How to Repaint Old Furniture: Advice from Restorers
Old furniture has its own unique charm. It can decorate any interior if you approach its repair correctly.
Many craftsmen and lovers of furnishing their homes with unusual things do not create furniture from scratch, but restore old furniture, giving it a modern look.
Today, you can find and use advice from restorers that is not designed for professional restoration of historical values, but for amateur renovation of old things to give them a second life.
How to Repaint Old Furniture
Before you start restoring, you should decide what the end result will be. Think about where the updated chair or chest of drawers will stand, what interior elements it will go with, what function it will perform. This will help you choose the right paint color, fittings, think through a pattern or applique.
Then you should rid the furniture of unnecessary parts - remove or protect textile elements, remove all handles, metal corners, etc.
When the furniture is ready for further work, you should remove the old paint from it. The most convenient way to do this is with a special chemical composition, using it according to the instructions. After removing the paint, you should check whether the furniture needs repair.
You may have to replace some element, fill cracks or dents with wood putty. After that, you need to sand the surface with sandpaper. Large items are more conveniently sanded with a grinder, using a circle with a minimum abrasive.
Before painting, it is recommended to apply 2 layers of primer. This will allow the paint to lie more evenly and save its consumption.
The paint is applied in 2-3 layers after the primer layers have dried.
The compositions should be applied along the wood grain so that the painting is even and neat. It is best to use water-based paints, as they are easier to use, have no smell, and can be used even indoors.
For Soviet furniture with a glossy surface, a different approach is often used.
The glossy surface can be sanded to make it rough and then painted. This makes the process much easier, so repainting is accessible to beginners.
In this case, you can come up with interesting patterns by leaving unpainted fragments of the old coating in those places where it looks good. You just need to first cover the necessary areas with masking tape to get clear lines.
