How to repaint lacquered furniture with your own hands

Furniture tends to lose attractiveness over time. To update the product, many resort to painting it - this is an inexpensive and effective method of fixing external defects. In addition, when repainting, you can unrecognizably transform interior items, make them original in appearance, change color.

Content:

• Prerequisites for painting furniture
• The choice of paint and additional materials
• Staining steps
• Surface preparation
• Putty damage
• Degreasing
• Painting process
• Proper drying
• Major difficulties and errors
• Tips & Tricks

To understand how to paint polished furniture, it is worth all the owners of antique cabinets with drawers, chests of drawers, tables and other products. Savings will be serious.

Prerequisites for painting furniture

It is not difficult to identify the problems of old furniture - they are clearly visible externally. By the type of products, you can determine that they need staining: the top layer of polishing begins to separate, the coating itself darkens. The entire glossy surface of the tree during long operation is covered with a net, cracking. Also, chips, scratches, scuffs, and other defects may appear on furniture. If the furniture is antique, small defects do not change its value. But ordinary furnishings spoil such problems.

A change in appearance for the worse is the first sign that furniture needs restoration. Lacquered furniture can be repainted with your own hands, because contacting specialists will cost much more. Even at home, it is possible to color the objects so that the wood structure remains the same. If desired, the texture of the furniture can be hidden, giving the base a new color - dark, white and even bright.

The choice of paint and additional materials

To make the product look beautiful, you need to buy a good paintwork material. The tool should be suitable for wood, because the durability of the new coating depends on the quality of the paint. It is also worth considering personal preferences - the effects of different colors can be different. For pens, other metal parts, you should additionally purchase paint for metal, otherwise they will quickly peel off.

Paint and varnish material for wood should have a number of properties:

• moisture resistance;
• non-susceptibility to abrasion, rapid wear, dirt, mechanical impact, as well as staining when chemicals are ingested;
• frost resistance if the product is used outdoors;
• long service life with preservation of original properties.

After removing the old varnish, almost any paint can be applied to the base. The new coating will be glossy, matte, semi-gloss, you can make it completely transparent with or without color. It all depends on personal preferences and a good fit of the product into the overall interior. If it is decided to repaint the furniture in white, it is better to buy a translucent paint - matte will immediately give the products an up-to-date look.

Here are the most common types of paints for wood products:

• acrylic - has a water base, perfect for natural wood, veneer, plywood and even laminate, MDF;
• enamel with a metallic shade - is intended for coloring accessories, as well as for giving the tree an original tone;
• varnish - usually bought to paint the old coating in order to update it.

It happens that varnishing or painting is necessary for furniture that comes in contact with hot objects or is operated in hot rooms. Then the paint should be selected with fire retardant properties. Pre-treatment with a primer is also allowed to increase the level of heat resistance.

After acquiring the paint, a number of auxiliary materials and tools should be prepared. For applying coatings, a roller or brush is bought, large areas can be painted with a spray gun. For sanding, get an emery sheet or use a grinding machine. Removing permanent varnish will require the use of a scraper or wire brush. If you decide to heat the old coating, you will have to purchase a building hair dryer.

From additional funds you need to prepare:

• primer;
• putty;
• varnish for varnishing after paint (if required);
• detergent or detergent;
• varnish solvent;
• antiseptic (etching);
• insect repellent (if required).

Staining steps

All work is carried out in several stages. It is not recommended to cover furniture with new paint without removing varnish - this will greatly degrade the quality of the finished surface. It is better to carry out the restoration in accordance with the advice of professionals, which will make the result beautiful and durable.

Surface preparation

Removing the old coating is the main stage in preparing furniture for repair. You can remove varnish in various ways - mechanical, thermal and chemical. Specialists prefer to use a building hair dryer for thermal removal of varnish. The procedure is as follows:

• wear a protective suit and gloves, not forgetting about glasses;
• walk a hairdryer over a small area of ​​the surface, warm it well (some use a blowtorch instead of a hairdryer, but this method requires extreme care not to spoil the tree);
• take a spatula or knife, scrape off the varnish.

