My Top 3 Tips for Painting Chairs
If you ask any furniture refinisher what their least favorite type of piece to refinish is, 9 times out of 10 they will say chairs. Why would this be? The easy answer.... is because they are hard lol. But let me give you my top 3 tips for painting chairs and hopefully this can relieve some of the pain as you approach this endeavor!!
These chairs had amazing bones, and I knew they would look amazing once updated, but look at all of those details!! Whew they were lots of work, but so worth it!! (Read to the End for the After Pic!!)
Tip #1.
Prep is Key!!
Chairs are a heavily used piece of furniture. Unlike a dresser or a china hutch, these pieces take some heavy duty wear. What that means is that chairs need extra love in the area of prep. In order to do this, I first fully cleaned the chairs with TSP, followed this with a deglosser and then sanded the pieces to give some extra assurance that the paint would adhere to the surface. (Note: I did not sand all of the previous paint off, I scuff sanded with a 220 grit paper. Sander used: My Surfprep Sander that makes rounded edge sanding soooo much easier. Find it here, and use Code Prayed10 for 10% off)
Tip #2.
Spraying
If you have the option of spraying chairs or other pieces of furniture with intricate areas or difficult to reach spaces, that is the way to go. I will tell you though, that my sprayer uses much more paint than if I was to only brush or roll the pieces. Following spraying my piece, I then followed up by brushing the areas I missed. MAKE SURE to always turn your chairs upside down to find areas that you missed. I promise you will find some!! Brushing those small areas was easy to do, and saved me the time and paint from re-spraying the chairs. (Painted in Fusion Mineral Paint: Coal Black with my Fuji Spray System )
Tip #3
Seal!
Like I said above, chairs typically take daily use/wear. That means, that even if your paint has a built in sealant (like many all in one - chalk or mineral paints) you will likely need to add a sealant on top. I sealed my chairs with 3 spray coatings of waterbased MinWax polycrilic in Satin sheen. This will help in further protecting my chairs and give my clients the peace of mind that their paint will last for years to come.
Remember: Most paints have a cure time of 30 days!! Before your paint is fully cured, it is much more likely to scuff or chip off easily. I typically send my clients with some extra paint just in case this happens. Also remember that paint is paint. And sometimes no matter what we do, scratches and chips can happen. I have 3 kids and 3 dogs so I always keep a little extra paint around just in case.
Was this helpful? Let me know in the comments below!! Feel free to add questions you have, and subscribe to my monthly email if you want more great tips and tricks on furniture flipping.
Disclosure: This blog contains affiliate links. I will receive a commission for items purchased through these links at no extra cost to you. I appreciate your support. Please read all labels and follow all manufacturer safety recommendations when working with paints, stains, and other equipment and wear and use appropriate personal protection equipment. Readers should attempt these projects at their own risk.