This beautiful piece is actually a buffet that I am using as a side table. Although the cherry finish is beautiful, there were a few scuffs at the base and top of the piece so I decided to paint it. I know there are many furniture painting tutorials online, but let me put in my 2 cents!
1. Start by cleaning your piece of furniture the best that you can. If there are little sticky patches, use a product like Goo Gone to completely remove any residue and then clean with wipes or any type of all-purpose cleaner to remove any grease, dust, dirt.
2. Remove any "shine" from the piece of furniture so that the primer and paint will "stick". You can do so by using a chemical de-glosser or just sanding the piece. I sanded. Sanding is especially important if you have imperfections on the piece like this:
If you have any imperfections, use sandpaper with a low number grit (coarser) to even out the surface and then use sandpaper with a higher number grit (more fine) to smooth out the surface.
3. Tape off any places on the piece where paint may land on to protect areas that you don't want to paint.
4. From what I've read on the blogs, everyone uses a stain blocking primer for stained-wood pieces like mine, so I did. I used KILZ Premium primer, but I also read that Zinser is a good one too. The primer helps the paint stick, helps block out the darker wood color, and prevents any stain on the wood from affecting your paint finish.
5. I also used Floetrol, which is a paint additive, to keep my paint from drying as quickly as it normally would. This helps to decrease the appearance of brush strokes and gives me more time to work with my piece.
6. Make sure you paint thin layers. Thick layers will make your final layers of paint look goopy and un-even. If you do end up with any thick layers, let the paint completely dry and sand with a high grit sandpaper.
7. Remove all hardware and hinges. I would also remove the drawers if possible. I couldn't remove my drawers so they often times got in the way when I was trying to paint the areas between them. I was also worried that I would somehow paint my drawers shut by not removing them, but they didn't.. thank goodness!
8. Spacing out a project like this through the span of a few days would be ideal. You want to let your paint completely dry before painting on another coat. You also want to give yourself time to step away from the piece and give yourself a break so that you aren't rushing through the project towards the end because you have the "I just want to be done with this" feeling.
9. Use Minwax Polycrylic or any other protective finish if you will be using the piece regularly. I only recommend Minwas Polycrylic because the blog-o-sphere has said that it doesn't yellow furniture and mine hasn't yellow-ed. Remember to let your protective finish dry and cure. Which means leaving it alone for a few days or maybe even a week?
10. Have fun! This is YOUR piece and you're putting a lot of work into it. Who cares if it's not super perfect. All that matters is that you love it!
This piece took me about a week to finish. After applying the protective finish, I let my side table sit in my living room (untouched) for 4 days before I started putting ANYTHING on it.
These are some of the awesome blogs I visited for inspiration and directions:
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