The mechanical method is more laborious. Proceed as follows:

• pull out drawers from furniture, remove all fittings;
• wash fixtures, handles and other accessories well with soapy water, use soda if necessary;
• wipe the furniture with soap and powder to degrease it and remove dirt;
• wipe off the varnish with a scraper, sandpaper with coarse grain, metal brushes;
• sand the surface with sandpaper with fine grain or a grinding machine.

It is also possible to get rid of the coating by the chemical method, for this purpose a solvent is required that does not harm the wood. Washing is applied to the surface of the object with a brush, left under the film for 3 hours. After that, using a spatula, carefully remove the old varnish.

Putty damage

To accurately assess the condition of the furniture, it is recommended to disassemble it for the maximum possible number of elements. So it will be possible to handle even the most inaccessible places, replace all the old, broken, ugly fittings. After grinding, get rid of dust (wipe the furniture with a dry cloth or vacuum). Then an antiseptic is applied so that the product is not damaged by the fungus in the future.

All large and medium defects must be thoroughly puttied. It is better to buy transparent putties - they are suitable for any type of wood, do not change its structure. Putty should be applied with a thin layer, it is good to level it so that the surface remains smooth. After allowing the layer to dry completely, apply it again if necessary. At the end of the work, the treated area is re-polished.

Degreasing

Carrying out this procedure increases the life of the repaired furniture. Degreasing also significantly improves the adhesion of the paint to the surface, making the coat of paint even. To do this, use any detergents.They are bred in water, wiped the surface of the product, washed off.

Dry wipe, dry until the moisture disappears completely. If puttying has been carried out previously, it is better to use alcohol or vodka for degreasing, not an aqueous solution. Stubborn stains of grease, dirt can be removed with table vinegar.

Painting process

Immediately before staining, priming should be carried out, for which only transparent primers are used. It is necessary to apply the product not only on the putty areas, but on the entire surface - the soil reduces the absorption of paint, improves adhesion.

Painting is carried out as follows:

1. All elements that will not be stained should be removed or sealed with paper tape. So do not have to wash them at the end of the restoration.
2. Apply paint to each element individually. It is better to use a roller, so the paintwork will lie flat. Especially carefully it is necessary to paint over boxes, shelves, dry them separately, only then fix them in place. It is necessary to ensure that there are no drips of paint.
3. After drying, apply another layer of material to the furniture. So the result will be fixed.
4. Assemble the furniture. You can install it in place.

Proper drying

Acrylic, latex and other water-based coatings dry for a long time. So that the furniture does not interfere, it is better to prepare a place for work and drying in advance. It takes 12-24 hours to dry each layer, and many enamels are harmful by their fumes. In the room where the furniture stands, you can’t live, and for children, animals - to be even temporarily. The best temperature for drying is 20-23 degrees, so the coating will dry for the period specified in the instructions. If the temperature is lower, drying will be delayed for a longer time.

Major difficulties and errors

Below are the oversights that most newcomers make during the repair of lacquered furniture:

• partial removal of varnish - if you leave pieces of the old coating, the appearance of the new will be spoiled;
• improper dilution of the paint - it is worth carefully reading the instructions so that the coating is of good quality, otherwise drops, tubercles or drips may appear on it;
• non-observance of drying time - touching, using not fully dried furniture will lead to the formation of ugly spots;
• ignoring the correct preparation - the absence of grinding, puttying of furniture will cause defects on the new coating and worsen adhesion.

Tips & Tricks

Some craftsmen try to paint furniture without removing old varnish. This can be done if there is not the slightest chip or network of cracks on the coating. It is first necessary to apply paintwork on an inconspicuous area, after drying, evaluate the result. If the paint lays evenly, there are no smudges and growths, you can paint the rest of the surface. Unfortunately, this is rare, and in most cases, old furniture does not look the best. If you want to get a really high-quality thing, you should remove the varnish and carry out all the work according to the described technology.