Without doubt, painting furniture has become extremely popular in the last decade or so. Whether homeowners choose to do it themselves or employ a Professional Decorator like me to do it for them, “upcycling” old furniture is in demand. But there’s a lot to think about when choosing the best paint for your project.
In this blog I’m going to talk about the best paint for furniture. I’ll work my way through the different types of furniture paint available, sharing as much info as I can about each, before talking through specific brands.
Feel free to skip ahead to the part of the blog you need.
Things to Consider When Choosing Furniture Paint
What sort of look are you going for? Shabby chic, distressed, or a more “solid finish in matt, eggshell, satin or gloss? Or how about metallic or glitter-effect?
How much wear-and-tear will the furniture be subjected to, and what paint is going to be long-lasting in that situation?
How can I get the best results painting my furniture?
Choosing the right paint for your furniture, and applying it correctly, will make a big difference in how successful you are in creating the look you want, and getting it to last.
For clarity, I will focus on indoor furniture in this blog, but will probably write a separate piece on painting garden furniture in the future.
Why Choosing the Right Paint for your Furniture Matters
Every project is different, and the choice of paint will depend on the situation. Customers often say to me “Can you paint my chest of drawers red to match the wall?”
They know what colour they want, but it’s up to me as the Professional Decorator to find out the sort of finish they want, and how much wear and tear the furniture will need to withstand. For me, those are the two key factors in selecting the best paint for any furniture project: appearance and durability.
Appearance:
This is more about personal taste. You can go for chalk paint if you’re feeling creative. If you’d prefer a solid colour, you still need to think about sheen level and the best colour to fit the aesthetic you’re aiming for. Then you need to consider any handles or other bits of trim on your furniture.
Durability:
A chair that is sat on every day will need a much harder-wearing paint than a mirror on the wall, for example. If you want your new furniture to last, it’s important to choose a hard-wearing paint. On the other hand, if the item is not going to suffer any wear-and-tear, there’s no point spending extra money on a harder-wearing paint than you need.
So, a little thought beforehand about the specific piece of furniture, and how it will be used, will help in choosing the right paint for your furniture. Now let’s look in a bit more detail at some of your options:
The Different Types of Paint for Furniture
Chalk paint
This has been really on trend for a few years now, allowing people to create a “shabby chic” or distressed look. It’s a lot of fun to do, each piece of furniture becomes unique and personal, and it’s very trendy.
The downside is that it’s not very hard-wearing. It scuffs and scrapes off very easily, and is also very absorbent, so any stains or spills, or even natural oils from contact with your hands, will leave it looking dirty.
You can seal it with special chalk paint wax, but if you then want to paint over it again in the future you must be very thorough in removing all the wax first, as new paint won’t adhere well to it.
Another option is to apply a coat of Decorators Varnish such as Polyvine. It’s very hard-wearing and available here in matt, satin or gloss finishes. Read more here about how to use chalk paint.
Water-based paints
These have grown enormously in popularity in recent years. There is now a massive choice of brands and finishes to choose from. Compared to oil-based paints, they’re quicker drying, more environmentally friendly, lower odour, more child- and pet-friendly and make cleaning your brushes up after use easier.
Historically there have been questions over the quality of the finish that you can achieve, and over their durability. However, they are improving all the time, and as a result I hardly ever use oil-based these days.
There are some very hard-wearing water-based paints available now, such as Johnstone’s Aqua Guard and Benjamin Moore Scuff-X, but if you have any doubts about durability, you can always apply a couple of coats of Polyvine Varnish as described above.
Oil-based paints
These are certainly becoming less popular, especially in white (because they tend to discolour over time). However, they do still provide a superb, hard-wearing finish (eggshell, satin or gloss). That said, water-based paints have come so far in recent years that I don’t think you should consider oil-based at all when painting furniture.
Spray paints
If you have a spray machine, it’s a great way to get a perfect finish when painting furniture. I find my Wagner FC4000 is ideal for small jobs like this. If you don’t spray in that sense, aerosol paints can give a great finish and some fun special effects on smaller projects.
Maston have an amazing choice of aerosols in a huge range of colours and finishes. I’ll get to them later.
The mirror I painted here is in metallic silver using Maston aerosol spray paint.
