Painting Shabby Furniture

 If you want to have a cozy shabby style furniture in your home, the trick is to use pale and soft colour palette and antique furnishings which have floral prints. Unlike cleaning in this case perfection is not needed. Most of the shabby look comes from the aged feel of the items. You can check several flea markets for well-worn pieces, even if they are not in great condition and some refurbishing is needed. You will need only a few days to paint shabby furniture and make it look like it was just bought from an antique store. Here is what you have to do.

 In the beginning remove drawer pulls, knobs and hinges and clean the furniture using a cleaner which does not contain water. To reach corners and other hard-to-reach areas you can either use a toothbrush or a scrub brush. For too dirty and stained pieces of furniture you can use trisodium phosphate or TSP to clean them. Take into account that often you will need paint stripper in case the furniture has already a few layers of paint.

 Next you should sand the piece of furniture in order to smooth any rough areas. Then once again you should clean the item with a cleaner without water and steel wool. Wait for the piece to get completely dry and at this point wipe it using tack cloth. With it you will be able to eliminate fine particles of dust.

 Now, it is time to apply primer. Use steel wool to wipe the whole surface when the primer is dry and after that wipe one more time using a tack cloth.

 Finally, it is time to paint the furniture and give it a shabby look. Painting experts recommend to paint the shabby chic furniture in thin coats to minimize the chance for drips. Also make sure the coats are as even as possible.  Wait for the paint to get perfectly dry and sand the item gently using sandpaper. Experts in furniture services such as IKEA assembly service London employees advise to use medium-grit sandpaper. There will be some areas where you should go several times to remove excess paint. You should pick up certain spots where you think that there is a higher chance for paint to wear. Usually this will be corners and edges of drawers. Using a tack cloth wipe the piece again.

 I hope that at the end you will be pleased with the final results and you will get the shabby effect you wanted.