Ceci's painting tips...

All right, the weather is finally warming up and it's time to start thinking about those home improvement projects I'm so fond of. This is a picture of my latest project...I put a metallic additive into my paint and and painted the side of the refrigerator cabinet with the now-metallic paint. It took about 6 coats, but I love the results. You can do so many fun things with paint.

The key when painting furniture is to TAKE YOUR TIME. My very wise mother taught me that if you're going to spend the money, and spend all that time and effort on something...DO IT RIGHT. Those words always ring in my head when I am tempted to cut corners, or hurry through something to get it done faster. Furntiure can look awesome when it's painted correctly, but it will look like junk if you don't.

My favorite kind of paint to use when painting furniture is OIL-BASED. It is a bit smelly and hard to clean up, but it is my first choice for furniture. It doesn't show brush marks like water-based paint does, and it dries to a much more durable finish. You can't buy oil-based paint everywhere, I use Benjamin Moore. I recently learned that you can use oil based paint in a paint sprayer, to clean it up you need a lot of paint thinner or turpentine.

The first thing to do is sand down your furniture, even if it's a new unfinished piece. Then go over it with a tack cloth (get em at Lowe's or Home Depot.) Paint it first with an oil-based primer. This is very important...I always prime the piece first...don't skip this. If you are painting something red (my favorite color) or a very deep color like navy, ask the paint store to tint the primer. I once painted kitchen cabinets red and the primer looked hot pink! But I used less paint and they turned out a great shade of red.

I like to paint furniture at least 3 coats...not including the primer coat. The color gets richer and more true with each coat. It is important to sand in between each coat, this is the step that I'm most tempted to skip, but don't. Use that tack cloth to wipe down the piece after lightly sanding as well. Paint going with the grain and use short even strokes, and don't glob it on!

I "distressed" the dresser shown in the blog-post a few posts ago, and here are some tips for that...pick one color you want to "show through" and pick a second color for the top coat. Paint a coat of the under color, wait for it to dry, and paint two coats of the over color. I distress furniture by lightly sanding the piece in places furniture typically shows wear-and-tear. Or, I use an orbital sander and really go at and distress it quite a bit, then I use a "dry-brush" technique over top. That's what I did with the last piece and I loved the finish. The under color showed through, ever so slightly.

To dry-brush, get a 4 inch brush. Pour a little bit of paint into the tray, and get a little bit of paint on the brush, then blot most of it off. Swipe the brush ever-so-slightly on the piece, going with the grain. It adds just a little bit of paint back on, a really cool effect.

More tips: To clean up oil-based paint you need paint thinner or turpentine. You can wrap the brush and rollers in tin foil and keep them in the refrigerator during your project, so you don't have to clean them between each coat. But don't store them for more than a week, otherwise they are very hard to clean! You need a good quality brush to paint with oil-based paint. I like the "Purdy" brand, any kind is fine as long as it says on the package it will work with oil paints, or "all" paints.

Good luck and let me know if you have any questions, or any ideas of your own!

Let's Connect and get painting!

Ceci