Paint all over. And I thought it looked great, though it might have needed one more coat just to get full coverage.

But when I got back and looked at the project after the coat was dry, there were still bleedthrough spots that somehow still came through. They weren’t there after the spray paint, but they showed back up once I put waterbased paint on top of that again.

So this time, I wondered if I needed to get the primer down into the cracks a little bit more to block those stains. And so, this time, I used some BIN Shellac Primer. This is what I typically use on white furniture, or when I need to brush or roll something on.

It also does a fantastic job with bleedthrough, so I brushed it on over the bleedthrough stains, and then I let it dry overnight. The next day, I added the last coat of Heirloom Traditions onto the cabinet to get full coverage everywhere.

Problems with Painting Furniture White

So, unfortunately, because of the bleedthrough with this, I had to wait a long time to paint. I couldn’t just apply everything in one day because I had to keep blocking the stains. If I had used a dark color, it would have been a very easy project.

It’s so easy to see these dark stains come through with white paint. So, if you’re looking for a really quick project, white is not really the quickest to use. It takes a lot of coats, and a lot of times, you have to deal with these dark cracks and bleedthrough issues.

But anyway, I love the look of the white paint. It was worth it to me because I just love the light and bright feel of this.

Heirloom Traditions does not need a topcoat, which is fantastic, so that takes one step away. So I didn’t have to sand, and I didn’t have to add a topcoat, and this is a durable paint that dries to a beautiful satin finish. For more about it, check out my Heirloom Traditions All In One Paint review here!

Cleaning Cabinet Door Pull

Last but not least, we cleaned the old door pull with our tried and true method on how to clean old furniture hardware here.

Gloved hand cleaning a metal door pull with a toothbrush over a sink, soap and bottles in background.

This hardware was pretty tarnished, so I scrubbed it for about 20 minutes before most of it was clean. There were still some spots in the corners and crevices that I couldn’t scrub away all the way.

So once it was dry, I sprayed it lightly with some gold spray paint, just to hide those white spots that I didn’t like. Then we put the door back on, and here’s what it looks like now!

Ornate white hallway cabinet with framed art, wooden bowl, small framed painting, and eucalyptus branches in a vase.

White ornate cabinet with framed art, a small vintage photo, vase with greenery, and bowl on top.

More Before and After Makeovers

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

Painting Wood Furniture White

Staining a Dresser Darker

antique buffet in dark wood before makeover

Painting an Antique Buffet

Dixie Belle Silk Paint Review

White console table with framed art, a small ornate photo, a wooden bowl, and a sprig of greenery.

Now, over on Facebook, I asked how I should paint this, and I had a lot of different opinions. In the end, I chose to go with white because white is one of the best selling paint colors. Learn more options for what color furniture sells best here!

I absolutely love the white finish on this piece. It softens all of the details, so they’re not so stark, and it just lightens this piece up. It would have been less likely to sell if I did a bold, unique finish on it, and I just wanted this to easily sell and go into somebody’s home. But if I had a place for it, it would go into mine!

Don’t forget to check out these other awesome before and after furniture makeovers from my Furniture friends!! (Click the links below the photos!)

collage photo of wooden dresser, cabinet and chairs before makeover

DIY Dresser Bottom Makeover from Confessions of a Serial DIYer
Refinishing Wood Furniture from Salvaged Inspirations
Pub Table Makeover from My Repurposed Life
Vintage Chair Makeover from Petticoat Junktion