Painting Oak Furniture White
Do I have a makeover for you! We’re painting oak furniture white, and this is one of the painting furniture ideas that needs the right preparation and technique. Oak has a lot of deep wood grain, so it is a little bit harder to work on than walnut or pine furniture.
There are a few steps that you need to take that are a little bit different than for other surfaces. So, keep reading to learn how to properly work with oak and give your piece a fresh and updated look.
I will say, if you’re looking at the process photos for this makeover, this piece I started working on for a client ended up not really working out, which is not normal. Typically, the client pieces work out. This one was just all over the place and was, to be honest, a very big struggle.
So, you might look at the photos and say, “OK, why did she do that?” I am going to walk you through what you should do – not necessarily what I did – because we had to change gears halfway through, and actually a couple of times, because we were trying to go with what our client wanted.
Then, when it didn’t work out, we just did what we wanted to do in the end. So, just follow along to see and learn the steps and tips to paint oak furniture white successfully.
Supplies Used for Painting Oak Furniture White
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- Electric Screwdriver
- Krud Kutter
- 220 Grit Sandpaper
- Tack Cloth
- Shop Vac
- BIN Shellac Primer
- Mohair Roller
- Behr in Heavy Cream
- Calcium Carbonate Powder
- Fuji Q4 Paint Sprayer
- Java Gel Stain
- Waterbased Polyurethane
Prep the Dresser
The first thing that we did was remove the old vintage hardware. We just removed it with our electric screwdriver, which makes it super fast and painless. You just unscrew it from the inside of the drawers, and it will pop right off.
Then, we cleaned everything with Krud Kutter and a damp rag to remove all of the grease and grime. These pieces are so old and have lived through a lot. Who knows how well they have been cleaned in the past? We need to remove the grease, grime, oils, and dirt to give our surface a good makeover.
The next step is to lightly sand the surface. Scuff sanding will help your paint and primer stick better. It will give you a longer lasting finish than if you skip this step. You can use 220 grit sandpaper. I love the 3M professional grade sandpaper – it lasts a lot longer.
I take a little piece of it, about 3 by 4 inches, fold it in half, and lightly rub it all over the piece to give the paint and primer something to really hold onto. This is especially important on really slick surfaces.
Then, we remove all of the dust with a shop vac with a brush attachment, and then a tack cloth to remove any bits that the vacuum did not suck up.
Prime Before Painting Oak
Now, for the most important part: oak furniture has a lot of deep wood grain. If you just paint over it without priming and doing it a specific way, then you will have a lot of orange spots coming through the finish. You will also see a lot of the wood grain – you might love it, but others might not.
I typically use a clear shellac spray can. It’s quick and easy, but the issue with using this with oak is that when you spray something on, you can’t push it into the wood grain very well.
So, it’s best not to spray your primer on and roll it on instead. You want to use a roller to really push that primer and get it down into the wood grain. If you don’t, you will have bleedthrough issues coming through your white finish. Here’s how to stop stains from coming through paint for more helpful tips.
In this case, I recommend using BIN shellac based primer. It comes in white, and you can just roll it on. It dries really quickly, and in about one hour, you can do a second coat. I recommend applying two coats and then letting them dry until the next day.
Letting it dry overnight can really lock in those bleedthrough issues and make sure that those don’t come through, at least for the most part. Sometimes, you might have to do another coat if you’re having some really stubborn bleedthrough. But, typically, two coats will block those stains.
Sanding Primer Down
The other thing is, if you do not like the wood grain on your piece, you need to fill it in before you prime. Check out our detailed guide on how to hide wood grain when painting here.
Either way, you’re going to have to sand that down. And, if you don’t like the texture from your primer, you can go over everything and lightly sand things down by hand. You don’t want to sand through it because then you will have to prime again.
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If you do sand through it, I like to just hit it with some clear shellac spray. That way, I don’t have any texture left behind. When I roll it on, I have a lot of texture, unlike when I spray clear shellac.
