furniture flipping & paint de-stashing

Two birds, one stone: give old furniture new life and use up your leftover wall paint!

Materials:

• Wood furniture (Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, garage sales, and thrift stores are all excellent sources of affordable options)

• Leftover interior paint or sample paint pots (if you don't have any leftover paint, most paint stores sell sample pots for $4-$8 each)

  • A half-pint sample pot, used carefully, can cover larger furniture items like dressers or hutches using 2 coats of paint

  • For smaller items like a side table, smaller 3-ounce pots are sufficient

• Fine-grit sandpaper

• Cleaning solution (soapy water or a spray solution like Krud Kutter)

• Rags

• Primer

• Paint brush or roller (if your city has a Habitat for Humanity ReStore, these are great sources of used painting supplies)

The before: perfectly nice furniture from Facebook Marketplace, but not a good fit for the room's color scheme

Getting started:

• Remove all hardware (where possible)

• Clean the surface with a soapy rag or using a grease-cutting cleaner like Krud Kutter

• Sand using medium-grit sandpaper to remove any glossy finish on the surface (this may not be necessary depending on the finish your furniture has to begin with)

• Using a brush or roller, paint on a layer of primer (we used Kilz brand, since that's what we had left over from a previous paint job)

• Depending on your level of dedication, sanding with a fine-grit sandpaper and dusting with a tack cloth in between each coat of paint/primer will provide a better quality final product

The fun part:

• Paint the surface, using a brush and/or roller

• Sand again (optional but encouraged)

• Paint another coat, repeating steps 6&7 as needed for the desired coverage

• Let your item dry for at least 24 hours before reattaching hardware, and be gentle with the item for 30 days as the paint cures fully

The final result:

Our Note: We hope you feel inspired to use up your leftover paint or try out new colors in your home! If you would like to dispose of any leftover paint, please do so responsibly, as latex paint and solvents can cause serious damage to your local waterways. Many municipalities have paint collection sites where you can drop off usable leftover paints - if not, your local hazardous waste management facility is the best place for liquid paint/solvent products. If you only have a small amount of paint left over, you can let it dry and solidify completely before placing in the trash.