THIS IS HOW YOU GET STARTED PAINTING FURNITURE

  • 12 min read

The style is free - this is how you succeed with Frenchic series paints!

When you want to repaint your furniture or renovate your home, don't underestimate the importance of choosing the right paint for the end result - or the choice of painting style.

We want to help you get started easily.

Here you can pick up the best advice and tips for your own painting project. Finally, we've put together a checklist of what you need at least to get started.

There are countless painting techniques and styles that you can easily use and apply yourself to paint new or old furniture and make amazing style changes, just like in interior design blogs!

You will surely be surprised how easy it is to renew and update old furniture into modern ones with the Frenchic series paints with little effort and often at a fraction of the price of new furniture purchase or renovation! Recycle your old, but intact and sturdy furniture to the parade ground in your home - you don't always have to get new.

See here different furniture painting techniques and tips to create a unique, personal and altogether stunning new look for your furniture to suit any interior style. Read here also our customers' experiences and feedback about the Frenchic series.

Choose the style that suits you and your home and get excited about recycled interior design, reusing old furniture and DIY with the highly popular Frenchic series!

Choose your style first!

A perfect, smooth matte finish

Today's trend is to paint the furniture in a monochromatic, perfectly flawless matte finish. Take this style one step further and add a hint of gold or copper to the matte black surface, it will immediately make the furniture a step more elegant and timeless.

The paints of the Frenchic series have a completely new feature, thanks to which the surface becomes smooth and even. The ' Self Leveling ' feature levels the surface as if by itself, leaving little or no brush marks on the surface.

Do a trial painting and test the paint and tools

If you are not yet familiar with the paints of the Frenchic series, do a few test paintings before a larger project, so you can get a feel for how the final result will be as you hope with the painting tools and technique you use.

You can also get a smooth surface by dipping the brush, just a little, in water during painting or so-called with the spray bottle technique. Read more about this technique in the Frenchic Guide.

Pink waxy chalk paint Frenchic Paint.

Wall painting and the popular 'Colour Block' style

You can also use Frenchic furniture paints for wall painting!
Create an easy and trendy 'Colour Block' color range with any Frenchic shade. You don't need a lot of paint for this style.
Many 'Colour Blocks' have been created with the end of a can of paint left over from painting furniture!
A 'Colour Block' is a colored area painted on a wall or ceiling: circle, rectangle, square, stripe or arc. This fun technique is easy to implement and it gives a completely new atmosphere to the space, frames or is the background for a wall, mirror or double bed in the bedroom.
'Colour Block' is now IN in interior painting and you can see them in interior design influencers' photos on Instagram. Frenchic fans are also excited about the style and you can see their pictures and videos in Frenchic groups and on our social media channels.
Chest of drawers painted in turquoise Frenchic Paint Finland.
In the picture, the old pine paste has been painted with different Frenchic shades, tape has been used for the borders in the patterning. The chest of drawers has new pulls that match the theme and the wooden part has been finished with Frenchic waxes. Painted on the wall is a fun 'Colour Block'. You can see 'before and after' photos of this chest of drawers in our FB group. The painting was done by Kerry Morgan.
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Metallic colors - Finish the details

Forget the old-fashioned, toxic and smelly metal paints and get to know the metal pigments of the Frenchic series.

Completely fragrance-free color pigments are fun to use. Try them and you will love their versatility in all kinds of interior painting and various DIY projects.

You can use the gold, bronze, copper and silver pigment paints of the Frensheen series in all furniture, accents and decorative items - for example, in the frames of a decorative mirror.

Do you like to bring different home surfaces and furniture?

Paint the outside of the old hanging lamp shade with a matte black Blackjack tone and treat the inside of the lamp shade to a wonderful shade of copper or gold! This is how you made a wonderful lamp yourself, just like a designer lamp, but made with little money.

For example, if you don't want to buy new pulls for your furniture to be painted, you can renew the pulls in a stylish gold or copper tone. Frenshee's metal pigment is mixed together with the Finishing Coat, so the shade becomes durable immediately. In our FB group, you can find several technique videos on how to easily mix non-toxic metallic shades.

Take a look here at what an armchair painted in Bronze looks like!

Metallic paint from Frenshee's Frenchic Paint series.
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With metallic shades, you can make spectacular decorative paintings, stencil patterns or borders on furniture, on the inside and side edges of boxes or under craquelure. If you want to try a really bold combination, try a green metallic shade together with strong, bright shades.

You can combine the metal shades of the Frenchic series and make antique gold or rose gold shades yourself. Paint an entire piece of furniture with a metallic shade - How would a completely champagne-colored chest of drawers sound?

Then combine gold and silver powder. FrenSheen pigments are fun to use, you can combine waxes with the surface and create a living surface, patina and texture.

Be brave and creative - try it and you will surely be inspired!

Check out more ideas in our FB group !

