3 Questions to Ask Before You Paint (and/or stain) Your Furniture

There are so many furniture finishing options on the market right now! Maybe you’ve got a tired piece that’s needing a refresh, but you’re overwhelmed with the options. You just don’t have the confidence to move forward. Should you paint it? Refinish it with stain? Put decorative painting on it? Or maybe a combo of different treatments? A person can get paralyzed with all the options and end up doing nothing, right? Since I’ve painted quite a few (o.k., a lot) furniture pieces, I decided to think through my process of how I decide to make over a piece of furniture. I’m hoping it will help you move forward and give you confidence to makeover your piece! Here are 3 Questions to Ask Before You Paint (and/or stain) Your Furniture.

Before You Paint (and/or stain) Your Furniture, Ask Yourself:

What Does This Room Need?

Take a good look at all the pieces of furniture in your room. Are they painted, stained, metal? Are they neutral toned, or stand out? The most pleasing rooms are a happy collection of different surface textures. If all the pieces in your room are currently stained wood, you need a painted piece. If all your furniture is different colored paint, then a wood stained piece would probably ground the room.

“The most pleasing rooms are a happy collection of different surface textures.”

Does all your furniture in the room look a little ho-hum? You maybe need a piece to be the star; give the room a little sparkle. When you take a hard look at the balance of surfaces in your room, it will help you decide how to finish the piece that needs a makeover.

For example, our bedroom consists of mostly white painted furniture. There is also one mostly wood piece. When trying to decide how to treat the dresser I was making over, I knew I couldn’t go with white or wood; the room would be boring. It needed something different; unique. My mind brainstormed the options, and I came up with a painted, distressed green. It’s become the stand-out piece, which is just what the room was asking for!

When deciding how to makeover a dresser for my mom’s room, I took stock of the other pieces in the room first. She had a bookshelf that was painted green with wood shelves and a white painted metal bed. I decided a white paint and wood combo would coordinate with the rest of the pieces nicely. I wanted the wood and paint to have a good balance in the room.

Asking what the room needs is the first question to ask before you paint your furniture.

Next, ask yourself:

What Details Do You Love About This Piece? What Details are Boring?

Just like a love relationship, there’s something that drew you to this piece of furniture! Do you love the curve of the legs? Does it have beautifully grained wood? Are there carved details that add gorgeous surface texture? Try to pinpoint what details stand out to you, because these are the parts you want to highlight in your refresh.

As I was sanding down this dresser I refreshed for my mom, I fell in love with the beautiful wood grained top. No veneer here; it was solid wood. I also loved the groove design on the front of the middle drawer, but the other drawers were plain jane. I wanted to highlight that pretty detail and give the others some extra beauty. The pretty wood gave it an organic vibe, so I settled on brightening the sides with white paint and adding some decorative painting to the front.

I loved the spoon carved detailing on the fronts of the drawers of my vintage green painted dresser {“Dresser Makeover in Vintage Green”}, but the sides were boring. I knew the side of the dresser would greet me each time I went into our bedroom, and I wanted them to be as pretty and unique as the front. Vintage ceiling tin was the perfect addition to pretty up the side view.

The upright dresser I refreshed for Happy Girl’s room had a gorgeous medallion design on the front with pretty wood-grained veneer. The detailed legs made the piece interesting in the room, different from all the other pieces of furniture that were solid to the ground. The legs just made this girl feminine, so I wanted her to “show a little leg”, not just blend into the rest of the piece. {“Dresser Makeover with a Checklist Printable”}

When you ask yourself what you love about your piece of furniture, it will help you decide how you should finish it; what details you want to stand out. It can also direct you to decide what details need improving on.

Lastly, ask yourself:

What is my Gut Telling Me?

Have you ever heard the saying, “Follow Your Heart?” Well, it is kind of true when it comes to furniture makeovers. When you’ve asked yourself the first two questions, and you’ve done some homework on Pinterest, brainstorming all the amazing options available, you need to go with your gut. (For furniture ideas, check out my Pinterest board, “Furniture Ideas”, and follow me while you’re there;)

Your responsible self may be saying, “I can’t paint over all that history handed down from Grandma.” But your gut is telling you you’ll never really enjoy that piece unless it’s brighter and happier. You need to paint it. You may be thinking you should just use a neutral color paint, because it will be the most flexible option, but your gut is telling you to go out on a limb and try an accent color. Go for it!

It really comes down to the fact that this is just a piece of furniture. It can be redone again if you don’t like it! I’m already mulling over some 2nd makeovers for some of my furniture. Fashion changes from year to year, decade to decade, why shouldn’t your furniture reflect your current tastes and style?

Have some fun giving your furniture a makeover! Hopefully these 3 Questions to Ask Before you Paint (and/or stain) Your Furniture will get your wheels turning and give you the confidence to go. for. it!

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