5 Common Mistakes Made When Painting Furniture

5 Common Mistakes Made When Painting Furniture

Painting furniture is something most frugal, creative people want to do.

It seems easy enough and the appeal is that you can take a shabby looking piece of furniture and paint it, change out or paint the hardware and have a modern or newer looking furniture piece that brightens up your living space. But, there are few mistakes that beginners make that make them disappointed later at how their piece turned out.

#1 Not Cleaning The Piece Thoroughly Before Priming or Painting

If you leave dust or oil or any kind of substance on the piece before applying the next coat, the primer or paint won’t adhere properly. This will cause the paint to peel or chip away instead of sticking to the piece.

This can be a real pain, especially if you feel you need to go back and sand and repaint the piece in order to fix it. I always recommend cleaning with Windex and run your hands along it, to see if you feel any leftover dust or anything else. Also, dust can create little tiny bumps in the surface, which don’t look great and also don’t come off without taking that spot down to the wood, then touch-up is needed.

#2 Not Using Primer

I would always recommend using a good primer before you apply paint, until you get a sense of when primer is necessary and when it’s not. With certain surfaces, paint without primer will just peel right off the piece later. Then, you will have a nightmare of a mess to fix.

#3 Not Properly Filling Holes & Cracks

Sometimes small dings and cracks are hard to see, but once the piece is painted, they show up VERY well. You may need to take a flashlight and look over the piece with a light shining at different angles in order to see any cracks or holes that need to be filled.

Going back and fixing those after the piece is already painted is a real pain and it’s tough to make the paint in that area look smooth again.

#4 Using a Cheap Brush

If you are painting your piece with a brush, avoid using a cheap one. Cheap paint brushes show brush marks easily and they don’t look good. I’ve seen pieces in stores that are covered in brush marks, it looks like a low quality paint job to me. However if you use a Purdy or another top of the line paint brush, you should be fine.

I’m going to share with you my love, we know each other enough right? My go to brush, the one that has been with me all those years is this beauty, a Purdy 2-1/2-Inch Angle Trim Brush. The bristles on this brush are so soft and perfect, you’re going to love it.

#5 Don’t Choose a Color That You’ll Soon Be Sick Of

Although bright colored, funky colors look fun on Pinterest, sometimes those colors in real life, in your living space can look like a cheap garage sale find. Make sure you really consider the color you are choosing so that you don’t regret it later and have to go back and add another coat of paint. Although, adding one more coat of paint because you changed your mind isn’t the worst thing that can happen!

Don’t let these scare you away from tackling your next project. By learning from other’s mistakes you will be able to create something beautiful that will last.

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Original article and pictures take paintedfurnitureideas.com site