How to upcycle wooden furniture with paint: the beginner’s guide

Along with growing environmental concerns, a new trend has crept into the paint and decorating scene, and that trend is upcycling. If you search for the term on Google, you’ll be met with a staggering 7.3M results as creative DIYers share their best-kept upcycling secrets. Feeling the FOMO yet? Don’t worry, in this beginner’s guide we’re going to show you how to upcycle wooden furniture and we’ll even throw some bonus painting tips into the mix.

A little background on the upcycling craze

Crowned in 2019 as Cambridge Dictionary’s word of the year, “upcycling” has been at the forefront of the interior design, painting and hobbyist communities ever since.

At its core, upcycling is the process of turning objects and materials that would otherwise be discarded into products of higher quality or value than the original, part of that intrinsic value being the elements of reuse and waste reduction. As an alternative to recycling, it’s geared towards a transition to a circular economy and is a good way to show respect for all the materials used.

Improvements and repairs are made to any old or worse-for-wear items – wooden furniture, kitchen cupboards, tiled mirrors – reviving them into stylish yet durable pieces that you can rely on for years to come. So if you are sick of overconsumption in this throwaway economy, why not give it a whirl?

Why you should have a go at upcycling wooden furniture

There are many reasons why upcycling wooden furniture might catch your fancy, but here are just a few to mull over:

• You can add years onto an item’s lifespan.
• It’s more cost-effective than buying a new product.
• You’ll reduce your environmental impact by cutting waste.
• It’s a fun opportunity to muck in and practice your painting technique.
• Turn outdated items into the pinnacle of contemporary style.
• Build your own unique interior style.

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Where to start with upcycling wooden furniture

If you’re lost on where to start and have no idea how to upcycle wooden furniture so that it looks good, don’t stress it. Everyone begins somewhere. Before you get to the painting bit, it’s important to evaluate what you’ve got and how to do it. After all, a project is only as good as its planning.

1.     Picking out your first project

If you’re a newbie to all of this upcycling malarkey, it’s best to start off with something simple – maybe a wooden coffee table or bookcase – anything too complicated can wait until you’ve got the know-how.

Once you’ve got your eye on an item for possible upcycling, start brainstorming a project to work on. Do you want to repaint a bedside table for a more sophisticated look? Are your chairs in need of a restain? Whatever it is you want to achieve, don’t forget to look to social media for inspiration – it’s a treasure trove of ideas and styles. Just make sure you pick an idea that suits your skill level and the resources you have available or can get your hands on easily.

2.     Researching your paints

You’ve got your eyes set on the perfect project, not too difficult and ideal for your home’s colour scheme. You’ll need the best paint. Unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all tin on the market, so you’ll have to do your homework.

Surface

Start by thinking about the surface itself: it’s wood so you’ll need a suitable paint, stain or varnish. An emulsion won’t cut it. You’ll need something durable to measure up to how often you use the piece. In our rundown of the best paints for upcycling furniture, we shared that Farrow & Ball, Paint & Paper Library and Little Greene are some of the best in terms of durability as well as the plethora of colours and finishes available.

Finish

You’ll also need to consider where your furniture typically lives. If you’re touching up garden furniture, you’ll need an exterior paint. If you’re painting wooden furniture for the inside, you’ll want to find the finish that works best with the lighting. Usually, the shinier the paint, the more durable it will be, so that’s another consideration to make.

Colour

After this, there’s picking out a shade. Feeling indecisive? Our designer colours will give you plenty of inspiration. From F&B’s most recent colour line to the playful tints by Little Greene, there’s so much choice and who says your colours have to be traditional? A bold shock of colour might just be the element to uplift your interiors.

3.     Pick out your supplies

When there are so many painting tools and supplies out there, it’s easy to get lost in the noise. But we’re here to cut through all that. You’ll need to procure some painter’s tape, stuff for cleaning up afterwards, dust sheets, rollers and brushes. But which paint brushes are suited to the job?

Well, here’s some quickfire advice. Painting the legs of a bistro-style table? Get a small brush. The larger ones are more cut out for wider areas such as the tabletop or the side of a sizeable bookcase. For more complex upcycling projects, it’s a good idea to use an assortment of brushes of different sizes.

We’d recommend sourcing more eco-friendly options if possible – we make it easy (wink wink, nudge nudge). This means paint brushes made from recyclable and sustainably sourced materials, like our splushes – a range of lovingly crafted paint brushes designed with the environment at the heart of it all.

2.     Learning the technique

Before you grab your paint brushes and get at it, it’s worth thinking about the technique. If you’re a visual learner, watch a tutorial to see how the experts do it. If not, here’s a tutorial of our own to set you off on the right foot.