Best Furniture Paint
The choice of paints available these days is incredible. Being able to recommend just one or two is going to be a struggle, but here goes with some that have never let me down in my time as a Professional Decorator:
Best Chalk Paint for Furniture
Annie Sloan Chalk Paint is regarded by many as the original, and it’s versatile, easy and fun to use, allowing you to create a truly personal finish. They also produce their own chalk paint wax to seal and help protect the paint with. Click here to see online prices.
Frenchic is another great option, either their “Original Artisan” range (which again needs waxing or varnishing afterwards) or their “Lazy” range, which doesn’t. Click here to see online prices.
Best Matt Paint for Furniture
Johnstone’s Aqua Guard Matt is super hard-wearing and available in a huge variety of colours. Although described as a matt, the finish is somewhere between matt and eggshell in my opinion.
This is fully water-based and it’s easy to achieve a good finish when using it. Most other matt paints I’ve used aren’t durable enough for use on woodwork. Johnstone’s Aqua Guard Matt is one of the very few that I have absolute faith in. It’s a really good product.
Best Eggshell Paint for Furniture
Bedec Advanced Eggshell is brilliant! It’s fully water-based, has great consistency, is durable once dry, and the finish is superb. The only downside is that you can’t buy it in tinted colours.
I like a lot of Bedec products. It’s only a small paint company, but they’re great at making water-based paint products. Bedec Advanced Eggshell is one of the best eggshells for any interior wood. You should use Bedec All Prime for your first coat.
Best Satin Paint for Furniture
The best satinwood for furniture must be Johnstone’s Aqua Guard. It’s by far the most popular satin amongst Professional Decorators in the UK. It’s fully water-based, comes with its own primer, is extremely durable, and the finish is bob on.
The only thing I will say is this paint can sag a little bit, so don’t apply it too thick. Other than that, it’s brilliant.
Best Gloss Paint for Furniture
While gloss may not be as universally popular as it once was, it’s still a good option to consider for furniture as it is highly durable and easy to wipe clean.
The issue with oil-based gloss is that it yellows too quickly. Water-based gloss may not be as shiny, but it can still give a nice finish, and the colour will last. My favourite is Bedec Advanced Gloss.
You can use Bedec All Prime for your first coat. This will adhere to almost anything, block tannins and knots, and act as your undercoat. You should then apply two coats of Bedec Aqua Advance.
Best Aerosol Paints for Furniture
The best spray paint for furniture is Maston in my opinion. Maston is available from The Range, and it consists of a wide range of products from solid colours, metallics, stone effect, and metal spray paint.
It might be that you only want to spray the handles, but you want them to be gold. Or that your furniture is an awkward shape, and it’s difficult to get an even flat finish with a brush and roller. Maston Aerosols are brilliant.
Painting Furniture
I don’t intend to go into detail on this here; I’ll write a separate blog giving a step-by-step guide on how to paint furniture. What I will say is that the old decorator’s mantra is crucial here: “it’s all in the prep”. The key to successful furniture painting is getting the paint to stick. Often, especially if the item is second-hand, you may not know what it has been treated with previously.
Was it oiled? Stained? Varnished? The correct prep in terms of thorough cleaning, sanding and priming is essential to make sure the paint will adhere properly to the furniture.
FAQs
What kind of paint is best for furniture?
You’ll need a primer, followed by a topcoat of some description, either satinwood, matt, eggshell, or gloss. Providing you stick to trade paints, you shouldn’t have an issue using the same products you’d use on interior doors, skirting board, and other trim.
What is the toughest furniture paint?
The toughest paint for furniture is Maston 2K spray, which you can buy from Rawlins Paints. However, providing you use one of the products mentioned in this blog, you won’t have any issues with durability.
Is there a difference between furniture paint and wall paint?
The paint you should use on furniture is the same paint you’d use on interior woodwork, so it’s different to the emulsion paints you should use on walls.
Do you need special paint for wooden furniture?
There are several specialist ‘furniture paints’ on the market, but that’s just an example of good marketing. You just need a good quality satinwood, eggshell, gloss, or matt for furniture.
Final Thoughts
Painting furniture is both fun and rewarding, and it allows you to create items which are truly unique to you and your home. The two key things to think about when choosing the paint, are what type of finish you want (distressed, solid matt/eggshell/satin/gloss, or specialist finish such as metallic), and durability. I hope this blog has given you some insight into the best furniture paint products available.
If the furniture is likely to suffer any kind of wear and tear, err on the side of caution and choose a hard-wearing paint, or apply a couple of coats of hard-wearing clear varnish after painting. But have fun doing it and add some personality into your home with your own unique furniture.
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