Painting furniture

frogglet

I am about to start decorating my daughters bedroom and she wants a vintage look, dusky pink roses etc.
She has pine furniture and I don't really want to buy anymore. I thought of painting it in a style of worn out vintage type.

Has anyone painted pine furniture and could give me some hints and tips or is it usually a bad idea and end up with it looking a mess?

mary43

I've painted pine furniture to give it a 'worn' look - probably not the correct way but it worked.
Painted very thin coat of sage green paint on (that was our choice of colour.
Then painted a further coat on and sort of 'dry brushed' it on - dipped the brush in the paint, made sure it was almost dry and lightly brushed over the first coat making sure I went the way the wood grain would have gone.
When that was dry I used some dark wax polish, brushed it on and buffed it off with a shoe brush giving it a 'grubby' look if you know what I mean. By doing this it also rubbed through some the paint here and there showing the pine that was underneath.
The alternative to paint with two coats of paint and when thats dry, lightly rub here and there with sandpaper to reveal the wood underneath and then seal with varnish.
Hope that helps. It worked for us and gave us the result we wanted and is still looking good some ten years later.

Its a matter of choice really.

frogglet

Thanks Mary43, did you use emulsion paint, if you did, was it matt or silk.
Did you sand it first or just wash it down.

Greenr

I'm about to paint my pine table - it's untreated/unpainted at the mo so have just bought some ikea white stain paint - is that the kind of thing you're looknig for? it comes in different colours...

mary43

It was emulsion paint - some we had left over from something........not sure whether it was matt or silk but don't think it would make a difference given the finished treatment.
Didn't have to do anything other than wipe it down first........it was a new pine dresser base that had been in someone's garage so whatever finish was on it was wearing very thin.
Depends what sort of finish is on the furniture........if its a varnish then I'd think a light sanding would do. If its an old pine chest of drawers that's been wax polished then the polish would have to be taken off - there's a product you can get for than but I can't think what its called. Think most DIY shops sell it.

angelavdavis

I have painted lots of furniture in the past. I also use emulsion and then coat with beeswax in order to protect it.

Pine doesn't need much prepping, just a bit of sanding as Mary has said. Wipe down with a cloth soaked in turps (as water may raise the grain in the wood).

A trick with distressing it, is as Mary has said, use two colours, in between the first and second colours, rub the areas that are more likely to be worn with time with an old candle. Rub heavily so that you get wax deposits on the painted wood.

Then apply the top coat of paint. Once dried through, use wire wool on the areas where you have rubbed the candle (a fairly fine type so not to take off more paint than you want). The candle prevents the second colour taking in those areas and makes it easier to rub the top coat off.

Once done, finish with beeswax.

I can recommend getting some safety glass cut to protect dressing table tops, etc.

A different style is to get hold of some Liberon gilt cream in a gold shade and after painting a couple of coats, run your finger coated in the cream along the edges of the drawers, etc and then finish with the beeswax. I have some Louis french style furniture which I treated like this. I love it!

milkybars

I recently helped a friend with re-vamping a chest of drawers. We painted them then similar to the method described by angelavdavis, roughly brushed gold leaf onto edges and corners. It gave a distressed vintage look from a distance but a bit more glam close up. Quite smart actually and when we'd finished we sat back and tried to decide how much John Lewis might sell it for!

frogglet

Thanks everyone.
All the comments have really given me more confidence as I have loads of paint left from various painting jobs round the house and a kit of cutouts ( I just can't remember what the technique is called) that I can transform this furniture with.
The gold edging sounds really good.