What type paint to use on furniture

Milk paint for furniture is popular for its eco-friendly ingredients with no chemicals or added fumes. In fact, this paint has a long history of use for painting furniture, houses, and more before commercial paint was widely available. It can be used on a wide variety of surfaces, but you should know that the finish can vary and sometimes is inconsistent in terms of saturation.

This is also important on smooth surfaces like glass or plastic. Add water to mix up the amount of paint you need, and store the rest for later use or touch-ups. A top coat of wax or oil may be necessary to preserve the finish.

Best For: Furniture that you want to appear antiqued, weathered, or distressed. Acrylic paint is another water-based type of paint for furniture that is closely related to latex paint. Color particles are suspended in an acrylic polymer and offer a pop of rich color with a smooth finish. Acrylic paint goes on evenly and is self-leveling, making it easy to work with. However, a primer is a good idea if you want the paint to adhere better to the surface. Drying times are short for acrylic paint, so you can apply several coats in a relatively short period of time—but you will need to give it plenty of time to fully cure once the project is complete.

It should be noted that acrylic paint does have more elasticity to resist chipping or cracking than some other types of water-based paint, but is still best suited for pieces with light to moderate use. Best For: Small furniture or accent pieces that need a quick, affordable coat of paint. Oil-based paint, also sometimes called alkyd paint, is a durable type of paint for furniture.

However, this durability comes at a cost—oil-based paints are usually more expensive, take longer to dry, and have high levels of VOCs that require abundant ventilation. The advantage to oil paint for furniture is that it can be applied over most surfaces and adheres well, since it saturates any porous surface and is self-leveling for easier application.

Drying time between coats is long—up to 24 hours—but it does cure more quickly than water-based paints. While water-based paints will have a tough time adhering to a surface previously painted with oil paint, this type of paint can be applied successfully over either water-based or oil-based paint.

However, the VOCs emitted by oil paint during and after the painting process require ventilation and cause concern for some. In fact, some states have banned the sale of oil-based paint altogether. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data.

Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. I only did a small section before stopping and returning it to Home Depot.

I then went to my neighborhood professional paint store and asked what they recommend for a top coat poly. He said, General Finished High Performance. I told him I tried Minwax and he said that is the worst product now. They used to be great but he said that the company was sold and ever since- the quality has been horrible.

BTW- GF has a flat option, too, if you want the flat, matte look. Thank you for this post. Oh well, I can always do over. Yes, you definitely can! Plus, it was on a piece that was going to be thrown away anyway, so no harm! Feel free to check it out and enter to win — you might be able to paint your table for free!!

This is a fantastic post!! Love it. Just pinned it to one of my biggest DIY group boards because people should read this! The older weathered look is one of my favorite things to have on my furniture. Yes, milk paint is definitely the one I would say is for you! Thanks for visiting!

I just embarked on my first chalk paint project. I am painting a laminate bedroom set. I decided to paint over the AS pure white with a flat latex deeper color Brandon Beige that I had on hand to provide a better base for the next color.

Then I mixed the flat latex with the pure white AS chalk paint- half and half- and painted the entire set. The color is perfect- and what I thought was brilliant to begin with- now I wonder if I have made a big mistake by using the latex on the furniture- though mixed with chalk pain.

Do you have any experience with mixing chalk paint with latex? Also- what do you think would be best for the finish- wax or a varathane? As for the finish, wax will give a very low sheen, soft finish, and any type of poly will give a shinier finish with a little more durability. Good luck finishing up your piece! Jenny, Thanks for an excellent explanation of the different paint types.

Happy furniture painting! Thanks for all the tips here Jenny. I had no idea about all those details and my next attempt with chalk paint is to paint a part of a rug with it, not the whole thing, just on the sides.

Any thoughts?? Thanks for linking up at Sweet Inspiration 2, have a fantastic weekend! Let me know how it goes! When using chalk paint, such as ASCP, you just use a spray bottle with water in it. Mix paint about water: :paint. Yes, that makes it very watery. Thick layers will result in chipped paint on fabric. So, just spray water, paint with watered down paint, wait for the layer to dry, lightly sand.

It may take up to 6 coats to get the paint opaque, so be patient. After final coat- soft wax. It looks beautiful now. I forgot to mention- you can also paint other materials such as leather! YES- you can paint leather with chalk paint! The process is the same as above for fabric. I wax about 2 layers for areas that are not used as much outside back and side of chairs and 3 layers of soft wax on the seat, back and arms.

Is it possible to turn gloss latex paint into the chalk paint to use on the top of a dining table? I would probably just paint it with a more matte paint and then cover it with a top coat.

Good luck! This post is amazing! That being said, I had no idea what paint to go with. This post has helped a ton, thank you so much!!! Thank you so much for this post. This was so helpful! They have the wood butcher block tops and hunger green legs!

I am going to look into the General Finishes paints now. I wonder if they are durable enough for the chair seats? They need to be sanded and a new coat of poly at least.

It would be so much easier just to paint them! I can totally picture your kitchen table set! But, just to be safe, you could add a topcoat which should really be fine. Because you are doing chairs, you might actually want to splurge and just get a couple of cans of clear topcoat Polyacrylic or another acrylic based topcoat.

