Painting Furniture With Wall Paint
You may have considered painting furniture with wall paint before, but is it really a good idea? The right type of paint can make all the difference when recreating these painting furniture ideas. But can you use wall paint for this purpose?
Let’s look into how to paint furniture with wall paint and how, with the right steps, you can make it work beautifully. So, let’s dive in and see how you can transform your pieces with this budget friendly and accessible option!
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See more AFTER photos below these printable instructions!
Painting Furniture With Wall Paint
Check out this french provincial makeover and learn how to transform your old piece with a fresh and stylish look by painting furniture with wall paint.
Materials
- Krud Kutter
- Damp Rag
- Citristrip
- 220 Grit Sanding Screens (Use code RAY10 to get 10% off your order)
- Medium Grit Foam Sanding Pads (Use code RAY10 to get 10% off your order)
- Tack Cloth
- Painters Tape
- Painters Plastic
- Clear Shellac Spray
- White Behr Latex Paint
- Calcium Carbonate Powder
- 220 Grit Sandpaper
- Dark Walnut Wood Stain
- Rag
- Varathane Waterbased Polyurethane
- White Spray Paint
Instructions
- First, make sure to properly prep your furniture by removing the hardware. This makes painting easier with no obstacles in the way. Next, clean the surface of your furniture with Krud Kutter and a damp rag to get rid of any dirt or grime.
- If your furniture has old paint that needs to be removed, use a stripping agent like Citristrip and let it sit for at least 8 hours. Then, use a plastic putty knife to scrape off the softened paint.
- For any stubborn areas, sand them off with a SurfPrep sander and 220 grit sanding screens or medium grit foam sanding pads. Make sure to clean off any remaining dust with a vacuum and tack cloth before moving on to the next step.
- If you want to keep the natural wood look on certain parts of your furniture, like the top of a dresser, tape off those areas with painter's tape and plastic before painting. This will prevent any overspray from getting on them.
- Prime the furniture with 2 coats of clear shellac primer. This will help the paint adhere better and block any stains from bleeding through the paint, especially light colored paint.
- Turn your wall paint into chalk paint by mixing it with calcium carbonate powder and water. Make sure the mixture is smooth and consistent before filtering it into your paint sprayer.
- Apply 2-3 coats of the chalk paint with a sprayer, letting each coat dry before adding the next. It can take 3-4 coats for light colored paints to fully cover dark wood, so add as many coats as you need for the desired coverage.
- Once the paint's fully dry, lightly sand some areas with 220 grit sandpaper to give the furniture a distressed look. Remember to clean off any dust before moving on to the next step.
- For the top of the furniture, apply a wood stain with a rag in the direction of the grain. Wipe off any excess after letting it sit for a few minutes.
- For a durable finish, spray 3 coats of waterbased polyurethane all over the painted and stained furniture, letting each coat dry before adding the next.
- Lastly, update the hardware on your furniture. Give the old hardware a good scrub, dry it completely, and then spray paint it in a color that matches or complements your piece. Attach it back onto the furniture once dry.
- Now you have a beautifully painted and updated piece of furniture using wall paint turned chalk paint!
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More Before and After Makeovers
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Click any of these “before” photos below to view the “after” of that makeover.
Wall paint or latex paint is super easy to find and pretty budget friendly. So it makes sense to consider using it for painting furniture. But will it give you the same results as furniture paint? The good news is you can definitely use wall paint for furniture!
But to make it work right, you’ll need to take a few extra steps since this paint isn’t made specifically for furniture. Don’t worry, though; they’re super simple, and anyone who loves a good DIY project can do them!
For this makeover, this French Provincial dresser we got was already painted in an off white color, but the paint job was really rough and worn out, so we decided to give it a fresh look! So, keep reading to learn how we transformed this piece with wall paint.
Supplies Used to Paint Furniture With Wall Paint
- Electric Screwdriver
- Krud Kutter
- Damp Rag
- Citristrip
- SurfPrep 3×4 Sander (Use code RAY10 to get 10% off your order)
- 220 Grit Sanding Screens (Use code RAY10 to get 10% off your order)
- Medium Grit Foam Sanding Pads (Use code RAY10 to get 10% off your order)
- Vacuum
- Tack Cloth
- Painters Tape
- Painters Plastic
- Clear Shellac Spray
- White Behr Latex Paint
- Calcium Carbonate Powder
- Vonforn Paint Sprayer
- 220 Grit Sandpaper
- Dark Walnut Wood Stain
- Rag
- Varathane Waterbased Polyurethane
- White Spray Paint
Prepare Furniture for Painting
We started by taking out the hardware using an electric screwdriver. It’s always important to remove any handles, knobs, or other parts of the furniture that can interfere with painting before beginning any project.
