Painted Furniture – Green is The Word … or Blue or Red or Pink – But Make It A ‘Double Shot’

Source: 1001chinesefurniture.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Painted furniture is a great way to rejuvenate a tired piece, morphing it with a classic furniture look. Color is such a powerful force that even small amounts of the right paint colors can have instant and dramatic effects on a room. Which means that a single piece of brightly painted furniture can ignite a room while making a great classic furniture statement.

The aim is to go for strong, bold paint colors to create a focal point and anchor the room.

Most of the time I shy away from strong paint colors particularly for furniture, opting for the subtle tones of whites. But how dull is that?

I saw this article called The Kelly Campaign from Centsational Girl which lead me to investigate green painted furniture a little more. If green painted furniture is not your thing, then you could go for any other paint color like red or blue, depending on your color theme.

Painted Furniture – How to Select Classic Furniture to Paint

1. Choose classic furniture pieces. Even Ikea has pieces that I would call classic. Little fuss and straight almost block lines.
2. Add square or heavy brass hardware. What makes these pieces so brilliant is the addition of shiny brass handles that really ‘pop’ against the strong paint colors.
3. Green is a classic furniture paint color. French, Chinese and other cultures have used strong green paint color with huge success.
4. This makes a lot of difference, changing painted furniture into classic furniture pieces. So choosing the right piece of furniture can make all the difference.

Here is the article from Centsational Girl.

The Kelly Campaign

from Centsational Girl by CentsationalGirl

For the longest time I’ve been wanting to paint a piece of furniture bright Kelly green.  It started when I found this Reed & Barton color glazed silver bowl from the 1960’s in a thrift shop for a dollar.  A dollar for this beauty!

So I wanted to bring this fun color into our home and once I found the perfect piece, this small campaign desk, off to the paint store I went to color match it!  Here’s the  desk I found at (of course) a thrift store for $40 – the hardware alone is worth that to me, but the added benefit was this desk with faux bamboo legs that would tuck nicely into the kids study/art/craft playroom.

Before:

After:

The desk was not real burled wood, but had a speckled and scratched surface, so painting it was an easy call.  I followed the same steps I’ve mentioned before, 1. Remove the hardware, 2.  Clean and scuff up the piece with a medium grit sanding wedge and 3. Prime with product designed for glossy surfaces (Zinsser is my fave).

Next, two coats of this fabulous paint!  I’ve wanted to try the Advance formula by Ben Moore and this desk was perfect candidate.  This enamel formula gives a harder finish like oil based paints but cleans up with water, I’ll definitely use it again – it comes in satin, semi-gloss and high gloss formulas.  No Floetrol needed, this paint is that good.

The color is a custom formula to match the bowl, but if you want two close matches, try ‘Grasshopper’ by Sherwin Williams or ‘Bunker Hill Green’ by Benjamin Moore.

Finally I scrubbed and polished the brass hardware and reattached it.

Now this fun Kelly green campaign desk sits in the kids’ playroom for art or homework.

You can read the full article with all the instructions at Centsational Girl

I love the use of bold painted furniture particularly on classic furniture pieces. You can find more painted furniture ideas here.  But never use too many pieces in the same room. As far as paint colors go, green may not be everyone’s favorite paint color but it certainly makes a statement. Pick a paint color you love and can live with. I’d love to see you painted furniture failures and successes… we all have them! So leave a comment, Like this article with FB, Share and don’t forget to sign up for the DL Newsletter…