Furniture painted with metallic paint Frenchic Paint.
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Bright colors cheer up and bring a good mood

Sometimes a splash of color is needed in the interior to add warmth and interest. 'Statement Pieces' - those attention-grabbing, individually colored pieces of furniture are coming back into interior design.

Choose a shade that you like

You can get an idea from the color of the carpet, wallpaper or pillow in the shade.

A good tip is to choose a shade that is not the main part, but that is only slightly present. The pastel-colored furniture looks good in a modern interior, but is also suitable for a boho style or a country-romantic home.

If you like subdued, powdery shades, you'll definitely like these shades:

Nougat, Dusky Blush, Duckling and Wise Old Sage. It's easy to compare colors here , you can find a new favorite shade!

Blue chalk paint from the Al Fresco Frenchic Paint series, Kiss Me Sloely.

The dresser in the picture is painted in the shade 'Kiss Me Sloely', from the Al Fresco series.

You can paint your home's colorist's hand in a small or big way

Try one chair, chest of drawers or chest of drawers with a different, bright and strong shade from the rest of your decor, such as Mediterranean or Mexican-style shades (try pink , blue , yellow , green and red ), which will make your furniture wonderful and personal.

If you love strong shades

At least look at these: blue ' Kiss Me Sloely ', burgundy ' Plum Pudding ', green ' Victory Lane ', petrol ' Steel Teal ', inky blue ' After Midnight ' and red ' Flamenco '.

The dresser in the picture is painted with 'Flamenco' tone, from the Original Artisa series.

Dark to white - can it be done?

Will do. And that Tip!

Paint the first layer with a gray shade if your new shade differs a lot from the shade of the base.

The gray tone refracts the redness and dark tone and you can get by with fewer white layers.

You can choose a medium gray shade from the City Slicker or Swankypants shades of the Al Fresco series, for example.

Often that small jar of gray is enough for one piece of furniture and then you can get by with fewer, for example, white layers.

Gray is a good base color, from any series, to complement the reddish wood color.

Did you choose white paint?

The white pigment should be carefully mixed in the paint can before painting and during the painting project, careful mixing affects the coverage.

Also let the paint layers dry according to the instructions for 1-2 hours, depending on the paint series you use - drying also has an effect on coverage.

The Frenchic Paint range has lots of great whites to choose from!

Check out the sparkling clean white Dazzle Me! shade, the soft Wedding Cake shade or the paper white Virgin shade.

White furniture paint lime paint painted chest of drawers Frenchic Paint Finland.

The chest of drawers in the picture is painted in Wedding Cake shade, from the Lazy Range series.


Leave part of the furniture on the wooden surface

When combined, a wooden surface and a painted surface is always functional.

In this technique, of course, less paint is used, but the end result is still warm and cozy.

When you prepare the furniture for painting: you clean the surfaces and sand them, you get to see how the wooden surface looks when sanded clean.

Sometimes a really beautiful wood surface is revealed under the old paint, and leaving it exposed takes the furniture to a whole new level!

Salt Of the Earth neutral and earthy tones from the Frenchic series.

Only part of the legs of the small table in the photo are painted with the neutral shade 'Salt of The Earth'. The rest of the surface is waxed with brown Frenchic wax. The pattern is a transfer image, which you can see here .

With waxes, you can revive the wooden surfaces to a beautiful appearance and at the same time they care for the surface. Frenchic waxes are natural waxes, they are beeswax-based and certified, solvent-free.

Learn how to use waxes

Try waxes, these techniques take time!

Of the various consumption techniques, this is the easiest:

Start by preparing the wood surface. Clean it with Sugar Soap , lightly roughen the surface if necessary and wipe the surface clean and dry. Paint the first shade on the surface and let it dry completely.

Then that's it:

add clear furniture wax to areas you want to look worn, such as corners, edges, handles). The wax repels the new coat of paint from these areas, giving a worn impression.

Now add another layer of another shade to the furniture, also over the waxed areas. Allow to dry. Wipe the furniture with a soft, lint-free cloth, the paint comes off easily from the wax.

If you still want to increase wear, you can lightly use steel wool or a sanding sponge to remove the paint surface. Finally, wax the furniture all over - this way you protect even the worn parts and the surface becomes durable.

This is how you made a wonderful piece of furniture yourself - like you just bought it from an interior design store!

Always choose a non-toxic natural wax for waxing, such as the soft-spreading furniture waxes from the Frenchic series.

Learn more about using waxes in furniture painting here.


Stencils - wonderful tile patterns are now in interior and furniture painting IN

Stencil painting is very trendy now. You can pattern the walls, floor, furniture... It's fast and you don't need much paint either.

You can choose from many different topics depending on your project, there is plenty to choose from. Do you want a lily of the valley pattern on your dresser ? A mandala pattern or a tile pattern ?

You can also do a little patterning, moments of surprise are always fun

You can easily implement one in your own furniture: paint beautiful stencil patterns on the outer edges of the drawers. This way, the designs will appear every time you open the boxes.

