Painted Furniture. So many options! So many colours! And so many styles. I have been doing a Pinterest deep dive to gather up some of my favourite examples in a multitude of styles. I do this to inspire you to go and find a piece that speaks to you, and really make it your own. But I have an ulterior motive, I also do it to inspire me. Because I already have 3 pieces of furniture chilling in my garage, and I need to find my next project. Are you wanting to try your hand at making over an old piece of furniture? Well, you have come to the right place – I have compiled THIRTY examples to show you how you can up-cycle furniture, with paint. Let’s go!
French Provincial (My fave!)
Definitely one of my favourite styles, ok, actually it IS my favourite! This is a style of furniture that I don’t really get too stressed out about adding paint over wood. Because as you will see in these examples, paint really seems to enhance to details of these beautiful pieces. The original dressers are usually medium stained wood, or painted white with gold accents, so a coat of colour is a big improvement, and these are absolutely inspired!
Peacock Blue. I put this one first, because it’s really one of my favourite pieces by Thirty-Eight street. Isn’t this an amazing shade of blue? well, and of course the furniture is AMAZING!
So pretty in all shades, but I really love these in blue. And this royal blue is so good. You might notice as you make your way through this post, that there is a bit of a blue theme running through it, which makes sense because, well just look at this!
And how about a little splash of red? This gorgeous vanity is called Queen of Hearts. This is done in general finishes holiday red
And even with more muted tones, the beautiful lines of this furniture shine through. I could use little round table like this in my living room. I’ll just add this to my shopping list!
As much of a fan as I am of painted furniture, I really really love it when some of the original wood is preserved. Somehow it seems so much more spectacular when just a bit of the stained wood is highlighted. I love this piece!
Same concept here, with a bit of a ‘forever in blue jeans’ kinda vibe, as named by the artist. And I feel the need to point out that this shiny finish is actually chalk paint, with a topcoat. So, you see chalk paint doesn’t have to look like you just pulled a piece out of the back of your barn 🙂
Mid Century Modern
I used to think the term mid century modern was a bit ostentatious. Otherwise known as 1950’s furniture 🙂 🙂 I remember when I was in my 20’s, my boyfriend’s mom sold me all of her old living room furniture, it was classic mid century modern. But that was a long time ago, and it’s long gone. Oh well, it wasn’t the expensive stuff anyway. Onward!! 🙂 I currently have a mid-century piece in my garage that I’m working on, I’ll link it up here when it’s done. It’s looking pretty good so far.
This one has a similar colour scheme to the one I’m working on. The colour combination of natural wood and the black is so good, so classic. General Finishes lamp black
is such a great shade
source
Here is my finished Credenza!
But who says that you have to stick with black. How about ORANGE? Wait – orange? Yup, orange. Well, I think you could probably pair this piece with any colour because it has such FABULOUS lines. This tricky part is finding these diamonds in the rough. Maybe this is why I check online a couple times a day… Oh and NICE touch with the clock – BAM! And funny thing, while I was still writing this post, I actually found a very similar piece to this one online. I didn’t buy it though, due to space restrictions, but good to know that they are out there!!
Now that’s some colour! Patina and rust. You can buy versions of patina green
But this piece uses a lot of technique besides just paint to achieve this finish. And it has GF lamp black too, which is a fabulous paint.
Don’t you just love the little detail between the upper drawers on this dresser? Plus it’s got serpentine drawers, which get me every time. Check out the nice ombre effect that she did with her paint. And I loved how she found some left-overs from previous owners in the dresser 😉
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Chunky Furniture
This is another style that really speaks to me. This blue piece below looks VERY similar to my parents bedroom suite, that my Dad is still using. I remember when they bought it, and it’s still going strong. I find it interesting that people keep a bedroom suite for a lifetime! And I think that a lot of people do! I don’t of course, because I’m a furniture hoarder 🙂 Most of these seventies-ish pieces came in that very dark wood finish, so it’s nice to see them get lightened up with a coat of paint. And these chunky detailed pieces are PERFECT for glazing to really bring out their depth. Ok. truth I have a couple night tables my garage in this style too (See… furniture hoarder) Ok, how fabulous is this shade of teal!
