5 Steps to Give Old Furniture New Life

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Furniture is EXPENSIVE, there’s no question about it. So if you like a piece but don’t like the color or fabric, there are definitely ways around it. ⁣What better way to get a custom piece of furniture than to do it yourself? ⁣ ⁣

The thing about old furniture is often times these pieces are solid wood. (which is awesome in my opinion) Anymore today it’s hard to find reasonable priced pieces of solid wood furniture. ⁣ ⁣

So if you are looking for a new piece but don’t know where to start, I’ve had a lot of luck with Craigslist. The chair pictured here I was able to snag for $40. It’s solid wood and if I ever get tired of it, I can change it!

Giving new life to old wood varnished furniture isn’t as tough as it may seem. You can actually transform a piece of furniture in a few easy steps.

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What you’ll need:

  • Trisodium Phosphate (TSP)

  • Gloves

  • Sandpaper (200 grit)

  • Bonding primer

  • Latex or oil based paint

  • Soap, water, and rag

  • Paintbrushes

Step 1: Clean

The first thing you will want to do before you get started is wash down the furniture to get any gunk or grim off that there may be. Let it dry for about ten minutes before moving onto the next step.

Step 2: Patch and Sand

Next you will want to patch any holes or large indentations you may have with wood putty. Wood putty is easy to use and will take about 30 minutes to an hour to dry. Once the wood putty is dry you’ll want to go through and sand any rough or chipping areas with 200 grit sandpaper. This will help ensure your paint will go on smooth and will have a good surface to adhere to.

Step 3: Wipe down with TSP

TSP is Trisodium Phosphate. You will want to wear gloves when handling this. Once the piece is sanded you will wipe everything down with TSP. TSP will help remove sanding dust as well as oils that may adhere to the surface. This will help ensure a clean surface for the bonding primer.

Step 4: Bonding primer

Bonding primer is probably one of the most important steps when it comes to painting over varnish. We learned the hard way. When you are painting over any glossy or varnished surface you will ALWAYS want to use a bonding primer first. If you don’t, the paint does not adhere well and can literally smear off. So once you have done the prep work, you will want to prime the entire piece. Two primers that I recommend are Stix bonding primer or Kilz bonding primer. Both do a really nice job. Stix tends to be more expensive, so we typically use Kilz and it works just as well.

Step 5: Paint!

Now its time to paint. This is pretty straight forward. Allow the primer to dry for at least an hour before you start to paint. Typically you will want to do a minimum of two coats to ensure the piece is coated evenly. It does not matter if you use latex or oil based paint over the primer. Just keep in mind oil based paint tends to take longer to dry so you may have to wait a day in between coats. Whereas with latex you can paint multiple coats within the same day.

Now that the hard work is done its time to enjoy your furniture! Hope you have many good years of use with your new OLD piece.

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