You can use the same trick: paint a beautiful pattern on the inside of the drawer, on the inside of the dresser doors or just on the bottom edge of the frame to go around the furniture.

You can also apply these tips to furniture that you don't want to paint any more - a little 'update' and your furniture will bring a new kind of atmosphere to the space!

Most of the stencil is made of a thin plastic film, which is easily shaped according to the shapes of the furniture during furniture painting.

Here's how to do it:

Prepare the piece of furniture or the area to be painted, place the stencil where you want it and paint. You can paint with a stencil brush while dabbing or even with a narrow roller. You can find many different examples and technique videos of stencil painting in our FB group

Taping helps the stencil stay in place, and by measuring, you find out the alignment of the stencil in the center of the furniture or area. Start in the middle if the pattern doesn't go flat in the area - you can do the edges at the end and cut the stencil in half to make it easier to dry the edges. Sometimes it can be useful to use two similar templates to speed up the work.

Test and experiment before a bigger project

Use the paint sparingly until you get a feel for how the pattern is formed. Try stenciling on a surface first if you haven't done stencil painting before.

At the same time, you get to know how the tools you choose work and what kind of result they produce. A fun and quick way of working is to make the patterns with a small roller and several shades at the same time! This way you can easily get a beautiful and natural gradient color for patterning.

Keep your stencil clean throughout the project

For larger areas, wash the stencil and tools frequently; with a clean stencil, the pattern repeats beautifully and accurately.

Tools: brushes, sponges and roller should always be washed before starting.

Dry them until they are dry, the water must not get under the stencil sheet when working on the pattern. Practice first. Visit the 'Frenchic Paint Finland' group for wonderful stencil paintings and useful project photos.

Tip: start with a small amount of paint in a brush or roller to get sharp and clear patterns

The faded surface and color wash leaves the wood grain visible - the popular 'White Wash' technique

Faded surface or color wash with thinned paint are fun furniture painting techniques - surface as if faded by sun or water over the years. These furniture painting techniques don't require a lot of paint and are perfect for the beginning furniture painter!

Faded surface with two different shades:

Start by painting the base color (preferably a dark shade) The surface does not have to be perfect. Let the paint dry completely.

Then paint the next layer with a lighter shade, completely covering the furniture again. The painting technique can be 'here and there', as long as the furniture is covered in paint - the surface does not have to be beautiful.

You can immediately start wiping off the paint even before it starts to dry on the furniture. Wipe off just as much as you want, here and there - depending on how dark or light you want the end result. Repeat to achieve the desired result. Look at the furniture from a distance and from different angles.

You can also add the 'Dry Brush' technique to this to get more lightness and a different effect on the surface. Finish the surface of the furniture with wax if you have used shades from the Original series.


I hope you get inspired by these furniture painting ideas!

Checklist - at least these are what you need when you start painting furniture or a wall:

  1. A cleaning agent that effectively removes dirt and grease. Sugar Soap is an efficient furniture detergent from the Frenchic series, which is intended for cleaning furniture and other surfaces to be painted before painting. The wall should also be wiped clean and dried before painting.
  2. A high-quality brush or roller . It's not worth saving here. Read tips for choosing the right brush here.
  3. Grinding or roughing accessories . Depending on your furniture and your technique, you need sandpaper, a handy sanding sponge or an electronic device to roughen/sand the surface of the furniture.
  4. Paint . Choose a high-quality furniture paint, such as paints from the Frenchic series. If you haven't tried the Frenchic range before, start with the award-winning Lazy Range .
  5. All other Frenchic paint sets are also suitable for painting furniture or painting walls. Al Fresco is suitable for painting tiles and Chalk Wall Paint for painting floors.
  6. You may still need wax , stencil , finishing coating , metal pigment or crackling agent , depending on what kind of painting technique you were thinking of implementing.
  7. Also remember to use high-quality tape if you are making cuts

Must have tips

    Tip! If you are an enthusiastic tinkerer or painter and do a lot of different DIY projects, then two Frenchic products are - 'must have ' - credit products of DIY people, which should always be available in your paint shelf when the passion strikes: Frenchic wax and Finishing Coat . These versatile Frenchic products are well suited for various home projects. And of course, white and black paint, which you can use for your own shade mixes, for example pure white Wedding Cake and black Loof .

      Get to know the Frenchic series and admire our customers' project photos in our FB group! In our FB group, we have gathered inspiring pictures for you to easily find under search terms: kitchen, wall paint, color combinations, etc..

      The award-winning and safe Frenchic Paint series offers you versatile and solvent-free products for painting furniture and painting all kinds of home surfaces. You just choose the tone where you start !

      If you are new to furniture painting, read more on other blogs; you can find the best tips, for example, in this article.

      Frenchic Paint is active on social media: you can find us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest and YouTube...

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