How to upcycle wooden furniture in 8 simple steps

1.     Get prepping

Step number one is to prepare your space. This might mean shifting your furniture outside onto the patio if it’s a nice day out or into a room with a hard floor that will be easier to deal with. When you’ve got your furniture in the right place, place your dust sheets down and protect anything that is in range – including yourself. Yep, make sure that you’re wearing your ‘messy clothes’ or overalls so you don’t ruin your lovely wardrobe.

2.     Give your furniture a good clean

Now everything’s set up, it’s time to give it a good wipe down, after all, you won’t get a good finish from a piece of furniture that’s all grimy and covered in cobwebs. Sugar soap or clean spirit will do the trick here, but often water or a duster will do the trick.

3.     Sand (if required)

Whether your piece is something you found on Gumtree or it’s a beloved hand-me-down inherited from your family, the upcycling method will be the same. Once it’s all clean and removed any pesky handles, begin to lightly down the surface, making sure to follow the grain and not miss any spots. A medium-grit sandpaper is suited to the job as it will make it nice and smooth without damaging the grain.

4.     Mask off areas you don’t mean to paint

Now you can whip out the decorator’s tape. Simply mask up the areas you don’t want to paint to protect them from wayward splatters and achieve a clean finish no problem. This is ideal if you’re painting a table’s legs and want to keep the beautiful grain on the top completely natural.

5.     Prime that wood (if necessary)

For extra consistency and a jaw-droppingly crisp finish, consider applying a primer. This will help seal up the porous surface of the wood and keep any corners from peeling. A thin layer applied using a roller will usually do the trick and once it’s dry you can get to the main painting.

If you can’t be bothered to buy a separate product to prime your furniture, we’ve got good news. Many of the interior wood paints we stock are self-priming, so you can skip this step entirely if you opt for one of them.

6.     Mix and apply the first coat

Start stirring and get your brush in there, making sure to give it a small tap to avoid paint getting onto the drop cloth. Now you can begin to apply that paint. What’s the best way? In small sections and following the grain. Don’t neglect the corners either.

7.     Leave to dry and evaluate whether more coats are needed

Once it has dried – this might take up to a couple of hours depending on the paint brand – apply another coat if you need it. Even though it’s enticing to leave it at that, don’t give in to temptation! We promise you, it’s totally worth it. Let’s get that second coat lovely and even, then we can think about adding a third.

8.     Distress / antique your furniture (optional)

Are you in your shabby chic era? Then listen up, this step’s for you. Distressing your furniture can provide a sense of history with a tasteful antique look brimming with charm, and you can achieve this in a few ways.

Layering

If you opt for a chalk paint, this method is ideal. Simply paint the surface of your wooden furniture with two coats of chalk paint and then add another in a slightly different shade. Once it’s all coated up and dry, buff up the surface with furniture wax to set the paint. Now you can target areas of the piece to rub away with the wax to reveal the colour hiding underneath.

Rubbing

Similar to the previous method, many upcyclers create that gorgeous, distressed finish by using furniture wax and a cloth to rub away some of the paint completely, so that parts of the bare wood poke through the colour. If you decide to go for this look, ensure that you allow the wax to soak into the exposed wood in order to protect it against wear and tear.

How to upcycle dark wood furniture

For darker varieties of wood like a walnut or rosewood, keep in mind that you might need additional coats to achieve the desired colour – especially if you’re going from dark to light.

How to upcycle pine (and other grained) furniture

Pine furniture has a reputation for looking a bit old-fashioned due to its past links to the ‘real wood’ craze of the late 90s and early 2000s, but it’s easy to update them. Known for a darker, more prominent grain than other wood furniture, pine is the perfect opportunity to make a statement. You can create a finish that is just as modern as it is silky by painting the darker and more grained areas of the wood in a different colour to the rest, using high-quality paint.

Final words of painting wisdom: on staying planet-friendly

Now you know how to upcycle wooden furniture, here are a few parting words of wisdom from the splat crew to help you lower your environmental impact.

Our blog is chock-full of eco-conscious painting tips, but here is some quickfire advice. Make sure you opt for a paint that is water-based and low VOC, this means that it’s both safer you to use, but it leaves less of an impact on our planet. Another option is to buy items that are plastic or packaging-free; this way you’ll know that there won’t be any additional waste.

Jump on the upcycling train!

We hope this guide on how to upcycle wooden furniture has set you on the right path – that is – the path to becoming a DIY legend. With a little research and a little practice, you can achieve greatness. So, it’s time to reclaim your sense of creativity, grab a sample and get started.

For more paint-tastic guides, explore what the rest of our paint and decorating blog has to offer.