It will save you a lot of time in the long run, because painting poly on spindles is no fun at all. Oh, one more thing. Good luck!! I am painting a dresser and thinking of going with the acrylic milk paint — do you have a favorite brush or roller you like to use?

I actually just use regular paint brushes from the hardware store and they always work well for me. Good luck on your dresser! Have you tried Repurpose Recolor paint yet?

If so how does it compare to the others? I want to paint a couple of old wooden dressers. Awesome post! Can I paint over that with milk paint? Same color? Hi Amanda. Thanks for the question. Although, if you do milk paint with the bonding agent, it will probably work and stick just fine to the first layer paint. I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions. Hi there! What would you suggest that I try? I think it sounds like you could use chalk paint and probably be really happy with it.

My favorite topcoat is General Finishes High Performance topcoat in Flat , but they only carry it in specialty stores and online. Let me know if you have any questions — I hope that helped! Thanks for the detailed post! I have read this too many times to count while trying to decide the best plan of action for the project I am working on, maybe you can help?

So I was thinking of possibly making my own chalk paint using your tutorial with a latex paint, and then using the General Finishes Top Coat you mentioned. Yes, I think a homemade chalk paint with the acrylic topcoat will work and hold up well! For the chalk paint, I would recommend using calcium carbonate instead of plaster of paris — I like the way it paints and the finish much better with calcium carbonate.

As for safety, an acrylic is very similar in terms of safety as latex paint is. I use both when pregnant, just make sure that the space you are painting in is ventilated as is recommended no matter what. Good luck with your piece of furniture and congratulations on the upcoming little baby! Quick question I am going to paint chairs and a table. Your post for different kinds of paint is very helpful. I want to use latex paint. Since I am a newbie at this, I have read a lot in order to get started.

Hi Katie! I think it would depend on what type of finish you are painting over. For furniture with a glossy finish, I always prime first, and then apply latex paint that usually has the primer in it as well. Thanks for this post post, it is so informative! My husband builds dining tables. Usually we just stain and poly the tabletops, but we have a client who wants a distressed white tabletop.

We are planning to stain the wood dark and then paint over it, and sand to distress. What kind of paint do you recommend? We need the finish to be hard and durable — no scratching off of cracking. If you just put the white paint over the stained wood, it will be more of a gray distressed look, like this wall.

I think I would use General Finishes acrylic paint. I hope it works out! Let me know if you have other questions! I think, based on what you wrote, that the acrylic option would be best with the top coat you recommended.

In other words, is there some other sort of top coat or treatment I should be sure to use when doing a vanity rather than a dresser? Thank you so much! Hi Bree. Sounds like a fun project! Yes, I think that the acrylic paint would work best for that. I have bought a few months ago 2 bedside tables that have been white washed but now I have noticed that under the coasters that there are water marks, obviously or should I rather say expect that they have not been vanished or sealant added to the finish.

I have heard that you can buy white wash paint that has a sealant or vanish added to it but then that mean that I have to prep the Whole table or can it be used to for a touch up? Hi Charlotte. The water marks could have actually been in the wood prior to painting. Sometimes paint can hide water marks for a little bit, but then they eventually show through.

Or, like you said, they could be from the tables not being sealed. Water marks are tough to get rid of. What I would recommend is a sealant to cover the water marks, and then to dry brush a white paint over that part to try to hide the mark. The trouble with matching it is that without knowing the type of paint used, it will be pretty hard to match it exactly. Luckily, whites are usually similar and you probably will be able to get away with matching it pretty well.

A true white wash is actually supposed to penetrate the wood similar to a stain and really should chip at all. You can actually use that Tough Coat as a topcoat sealer too for the whole piece. Okay, so I would add the touch coat over the water stains, get a little white paint you could probably get away with using white acrylic paint from craft stores, actually, or a chalk paint will work well too on your brush. Dab off most of the paint onto a wet paper towel, and then lightly brush over the spots and places that are chipping.

Let me know if you have any other questions and how it ends up going. Hi Jenny, thank you for such an informative post.. I am planning to chalk paint my dresser and night stand.. A top coat of clear polyurethane, while not required on seldom-used furniture in low-traffic spaces, will deter minor dents on workhorse pieces like coffee tables in family rooms and other high-traffic areas of the home. Designed to self-distress i. While the paint comes in an array of traditional colors, is usually free of VOCs, and gives off only a mild earthy scent, it has a slightly longer dry time than latex paint, at two to four hours.

Seal milk-painted furniture with a water-based wax top coat e. Simply wipe down the furniture with a rag saturated in soapy water, pat it dry, and then load and take up your paintbrush. Chalk paint emits minimal VOCs and fumes and is most commonly sold in white to pale, whimsical hues such as powder blue.

It lends a uniform, like-new finish to old furniture, from vanities to folding chairs. After chalk paint dries in 15 minutes to an hour , seal it with a water-based wax top coat to add a soft shine to the naturally matte surface and achieve a slicker, easier-to-clean and harder-to-scratch surface.

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