Next, we used Krud Kutter and a damp rag to clean the surface of the furniture. Any dirt, grime, or grease can affect the quality of the paint job, so make sure to not skip this step. We let the dresser dry completely before moving on.
Strip Old Paint From Furniture
As we said, the paint on this dresser was in really bad shape, so we stripped off the old paint to bare wood with Citristrip. We applied the stripper and let it sit for at least 8 hours to let the paint soften. Then, we used a plastic putty knife to scrape it off. Here’s a more detailed guide on how to remove paint from wood furniture.
After stripping off as much paint as we could with the Citristrip, there were still some stubborn spots, so we busted out our SurfPrep 3×4 sander and some 220 grit sanding screens, and medium grit foam sanding pads to sand them off. Learn more about how to strip paint from wood furniture here.
After stripping and sanding off all the old paint, we realized we really liked the natural wood look on the top, so we decided not to paint it. We cleaned up the sanding dust with a vacuum and tack cloth, then taped off the top with painter’s tape and plastic to keep any overspray from getting on it.
Prime Furniture Before Painting
We moved our dresser out to the backyard (this was back before we had a garage space for painting) and propped it up on some buckets. Then we sprayed 2 coats of clear shellac primer – it’s one of the best spray paint primer for wood options that helps paint adhere better and also blocks stains from the wood from bleeding through the white paint we’ll be using.
Paint Dresser with Wall Paint
And here’s where we finally brought in the wall paint! We actually didn’t use it as is – the trick to painting furniture with wall paint is to turn it into chalk paint. Chalk paint is better suited to furniture because it sticks better and is more durable. To learn more about this type of paint, check out our post on what is chalk paint?
Chalk paint can also be quite expensive, but since you can get latex paint for cheap, along with the other ingredients we’ll be using, it makes for an affordable alternative.
How to Make Chalk Paint with Wall Paint
So, with our dresser prepped and primed, we turned traditional wall paint into chalk paint with our homemade chalk paint recipe. We mixed Behr latex paint from Home Depot with calcium carbonate powder and water, making sure it came out smooth and consistent.
Then, we filtered it into our Vonforn Paint Sprayer and began spraying the first coat of white paint onto the dresser. Yes, we decided to paint this dresser white again, but this new white color was so fresh and nice looking compared to the old one! After 3-4 coats of white paint, it was looking really good!
Distress Chalk Painted Furniture
But we did want to give this piece a distressed look, so we used some 220 grit sandpaper and lightly sanded around some of the corners, edges, and anywhere that we wanted a distressed look. Then we cleaned up the dust with a vacuum and tack cloth.
Stain Dresser Top
Next, we tackled the top of the dresser. We removed the tape and plastic we’d used to protect it while painting, then wiped on some dark walnut wood stain with a rag in the direction of the wood grain. After letting it sit for a few minutes, we wiped off the excess.
The dark stain created a beautiful contrast with the white paint on the rest of the dresser. But we weren’t done just yet – we wanted to make sure the dresser would be durable and long lasting, so we applied a protective topcoat.
Topcoat Painted Dresser
We mixed up some Varathane water-based polyurethane and filtered it into our paint sprayer. Then, we sprayed 3 coats over the top and the rest of the dresser, letting each coat dry before adding the next.
You could totally use a brush to apply poly, but we prefer the spray finish – it’s faster and gives a more even look. If you’re curious about the difference, check out this comparison between spray polyurethane vs brush on polyurethane. Learn more tips on how to spray polyurethane here.
Update Dresser Hardware
For the finishing touches, we decided to update the hardware on the dresser. We cleaned up the old hardware by scrubbing off any rust or grime and letting the pieces dry completely. You can learn all about how to clean old furniture hardware in this post.
Then, we used white spray paint to make the hardware match the fresh white paint on the dresser. Here’s how to spray paint drawer pulls to guide you through the process. After the paint was dry, we reattached the hardware to the dresser.
And that’s how painting furniture with wall paint works! You will need to take some steps and make it into chalk paint, but it’s honestly easier than you might think. So, if you have wall paint lying around and a piece of furniture in need of some love, now you know what to do!
More Painted Furniture Makeovers
- Painting Bedroom Furniture White
- Painting A Nightstand
- How To Paint Oak Furniture
- Painting Stained Furniture Without Sanding
- Vintage Buffet Makeover
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