10 Tips for Spray Painting Your Wooden Furniture like a Pro

Are you planning to update your home furniture but don’t want to spend 1000s on new furniture? Spray painting your furniture can be an ingenious way to give your furniture an easy makeover.

It gives a smooth finish to wood furniture and works great for furniture that have complex designs that are otherwise not fit for paint brushes.

Whether you want to turn your lawn chair gold, or want to give your bicycle a rustic brown finish, spray painting is the way to go.

What to know before spray painting?

Before discussing top tips for spray painting your furniture it is important to take the right approach. You need to find the right paint for the task and even before that prepare your wooden furniture for the task.

This may involve priming or sanding the furniture before it can be spray painted. In most cases, primer is a good way to go as it gives you a clean surface and it may also reduce the total number of coats that you may need.

Now that we have discussed what you need to do to prepare your wooden furniture before you use spray paint, let’s focus on what you can do to achieve professional looking results while spray painting on your own.

1.  Choose the right furniture

You can’t paint on any wooden furniture surface. As a rule of thumb avoid upholstery and antique furniture, the latter might lose its value if you make significant changes.

2. Remove accessories/hardware

Some of the furniture may have some removable accessories or hardware that can be unscrewed. If they can be removed but do need painting, paint them separately instead of painting them while being attached to the furniture.

3. Cover Other Areas While Painting

It is important to cover the areas around your work station with newspaper or a drop cloth to ensure a safe working environment.

Spray paints have tiny particles that can settle on any surface and you need to cover them to protect such surfaces.

4. Clean Properly After Sanding

It is important to clean the surface after sanding and remove all the sawdust. Don’t clean the surface with water as it can be disastrous as the water can penetrate the wood and may damage it beyond repair.

Blow off the dust or use a vacuum cleaner to collect all the particles. It is important to collect this dust as it may settle on the surface furniture when the paint is wet.

5. Practice Before Working on The Actual Surface

If you are new to spray painting or haven’t done a paint job in a long time, it is best to do some couple of test runs on other surfaces before unloading on the actual furniture.

Spray painting can be tricky and to understand small nuances such as understanding the consistency of the spray or the power of a spray it is best to try it on a piece of cardboard.

Spend 4-5 minutes spraying, developing your technique and you will see stark improvement in the final results.

6. Maintain The Right Distance

This is an extension of the previous point and the practice will also help you figure out how much distance you need to keep between the furniture and the spray paint can.

You can’t be too close or too far. Always maintain a distance of 6-10 inches while making sure you are moving your hands at all times while spraying.

7. Don’t Work in Windy/Dusty Conditions

This seems like a very obvious tip but sometimes we may overlook the obvious in our excitement. This avoids paint from straying on unwanted surfaces.

Non windy areas also ensure that minimum or no dust particles stick to the furniture when the paint is wet. However, this does not mean that you don’t need to care about ventilation.

8. Don’t Rush It

You will need to apply several coats before you receive a satisfying result. That’s ok and you need to be patient to achieve an optimal result.

9. Use a Sweeping Motion

Use horizontal strokes, sweeping from left to right and then go right to left for best results. Don’t do random painting as it will lead to uneven final results.

10. Allow The Paint to Dry

Spray paint generally takes less time to dry compared to traditional paint. However, you still need to give your furniture at least 24 hours to dry before moving it or putting back any accessories or hardware you may have removed. You don’t want unwanted scratches that may take unwanted time & effort to fix.

So, there you have it! With these handy tips, you can spray paint just about anything you want and achieve a professional-looking finish – the best part is, no one would be able to tell the difference! Go ahead, paint your furniture gold, white or rainbow; choice is yours!

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