Paint Oak Furniture White
You can use a few different paints, like Sherwin Williams Emerald Urethane or Heirloom Traditions Paint. Check out your options for the best paint for wood furniture and the best white paint for furniture here.
For this dresser, I used Behr Heavy Cream and turned it into our homemade chalk paint recipe by adding calcium carbonate powder and water. I sprayed it on with my Fuji Q4 sprayer. Once you have filled in all the wood grain or once you have primed with a roller, you can spray the paint on without any issues.
If you used white primer, you should already have two coats on, so you’re well on your way to having your piece painted white, and you shouldn’t have to apply as many white coats on top.
Add a Topcoat
Depending on which of these types of paint for furniture you used, you might need to topcoat it. For white finishes, you need to make sure that you use waterbased polyurethane. The oil based kind yellows and leaves your piece with a yellow tint, instead of keeping it clear, nice, and white.
Some paints do not need a topcoat – if you’re using Sherwin Williams Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel or Heirloom Traditions, make sure you do not and should not add a topcoat. Just be aware of what type of paint you are using so that you know if you need to use a topcoat or not.
Stain Dresser Top
In the end, for this piece, we ended up painting the bottom and staining the top. After everything else was painted, we removed the plastic that was protecting the top, and we used our secret gel stain method to stain the top without having to sand the finish all the way off.
You can use this method even when you take the finish all the way off as well before you stain, but you can also do this on wood that still has a finish on it. I used Java Gel Stain to make this stained wood darker without removing the old finish.
There was one point on this makeover that I did sand the finish off of everything, and then stained it for my client. It still just wasn’t the stain color that I wanted, and I had topcoated it. Even though I had sanded everything down at one point, by the time I took my creative ideas to this piece, there was topcoat on the new stain, and I didn’t want to have to sand everything off.
So, I used Java Gel Stain to make it this darker color. Then, I topcoated it with some polyurethane. If you let the gel stain dry for 48 hours, you can use waterbased polyurethane on top of it instead of sticking with oil based polyurethane. This way, your wood stain doesn’t end up getting an orange or yellow finish.
Add New Hardware
Last but not least, you can reattach your hardware. But I went with some new ones with some cup pulls and knobs. I didn’t have to fill in the hardware holes because the cup pulls just covered those up. Get more tips on how to change hardware on a dresser here!
So, that is how to paint oak furniture white! The most important step to not having any issues is to make sure that you prime the oak piece correctly. Trust me on this, or you will have to deal with texture and bleed through, which are no fun at all.
More Before and After Makeovers
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Painting Oak Furniture White
We're painting oak furniture white, and you can learn how to properly work with oak and give your piece a fresh and updated look.
Materials
Instructions
- Start by taking off the old hardware using an electric screwdriver, which makes it super quick and easy. Just unscrew from the inside of the drawers, and the hardware will pop right off.
- Use Krud Kutter and a damp rag to clean the entire piece, removing grease, grime, oils, and dirt. Old furniture has been through a lot, so a proper cleaning provides a good surface for the makeover.
- Lightly sand the surface with 220 grit sandpaper to help the paint and primer adhere better. Use a shop vac with a brush attachment to pick up dust, then go over the surface again with a tack cloth.
- Apply two coats of white BIN Shellac with a roller. Let it dry until the next day.
- Use Behr Heavy Cream latex paint and mix with calcium carbonate powder and water to turn it into homemade chalk paint. Since you already have two coats of white primer on, you shouldn’t have to apply as many coats of paint on top.
- Topcoat the chalk painted piece with waterbased polyurethane to prevent a yellow tint. For other paints, you might not need to topcoat them.
- Stain the top without sanding the old finish off with the gel stain method. Apply Java Gel Stain to darken the wood, letting it dry for 48 hours before applying waterbased poly on top.
- Reattach your old hardware or choose new ones that match your new style better.
Recommended Products
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More Painted Furniture Makeovers
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- Painting Oak Furniture Black
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- Painted Antique Oak Dresser
- Rustic Farmhouse End Table Makeover
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