How to Paint Wood Furniture with chalk paint

Today, I am going to share Big DIY project of painting the IKEA dining table with you all.

We were having IKEA wooden dining table for so long. By exploring, came across the idea of painting furniture with chalk paint.

As we were shifting to a new place thought of giving an old IKEA dining table a new look. Coat of paint gives new life into a piece of old furniture.

Painting furniture at home, YES! you are reading it correctly and you will be amazed by the outcome.

Let’s go!

Gather the below supplies:

1. General-purpose sandpaper
2. Paintbrush
3. Chalk paint [amazon.com / amazon.in]
4. Finish coat – wax or polycrylic Water Based Protective Finish

STEPS 1: 

=> Select the piece of furniture that you want to makeover.

STEP 2:

Prepare the surface for painting –

1. 1. Remove hardware and drawers of the furniture if any.
   2. It is very important to clean the surface of wood thoroughly as we don’t want dirt particles showing through our paint.
   3. If you have cracks, holes, or any other rough safe we will need to smooth them well. I have found many tutorials which say that sanding is not needed for chalk painting the furniture. Tip: My recommendation would be to sand the furniture before painting if you want your paint to last long and to avoid peel and chip off the paint. You can use the sander tool for more effectiveness or general-purpose sandpaper which I have used. As I was painting inside my home, I could only sand it with sandpaper. 
   4. After sanding dust the surface, wipe it with soap water, and let it dry completely. 

STEP 3:

Choose chalk paint color – While choosing the chalk paint, keep in mind the color of the wood. As darker woods can bleed through your paint even though if many coats are applied.

Cover the other surfaces which you don’t want to paint of a particular color. 

STEP 4:

Now let the party begin with some painting –

1. Deep paintbrush in water to get it wet before painting so that paint can flow smoothly over the surface. If the paint is too thick, add few drops of water and stir it carefully.
2. For the first coat, you can go randomly, no need to be perfect as we will be applying more coats on it. After the first coat, it will look like this below =>
3. Chalk paint dries very quickly which is the plus point as you don’t want to wait longer for the paint to dry and enables the job to be done faster.

To get a smooth finish, you can sand the paint done over each coat. I have used 2 to 3 coats for my dining table. You can coat it with layers as per your preferences.

STEP 5:

Design the furniture – You can use stencils, or graphics to give a unique design to your furniture. [I have used this beautiful bon appetit stencil on my dining table]

STEP 5:

Protect it: Finish coat with wax or polycrylic water-based protective finish. Apply a thin coat of wax with the help of a wax brush or lint-free cloth.[I have used cloth].

Tip: The key to waxing is, you don’t have to use too much, just apply a thin coat and let it dry for at least 24 hours or as per the instructions given on the wax bottle.

My experience suggests wax does not work much perfectly for kitchen furniture[While wiping the dining table I can see that water spots are seen with the wax finish], so rather than coat with a polyacrylic water-based finish for more effective results. Will share the feedback once I will use a polycrylic water-based finish on my dining table.

Take a bow

Here is the final look of the furniture and we have beautifully changed the unwanted piece of furniture to a brand new one.