Paint is one of the easiest and fastest ways to makeover furniture. I love a good painting job, and feel invincible after a good complete painting project. Sometimes though, painting can be tedious and take longer than desired. This is especially true if there are legs, spindles and lots of curves on your piece.
Painting your furniture, particularly chairs, with a paint sprayer can cut your paint time in half if not more.
Recently, I purchased six of these old pine chairs and remade them. Scroll down for the after.
Types of Paint To Use For Painting A Chair
When it comes to painting a chair or other piece of furniture, I’ve tried them all. Chalk Paint, Mineral Fusion paint, latex paint, oil paint and regular spray paint.
By far I’m a fan of a homemade chalk paint made from latex paint, or just regular paint.
Spray paint in the can has gotten ridiculously expensive. If you purchase Magnolia Spray paint from a home improvement store, they’re running upwards of $14 a can! Yikes!!! I about died when I saw the price. Even a matte finish by Krylon is running upwards of $8 a can these days.
Considering that you can buy a quart of paint for around $20 and a gallon for $35-40, your paint will go a lot further if you avoid the spray paint.
However, spray paint can create a beautiful easy to apply finish. Which is where I recommend investing in a paint sprayer.
Which Paint Sprayer Would I Recommend?
While there are many types of sprayers to purchase, you don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars. The ones at home improvement stores were more than I wanted to spend.
Ultimately, I purchased this paint sprayer several years ago on Amazon for about $40-$45. While the price has gone up slightly, it is $58 at time of posting this blog. Considering the price of a spray paint can, it’ll pay for itself within one or even two projects.
*This post contains affiliate links which means I may make a small commission at no additional cost to you from Amazon if you click on this link and purchase.
This paint sprayer was easy to use, easy to clean and affordable.
How Much Paint Do You Need For A Project?
The amount of paint you’ll need varies depending on the color you’re using and the underneath color. A light colored paint will require more coats. Painting over dark wood will require additional coats while a light wood may require less.
I’ve found that for a single chair I’ll need one full can of spray paint, and sometimes two.
If you’re painting six chairs, and need about two cans per chair, that project could suddenly cost you $180 if you’re purchasing Magnolia paint! So you can see how cost effective a paint sprayer is.
How To Paint Furniture With a Paint Sprayer
- For this project, I first opted to lightly sand my chairs using 280 grit fine sandpaper. I used a sander on some surfaces and sanded the spindles by hand very lightly. All in all, sanding took me about 10-15 minutes.
- After sanding I then wiped everything down with a vinegar and water mixture to remove dust and degrease.
- After sanding, I then did one light coat of oil based primer. While you could skip the priming step if you use chalk paint, I wanted to use less paint and wanted to ensure a smooth high quality finish. I painted a quick light coat on all six chairs. This priming step took me about 30 minutes.
- Select and mix your paint. For this project, I used Perfect Greige by Sherwin Williams, which I already had on hand. After priming, I went on to painting. I first tried to make my own chalk paint. Here’s how I did it on a different project, (link). This was a total bust and the air from the sprayer kept causing the paint and water and chalk to separate. After trying several different amounts of water, I ended up emptying out the sprayer and rinsing out the paint. I chose to simply use the regular satin finish latex paint with around 1 tablespoon of water added just to thin it out for the sprayer.
- From here I began spraying. Voila! This was incredibly easy. Most of the chairs only needed one coat since the sprayer created a nice thick smooth coat. Some of the spindles and legs where I hadn’t hit them as much I did need to hit again with the sprayer. I also took a paint brush and swiped up any drips where it was applied a little thick.
The Results
This was my first time using a paint sprayer on furniture and it was a dream. I’ve never had anything apply so easily and look so professional. Spraying the chairs with the paint sprayer took less than 45 minutes.
I may add a wax finish, but after letting the paint cure for a couple days, they really don’t need it. We are now using these chairs in our dining room and they are looking amazing! Happy Painting!
Kaitlyn