Do you love the look of high-end furniture, but don’t want to spend a fortune? Do you want to refinish your furniture but you don’t know how? Keep reading…this DIY furniture refinishing tutorial is for you!
I am going to show you how I turned my old, outdated bedroom furniture into a scroll stopper!
If you have a piece of furniture you love, but maybe don’t care for the finish or color, then stick around! I am going to give you the EASY inside scoop on how to take that old piece from frumpy to fabulous with just a few ingredients, and a little elbow grease!
After years of using our Master Bedroom furniture (the set we have had since we got married!), I decided it needed a little TLC. I LOVE our furniture, but it started to turn a little orangey-yellow, and I was not loving the color anymore.
Here you can see the orange-ish tone I’m referring to before the DIY furniture refinish…it just doesn’t go with the light and airy style I have in my home, so it was time to change it up.
The steps to refinishing furniture may seem difficult, but stick with me! I’ll show you the easiest way to take the old varnish off (without a ton of work) to reveal the beautiful wood underneath…let’s go!!
DIY Furniture Refinishing Checklist:
Before you get started, you’ll need to grab these things:
- Rubber Gloves
- 2-3 paint brushes
- CitriStrip
- Bleach
- Palm Sander or Sand Paper (rough and fine grit)
- Mineral Spirits or Denatured Alcohol
- Small can of paint or whitewash (depending on what color you want as the end result)
- Polycrylic
- Mixing bowl or cup (disposable)
- Plastic wrap (such as Saran-wrap)
- Paint Scraper
- Shop Towels or Old T-shirt cut into rags
Step 1:
Start by taking your furniture piece into an area where you can work (i.e., the garage, a covered porch, etc.). You will probably need to leave it in this space for at least a day or two, so make sure it’s out of the weather.
Step 2:
Grab the bottle of CitriStrip and a paintbrush. Apply a nice thick layer of CitriStrip to the furniture and let sit for at least an hour (pro-tip: cover the area with plastic wrap to keep it wet – if you let it dry it is much harder to scrape off!) Depending on the amount of clear coat and stain/paint that is already on the furniture, it may take longer for the stripper to take effect.
Step 3:
Once you’ve let the stripper do the hard work, use a paint scraper to start to gently scrape the varnish off in smooth strokes. Go with the grain of the wood and be careful not to push too hard so you don’t scratch the wood. If you can’t get down to the bare wood, you can do another coat of CitriStrip and repeat the process.
Step 4:
After you scrape off as much of the excess CitriStrip as you can, take a shop towel (or cut up an old t-shirt to use as a lint-free rag) and some Mineral Spirits (or Denatured Alcohol works too) and clean the furniture off really well. The Mineral Spirits/Denatured Alcohol help get off any residue left behind. If there is any old stain or varnish still visible, don’t worry! This next step will remove any of that.
Step 5:
Take your palm sander or sandpaper (make sure the grit is tough enough to get off any leftover residue but fine enough to leave the surface smooth) and begin smoothing the surface with even strokes, still going in the direction of the wood grain.
Step 6:
Once you finish sanding, take a look at your piece. If the undertones of the wood are not light enough, you can use a rag or paintbrush and apply a coat of bleach to the wood and let it sit in the sun for about 15 minutes (this helps get any red tones out of the wood). Repeat as necessary. If you’re happy with the wood tone, you can skip this step!
Step 7:
Now the fun begins! Get the whitewash or color you chose for the final look of your piece. I chose to do use whitewash/pickling with a TINY splash of gray paint to get the look I was going for.
Grab a disposable mixing bowl or cup and you want about 1/4 of the mix to be your color choice, and the other 3/4 to be water.
Start with the color first (you can always add more water later) and make sure the color is the shade you want before adding the water.
If you like the color of my final piece, this is how I mixed it. Start with whitewash/pickling (you can also just use white paint and water it down A LOT) and add in a few drops of medium gray paint. The great thing about this DIY is you can keep adding until you achieve the color you want.
Once you get the base color how you want it, add enough water to the mixture so that you have 1/4 color and 3/4 water. **I suggest making a large amount, to begin with, because if you run out and have to mix more, it may not be an exact match to your first mixture. Now it’s time to paint it on!
Step 8:
Grab your paintbrush and lint-free rag (or old t-shirt) and your whitewash mixture. Paint on a thin even coat in a seamless motion. As you paint on, quickly follow with the rag and wipe off. This step keeps the whitewash from soaking too far into the wood so it’s not too white. The more layers of this you do, the white (or whatever color you chose) will build and show less of the wood tone. Start out slow; you can always add more, but it’s hard to take it back off. The more you rub the rag along the surface of the wood, the more blended it will look.
Step 9:
Now you’re in the final stretch! If your final color is the way you want it, it’s now time to seal it so your hard work is protected. You want to use a polycrylic like the one below because it will seal the finish but it won’t turn yellow/orange over time because it’s water-based, not oil-based. You may notice some furniture starts to turn over time (like my bedroom furniture did) and that’s why! This polycrylic will keep your furniture looking its best for years to come.
Paint on a nice even coat of this all over your furniture piece and let it dry for about 15 minutes. Repeat this step at least 2-3 times letting it dry each time in between coats. After the final coat, let it dry for about 6-8 hours before use.
Step 10:
Now it’s time to stand back and marvel at your masterpiece! I plan on refinishing all of our bedroom furniture pieces to match our nightstand, but I refinished our bed a little differently for a pop! You can see my post here to check out the process and final result! Enjoy!!
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