Antique painted furniture

Antique painted furniture it everywhere now. It’s elegant if done right, and can be a lovely addition to your home. It’s easy to refinish antique furniture, and I believe anyone can do it! In this article I will show you how I redid an antique fourth generation family piece. You can do this too with any antique you have or buy!

Find an antique you love

You can use a piece you already have, or look for one at your local antique store or thrift store. That’s right, even thrift stores occasionally will have an all wood piece for sale that you could redo.

BEFORE antique furniture before stripping with CitraStrip and sanding

Gather materials needed

These materials can be purchased at any hardware store, I have some Amazon link below so you can get these items usually within 2 days FREE if you have Prime.

electric hand sander, I used this one which is great because it collects (most) of the dust coming off of your wood
sand paper, (80 grit to get off old paint in crevasses, if needed.)
CitraStrip, used for hard to get off paint
plastic flex putty knife, for scrapping off paint after using CitraStrip.
wood stain or clear coat, I used Minwax Poylcrylic clearcoat to finish my antique painted furniture piece. It’s holding up great, is protected and I use this product a lot so I know it works. I choose clear coat to bring out the natural color of the wood.
white paint to give it a “white washed look” I used what I had on hand, which was interior white paint satin. This is a highly rated white paint for furniture.
paint brush
drop cloth
terry cloth rag (that you will end up throwing away)
(IF spray painting knobs) spray paint color of choice, I used this. Rustoleum brand is best for durability.

Set up your station

Gather materials in one space you plan to work at, for the next few days, or however long it takes. I did this in my garage. Lay out all materials so their at your fingertips when you need them.

Strip old finish

Since I don’t antique paint furniture everyday, I sought advise from someone on Instagram who does it all the time. She recommended I sand as must of the paint off I could. And whatever paint you can’t get off with the sander, to then use the CirtaStrip listed in the materials section above.

Before beginning the stripping, remove the knobs or handles. Unscrew, and set aside.

So that’s what I did and although it took a bit of time and was messy because of the dust, it was worth it!

I also read reviews on CitraStrip and several people said it didn’t work as well as they had thought. Most people loved it and some commented on the smell giving them a headache.

Here’s a list of things I did to help with stripping the paint:

Wear a dust mask
sand in bathes (a 1’x1′ chunk at a time makes it go faster)
Once you apply CitraStrip put PLASTIC WRAP over the chemical to allow it to soak in and not dry out as fast.
let product sit full 30 min before scrapping off
Use a WELL VENTILATED space, and you shouldn’t notice any smell.
keep dust mask on for stripping product to not inhale minor fumes.

Prep antique furniture for paint

Use a work rag and a splash of cleaner in a bucket of hot water to lightly go over the wood. This is done to get off all debris from the sanding and CitraStrip. I rung the rag out very well so there were no drips of water on the wood. Also you may have to scrub a bit harder where the stripping product was as it can be a little sticky.

Let dry for several hours, a large fan is helpful for this.

Final paint for antique furniture

Gently swirl (not shake) the container of Minwax Poylcrylic clearcoat. Use your paintbrush to apply a single coat, let dry.
Using a damp terry cloth rag, dip it in a SMALL amount of white paint, and SMALL amount of the clear coat . Apply in any area you’d like on your antique furniture piece. I rubbed it a lot after applying because I wanted an old worn look, and not look as though I just splotched on white paint.
Let that dry for a couple hours.
While drying, I worked on the knobs by spray painting them (back first, dry, then flip and do front)
Apply one final layer of the Minwax Poylcrylic clearcoat.
Let dry for a few hours, screw new or upcycled knobs and or handles and you project is then done!!