Yep we also had these mis-matched end tables, not the pedestal version, but the standard square and hexagonal set. I love the way she highlighted these using lighter colours, along with the gun-metal grey. I’m a huge fan of metallics, so this one had me at hello! I just saw one of these little raised tables for sale the other day… wonder if it will make it’s way into my garage as well.
Oh Baby, his piece has so many beautiful traits! A bit of wood, a bit of metallic, hell, a bit of a peek-a-boo. A. Plus it’s really perfectly staged. Fab. U. Lous.
Another 70’s end table finding a new life. This little blue beauty, has some great detailing, circles and swirls oh my! And do you know what? The base is spray paint!! See? No reason you can’t do this too!
Colour Blending
If you are going to use colour, might as well go big or go home. But let’s be honest, this is one technique that you can really screw up. Do you know what happens when you mix all the colours of the rainbow together? You get poopy brown. No worries with these talented bloggers, colour masters all! Keep scrolling and engulf yourself in colour.
Bianca calls this piece Calypso. Definately go and check out her full post to see the before photos, because this is an amazing transformation. The original piece was kind of… well ugly really, nothing like it looks here. AND she has great videos of her process.
This piece below from Brushed by Brandy, has a full 4 part video series that walks you through the entire process. You get to see the entire transformation from start to finish, of the piece shown below. Yay, I love learning, especially from really skilled artists.
Another one of Brandy’s below. She does nice work. A great place to look for inspiration.
Two of my favourite things combined. A Bombay chest (I love Bombay chests!!!) and colour blending. Plus I’m kind of smitten by this metallic pink, or Rozay, as they call this shade by Dixie Bell.
Glazing
See what I did here? Added in a bit of red for you, to balance out all of the blue. Ok, now I’m for sure working on a glazing project. I’m pretty sure it won’t be as fabulous as these ones, but you gotta get through your first one right? Ok, let’s all aspire together to have our first glazing projects look something like these pristine pieces. And this chest is done in the same shade of holiday red as the Queen of Hearts (above) was. It’s a great red!
Notice the nice little touch of gold on these girls. Looking very stylish and refined, and maybe just a little bit French!
This piece is named “GeorgeMichael”. What a fabulous piece of furniture, and an equally fabulous paint job. That is what we are here to learn after all? How to increase the fabulousness of furniture with paint! Doesn’t this beautiful piece of furniture just make you swoon a little?
I was amazed to find out that the hutch below was done with chalk paint and wax. It looks so metallic. Love love love this colour combo, I’m definitely inspired by this to find something to paint and glaze
Aren’t you?
Whimsy and Funk
There are a few people who do funk, and then there’s Brittany Pistole. You have probably seen her painted furniture before, it’s all over Pinterest. I don’t even know how she comes up with her designs. And her execution is flawless. Brittany offers painting courses if you want to learn her style! Look at the crazy piece below!
This is one of what she calls ‘Snow White approved’ vanities, there are a LOT of these. Don’t you think that if you owned this piece, you would sit in front of it saying “mirror, mirror on the wall…” 😉 ALL DAY LONG!!
Tracey of Tracey’s fancy also does whimsical painted furniture. Here are a couple of her pieces below
I had just seen this headboard on Instagram, and I HAD to include it here. Such an amazing example of painted furniture that really makes a statement! Plus I’m thinking this would have been a lot of fun to paint. There’s just something about gold…
Bombays
Did I mention before that I LOVE Bombays, I think I did. They come in so many amazing shapes and sizes, and when you add a coat of paint, It gets exponentially better. The photo below almost looks black and white, but it’s blended in shades of grey, not quite 50 though 😉
It’s NEVER too early for Christmas, a little green and gold to get you in the spirit?
Check out the beautiful feet on this chest. I just love the chubbiness of bombay chests. Different shapes and sizes all of them, like all of the people in your life
And this one is mine. A little zebra paint job for my ugly old bombay chest. Go and see what it looked like before, it was UGLY.
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If you were thinking about trying your hand at painted furniture, you have 30 examples here to guide you. If I can offer you one word of advice it’s this: For your very first piece of painted furniture, go and find a throw-away to start with . You don’t want to take that heirloom antique that you spent a few hundred dollars on and mess it up. There is lots of free furniture out there that needs a makeover, so go rescue a piece and start painting!! And then go and find your treasure!
Someday…..