How to paint Ikea furniture – part 2

6 Comments

Couple of months ago I was asked by a friend to paint her daughter’s wardrobe. As I’m a complete fanatic when it comes to painting furniture of course I agreed. And to paint Ikea furniture is no different. In fact, if you’ve been following my blog for a while, then you have probably seenย  the Ikea’s bedside cabinet that I painted back in March (if not click here to check it out).

The next project was a three-door Ikea’s wardrobe that was going to be a home for their little twin girls’ dresses, tutus and all their adorable outfits. (I really miss those days when my daughter was eagerly wearing whatever I chose for her, nowadays I only get that look “are you kidding me?”)

How to paint Ikea furniture

As this is a part 2 of “How to paint Ikea furniture” I will not be concentrating on the details as much, as the same can be applied from part 1. So if you’ve missed that, you can go back to that post now, it’s OK, I’ll wait. But if you don’t have time I will try to make sense of all this painting process! So here it is…

Your DIY guide to painting Ikea furniture

First things first – the wardrobe before (well, actually some parts of it as the photo was taken after the wardrobe was dismantled and delivered to my house).

The wardrobe was going to be in their girl’s bedroom so I felt it needed some colour. Yet I knew that mummy and daddy are big fans of neutral colours and actually asked me to paint it grey. But it is not a secret that I’m a huge colour lover and I don’t do neutrals. Therefore I’ve decided to add at least a little bit of colour. After all, this wardrobe was meant for kids bedroom!

For those of you who didn’t bother to go back to “How to paint Ikea furniture – part 1” here’s a quick note. Use good quality chalk paint! They can be used on almost every surface: wood, mdf, metal, you name it! And they don’t require any time-consuming preparation like sanding.

The paint

I mainly use Annie Sloan chalk paints. If you want to know why you will have to go back to that previous post or visit Annie Sloan official website.

For this project I used Provance which is a gorgeous teal colour.

Of course the wardrobe was supposed to be grey, so I only used Provance as an undercoat on the panels around each door. It might sound weird but it will make sense later, I promise!

paint ikea furniture with chalk paint

The colour on these photos doesn’t represent the real colour of the paint

Remember to protect the mirror if your wardrobe has it. You don’t want to be scrubbing off the paint!

Step 2

When that’s done (and dry) you can start painting the wardrobe with your main colour. As I didn’t want the wardrobe to be too dark I mixed white paint withย  Paris Greyย  to avoid buying more paint. The colour was light and very subtle, just what they asked for.ย 

Start painting the already painted panels as well as the rest of the wardrobe. Then wait for the first coat to dry completely before adding another coat of chalk paint. (You might be tempted not to give your piece of furniture another coat of paint as these paints are really thick and give good coverage. Butย  you’ll see the difference as soon as you start applying that second coat)

The wardrobe knobs were painted Paris Grey first with Provance as a top coat for contrast. And of course they were distressed like the rest of the wardrobe!

Achieving aย  distressed look

Distressed look is when you make your furniture look old, shabby and likeย  they’ve been around for a very long time. This look is very easy to achieve and there are many techniques you can try. I used “a good old scrub technique”. You could also try to wax the areas where you don’t want the paint to adhere before using your second colour. Then just wipe the paint off with the cloth.

I’ve also heard of people using Vaseline instead of the wax but never tried it myself.

So there are lots of options for you. But if you want to try rubbing with a sanding paper, make sure you start with a very fine one. Only when you’re confident enough move to a medium or coarse paper. Although I would stick with the fine or medium one. Start with the edges, working your way inwards. You just have to trust your instinct here. If you do too little, it won’t make any impact. If you do too much it will lose the charm.

This wardrobe was only distressed on the panels around the doors where it was painted the teal colour underneath.

 

Protecting the paint

When the doors were finished I moved on to painting the other part of the wardrobe.

Remember to add another coat of chalk paint and finish with a wax. The best way to apply wax is by using a special round brush. But it’s OK to use a cloth instead. Alternatively you could protect the paint with a coat of clear varnish but it won’t give that nice mat finish.

And that’s it. Now you know how to paint Ikea furniture. And here’s my (my friend’s) painted wardrobe

painting ikea furniture

I apologize for the quality of the photo but it was quite tricky to photograph the whole wardrobe from the right angle and with it being by the window as well.

ikea wardrobe makeover

Don’t have time to read it now? Pin it for later

how to paint ikea furniture

 

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6 Comments

  1. Caroline
    May 10, 2017

    Great job! I really like the teal colour you used. I’ve only ever used the rust-oleum chalk paint as they don’t sell Annie Sloan at the Homebase near me. I’ve been pretty happy with is though!

    Reply
    • Anonymous
      May 10, 2017

      I used Rust Oleum as well, they’re really similar but I’m just in love with Annie Sloan pains and they last so long. You won’t find them in big stores. Try little independent shops, I’m sure you’ll find one near you : )

      Reply
  2. Vicki
    May 8, 2017

    Big Annie Sloan fan here too. I’ve just finished my TV cabinet and will be writing a post about it soon. Love the Provence colour too !

    Reply
    • Anonymous
      May 8, 2017

      Yes, the colour is gorgeous! I’ve used it around my home too. I can’t wait to see your cabinet!

      Reply
  3. Marta Hutt
    May 8, 2017

    snap! I’ve been also painting with chalk paint on weekend! ๐Ÿ˜€ my wrists were sore from applying wax afterwards – first time ever I’ve applied wax with brush instead of cloth – auch… if you’ve done it on this size of wardrobe! It’s a lot of elbow grease ๐Ÿ˜‰ love the blue paint effect and distressing effect is perfect for kids room so you don’t have to worry about them knocking the paint about

    Reply
    • Anonymous
      May 8, 2017

      Oh no! It is so much easier with a cloth as with a brush most of it stays on the brush. I’ve also heard people using a sponge, I will have to try that next time : )

      Reply

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