Sometimes when you hit the thrift stores, you really have to check out every inch of the place to score a great find. On a recent trip to Goodwill, I found this chair tucked underneath an old dining table.

It was hidden out of sight, yet it was the treasure of the store. I immediately carried it to the checkout and paid for it just so no one else had the opportunity to touch it. Surprisingly enough, it was only $19.99. I was going to make it look like a million bucks.

I was lucky that this Drexel piece was in nearly perfect condition. I think it was manufactured in at least the mid-1960s (according to the label), so I wanted to replace the batting and fabric in the frame of the chair. I knew that all I would need to do was replace what was already there, so as I took it apart, I photographed each layer so I could remember exactly how it all went together. I’ll explain these steps in a bit.

Next, I sanded the chair with 220 grit sandpaper and sprayed it with Dove White spray paint (I used the Krylon Fusion line, only because it was the only line that carried the color I wanted to use). I was so excited about the chair that I totally forgot to use primer (Um, yes. I’m that easily excitable.), so I had to use about 3 cans of spray paint. Dork.

After the paint was dry, I distressed the edges with a sanding block and applied two coats of rub-on poly. The poly really gave it a nice sheen and will protect my paint job.

When the poly was dry, I replaced the pieces of the chair that I removed for painting. The bottom layer (3 in picture above) is a new layer of canvas with 18 gauge wire woven in it (to make it more sturdy when pressed against the springs). The middle layer (2) was a new layer of batting. The top layer (1) was a new layer of duck cloth. I simply stapled each layer in place with a staple gun and cleaned the springs on the bottom of the chair (4). Please, don’t shy away from doing tasks such as this when rehabbing furniture. It was very easy to do, and it made sure that years of dust and filth weren’t trapped in the chair.

I wanted to cover the caning to make the chair look more upholstered, so I followed Kate’s excellent tutorial on the process over at Centsational Girl. I used matting board purchased at a craft store for the “bones” of the inserts (it’s pretty stiff, yet flexible enough to bend if you need to fit something like a curved chair back). I attached a thin layer of batting and a layer of light blue faux suede over the board with my glue gun and then hot glued them over the caning. I lined each section with the nailhead trim Kate recommended, and it worked great.

Now that the chair itself was finished, I turned my attention to the cushions. Luckily, the original cushion cover on the bottom cushion was underneath the fabric the previous owner used to (very lazily) recover the cushions, so I simply pulled it apart and used the pieces as a pattern to cut out my new fabric. I had to wing it on the back cushion since the original cover wasn’t there, but I think it turned out okay. Not perfect, but good enough. I won’t explain how I did it since both pieces have hidden zippers and piping covered in self-fabric. I’ll just say that 1): I totally rock for teaching myself how to insert the piping without instructions and 2:) if you ever need to insert a zipper in a cushion, follow this tutorial from Curbly (as it’s way easier than the other methods I’ve learned).

So now, my chair and the cushions were ready for their big reveal.

At this point, I realized that I wanted a little pillow for the chair to break up some of the pattern on the cushions. I had some extra blue faux suede, but I couldn’t decide if I wanted a square or rectangular pillow shape. I grabbed a rectangular pillow I had on my window seat to see if I liked the shape on the chair.

Not only did I like the shape of the pillow, but I loved that pillow itself on the chair. The colors are perfect. Score one for the home team! This is an example why it’s so important to try to use what you have before you make or buy something new.

I couldn’t be happier with my chair. It looks so elegant in my living room and adds much needed seating to the room where we spend most of our time. Here’s a little before and after, just because I pink puffy {heart} before and after shots.

Don’t be afraid to try something new with an old piece of furniture. You just never know what kind of new life you may be able to breathe into it.

I’m adding this post to Kimba’s DIY Day Party at A Soft Place to Land. Visit ASPTL to see all of the projects!

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve Googled the following search terms:

“Painting laminate furniture”

“How do I paint laminate?”

“Can I paint laminate?”

“Why won’t someone tell me how to paint this piece of laminate furniture?????”

