Arts and Crafts Furniture Painting
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Furniture painting is another great way to sell your arts and crafts paintings!... Useable art! This is not the same as refinishing furniture, where you strip it back to its original wood.. although you can do it that way if you wish.. but for me the best way to paint on already finished wood furniture was to clean and prime.
Make sure the piece you choose is well made, solid wood, good joints, just worn out looking!.. clean it well with a damp cloth or a mild cleaner, make sure its clean and dry.. check for any repairs, then prime the piece with a GOOD primer.. The best primer I have used (in my opinion)is Zinsser primer.. it covers and sticks to ANYTHING including shiny surfaces and varathane.. so there is no need to sand it right back.. here is there web site for more info.. but you can usually get it at any paint store. zinsser primer Furniture painting is rewarding!..Once you have properly primed your surface you wish to paint, you can then use acrylics or oils, I have always painted with acrylics... then a couple of coats of a decent varathane (water based for over acrylic paints or it will yellow the whites).. Here are some examples of my work, I would sell these at craft shows and markets..
This was a hallways table that I also picked up at a yard sale for $3.00. The wood was still in good shape, but the varathane had pretty well come off... so I did a quick sanding, cleaned it, then painted a 1/2 window with this barn swallow on it, then 2 coats of varathane. I use acrylic paints, so you must make sure to use a water based varathane, or the whites in your paint colours will yellow.. There are lots of decent varathanes out there.
This is just to give you an idea of some of the things you can do with furniture painting for your arts and crafts business.. This can be very labour intensive if you choose large items, you can start with the smaller hallway tables, and bread cupboards or trays.. I did the dresser as a custom job.. but I really prefer to just paint what I think the piece needs and then sell it that way. Furniture painting is a great "recycling" craft and you can do abstract work, or decoupage work, you don't have to paint pictures, just get creative, and bring a old piece of furniture back to life with furniture painting.. Note: I got a lot of exercise doing these and other pieces! you do a lot of crawling around stretching and what a good workout!.. I also sell some of my smaller paintings on line in my art store online at: A Brush with the Past I have smaller framed pictures, and also have started doing more work with denim... I love recycling for crafts.. its very rewarding!.. but as always please HAVE FUN! and what a great excuse to get out on a saturday and check out the used stores for ideas and furniture and of course you have to have lunch out!.. and remember this trip counts as a business expense!.. so keep all receipts! Check out my other types of art.. window art.. click below!
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This was an older bread cupboard with the roll up door. It was at a yard sale because the door didn't roll up right anymore.. it was sticking, all I did in this case is rub a plain white candle on the wood track and then it glides smoothly.. I cleaned, and primed the whole thing, and then painted the painting on the roll up door... plus 2 coats of varathane.. and it sold at a craft market place.
This is a before and after picture of an old dresser I found FREE at a local Salvation Army, they just couldn't get rid of this thing.. it was very heavy and solid, and was in need of SOMETHING!.. I brought it home, and cleaned and primed it and painted this very "retro 70's" look on the front.. and put it in the craft market place (I had a big old wagon I used to drag these things around in, and always brought my kids to help!).
This is one of those large and heavy coffee tables with a cupboard in the center... I primed the entire thing, and painted this early morning geese in flight painting.. I ended up keeping this table for myself.