Pretty Painted Furniture

You can harmonize unmatching vintage furniture with the magic of paint. Paint is cheap, easy, and comes in any color imaginable! It gives you instant gratification and the biggest decorating bang-for-the-buck around. Don't pass up those sad forgotten dressers, chests, and side tables on your Saturday morning yard sale hunts. Just repaint them! All it takes is a little sanding, priming, and elbow work.

A word of caution, ensure your new find is flea market quality and not museum quality before you do any painting (this could ruin the value). Sadly, none of my finds have ever fallen into this category.

Here's a few painted pieces I have in my home.

This dresser was given to me by a friend who was ready to haul it to the dumpster (my Mom and Dad helped me refinish it in the garage over several cocktails).

You can use paint to highlight pretty wood accents that would otherwise go unnoticable (as I did with this old blanket chest).

You can also paint just a section of a cabinet and add pretty decorative stencils (like the scrolls on this stereo cabinet)

Instead of buying new expensive bathroom cabinets, I refinished the outdated oak ones by repainting them with black semi-gloss scrubbable paint. With the addition of new door knobs, they look brand new at a fraction of the cost.

On a side note, don't forget to have at least one chandelier in the house for glamour (this one is in the bathroom and goes with the new painted cabinets).

Have fun!

Di