You know what those searches returned? Nothing. Nada. Zilch. I couldn’t find a single tutorial out there to tell me how to paint laminate furniture.

Well, fine. I’ll just figure it out by myself and share it with my blog readers. ::sticks out tongue at Google::

Let me be the first to tell you this: With the right preparations, you CAN paint laminate furniture and it WILL look good. You just need to follow the following steps:

1. I started with a light wood laminate armoire from my son’s playroom. The piece is very heavy and solid, so it’s a nice piece of furniture despite it being covered in laminate.

2. If your laminate piece is one that can be easily taken apart, go ahead and do that. DH offered to take apart the armoire for me to paint, and it made it much easier in the long run since the piece was so big and heavy. There was no way that DH and I could have gotten it from the upstairs playroom down to the garage by ourselves. If you can’t take your piece apart, at least try to remove any doors, drawers and shelves.

3. With a 220 grit sandpaper, sand every square inch that you will be painting. The sanding will be much easier if you use a palm sander (they are about $30 at home improvement stores if you don’t have one). You will need to hand sand any areas you can’t reach with the sander.

Sand until you start to see little white flecks on the furniture and the shine of the laminate is removed. Be careful not to sand down to the plywood or other pressed wood that is underneath the laminate.

4. Next, take a tack cloth and wipe down the pieces you sanded. You’ll want to make sure you remove all of the sanding dust so that it won’t ruin your paint job. I like to wipe down each piece right before I prime it so that I don’t run the risk of additional particles getting on the pieces before I paint.

5. Now it’s time to prime your pieces. There may be other brands of primer that will work, but I specifically recommend the Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 primer for this job. It is formulated for all types of projects, including laminate. I picked up a quart of this at Lowe’s for about $9.

Prime each piece with a foam brush. I used a foam roller to paint the large pieces and then used a 2-inch foam brush to paint the edges and hard to reach areas. I gave each piece one coat of primer.

I primed one of my pieces after just sanding half of it, just so you can see how important the sanding step is in this process. Here, the left side was sanded and the right side wasn’t. The difference in the way the primer laid down is truly remarkable.

You will need to let your primed pieces completely dry and cure before you move to the next step. Zinsser recommends 7 days; other brands may recommend a different length of time. Your pieces will be dry to the touch within a few hours, but they will not be scratch resistant until the primer is fully hardened. I cannot stress this enough. Don’t rush it and try to paint over the primer before it is cured, as your pieces will scratch easily. If you wait the recommended amount of time, your paint job won’t scratch easily.

6. Now comes the fun part – the paint! Using a foam roller and foam brush, I painted two coats of paint on my pieces, allowing each to dry overnight before I applied the second coat. I chose an interior eggshell sheen for my paint, which is in between flat and semi-gloss. I paid careful attention to catch any drips, but those I missed I removed with a single-edged razor once dry and repainted.

7. Once the paint dried overnight, we reassembled the piece and touched up any areas that I missed or that got scratched during the reassembly process. We definitely scratched up the interior of the piece when we were putting the shelving back in since they are a very tight fit.

With a small foam brush, I simply touched up those scratched places with a few coats of paint and you can’t even tell they were scratched.

8. If your piece is one that is going to get a lot of wear and tear, I’d recommend applying a polyurethane coat. Minwax makes a wipe-on version you can apply with a sponge, so I think that one would be easy to apply. I will likely go back and apply the polyurethane coat to my piece when I have time in a few weeks.

9. Now it’s time to sit back and enjoy your “new” piece of furniture!

Pretty easy, huh? It just takes some patience and time, but the results would be well worth it. I’d love to know how these steps work for you (and let me know if you have any questions)! Or, are you still scared to paint your laminate furniture?

Update on 12/8/11 – Since writing this post, many advances have been made in laminate painting.  Although my method still works wonderfully, there is a new product on the market called Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations.  I have tested the product and think very highly of it.  Although it is made with kitchen cabinets in mind, it can be applied to laminate furniture with really great results.  If the thought of allowing primer to cure for the full 7 days scares you, head to Home Depot or Lowe’s and see if they have the Rustoleum product in stock.