Painted Furniture: The Secret Ingredient to a Whole New Look

Today’s post Painted Furniture: The Secret Ingredient to a Whole New Look is from Connie Bazinet, an interior decorator and contributor to Decorated Life.

Painted Furniture – The Secret Ingredient to a Whole New Look

by Connie Bazinet

Have you ever looked at a room and thought , WOW? The room has a high gloss orange painted furniture piece by the entrance to the home and it just grabs you.

Source: Pinterest

Someone has upholstered their solid wood headboard to their bed and given it a whole new look and you are speechless.  Another person has taken an antique dresser and painted it turquoise and added big black knobs and a glass top. It looks like it cost a fortune but this painted furniture cost a fraction.

Source: Pinterest

I often wonder when I see people throwing out perfectly good pieces of furniture why they don’t try to do something with it. I know that some pieces are too far gone or made of inferior materials but a lot of it isn’t . I see it all the time. Every Wednesday in my neighbourhood, Thursdays in the neighbourhood to the left and Mondays in the one to the right. There is actually a man that drives around all the neighbourhoods looking for exactly that.

Source: Pinterest

For those of you who don’t like to throw things out or can see a piece of solid wood furniture having another use or a renewed one,  this is wonderful.

Take a dresser for example. Everybody has at least one in their home, sometimes two or three. The drawers may not open properly, it may have scuff marks, the knobs could be outdated, even the legs could be just plain ugly.  But think about it.

Source: Pinterest

I had a solid wood dresser that I found advertised for sale online for my daughter’s room. She wanted a Japanese theme in her room so we decided on colors and I took that dresser and waxed the drawers to make them slide better, sanded it down thoroughly and used a sponge roller to paint the whole thing black.  We added new handles to fit with the oriental style and voila. One person’s garbage turned into another person’s treasure.

Remember all that heavy pine furniture that came out in the 70’s and 80’s? I bought another unit for a token that was a small dresser with 3 drawers and the top half was like a hutch.

I hated the legs,  the solid wood unit had been distressed with a poker and maybe some chains, so I filled in all the bad dents sanded the whole thing down, took off the very outdated bun feet and added some clean lined angled legs, some new crown molding and painted the whole thing a nice crisp white.

When I was done I added crystal and silver knobs and this old piece looks wonderful, it could go in a bedroom, a library, a living/family room or maybe even a kitchen.

So think about it when you are about to throw out a perfectly solid wood piece of furniture or if someone else is, maybe it can be renewed and have a whole new life as painted furniture in your home.

I’ve seen so many painted furniture ideas on blogs and pinterest for these projects it makes my creative energy go crazy. People adding posters to the fronts of drawers, stencilling, milk painting, stripping, staining, adding mirror fronts and criss-cross pieces of wood,  glass shelves, new knobs, lights and fancy hinges. Your limits are endless all you need is some time and some inspiration.

Connie Bazinet has worked in publishing for 35 years and has a certificate in Interior Decorating.  She has blogged and sold handmade fashion accessories on Etsy. Connie also gives decorating advice to local clients.

If you want more painted furniture ideas you have find tutorials here and chalk paint ideas here.

Don’t forget to Like, pin or share this page! And if you haven’t signed up for our new decorating app, join the fun here!