How To Repaint Furniture For A Modern Look

Repainting furniture is honestly so easy, especially when you’re working with chalk mineral paint! One of the best perks? You don’t have to sand or prime before painting over an old finish, unless the existing paint is actively peeling or chipping.

Today is our monthly Furniture Fixer Upper Tour, and we have some absolutely fabulous projects lined up. You can find all of the project links at the bottom of this tutorial!

The Backstory on This Nightstand

I actually painted this exact nightstand for the first time about two years ago. I used a can of “OOPs” latex paint from Home Depot because the color perfectly matched the decor in our granddaughter’s bedroom at the time.

Eventually, I replaced it with a small bookcase from my parents’ home, so this little piece is ready to move on. I’m planning to sell it in my booth at the shop. Since neutral-colored furniture usually sells ten times faster than bright, colorful pieces—and to be honest, I just needed something to do, lol—I decided to give it a fresh, modern makeover.

Here are all the details….

• Chalk Mineral Paint: Dixie Belle Paint in Drop Cloth (a gorgeous off-white) and Coffee Bean (a rich, dark brown).
• Application Tools: A high-quality paintbrush and a flat wood block (or a specialized layering block).
• New modern furniture knobs.
• Prep Cleaner: Simple Green or a similar heavy-duty household cleaner.

Prepping Furniture for Paint

I took the nightstand out to the workshop and looked it over. It had a few minor surface scratches and some peeling paint right around the cabinet knob.

Instead of pulling out the electric sander, I started by cleaning the entire piece with Simple Green to remove any oils and dust. Since the areas where the paint had peeled were completely smooth and the remaining edges were well adhered, I decided to skip sanding. 

Next, I removed the knobs and the scrapbook paper liner from the inside. The drawers were painted bright blue inside and out, which meant I’d need to repaint those areas too. More work.

Choosing the Perfect Neutral Paint

When you’re painting furniture to sell, you can never go wrong with black, crisp white, or a soft taupe (like French Linen). Because it’s summertime, I opted for a lighter, breezier vibe instead of my usual go-to black.

My absolute favorite off-white is Drop Cloth by Dixie Belle. I brushed on two solid coats, which completely covered the old blue paint and gave a fresh, clean look.

How to Get that Modern “Weathered” Look

If you walk into any high-end modern furniture store right now, you’ll see tons of pieces described as “aged” or “weathered.” Usually, this just means the piece is painted a light neutral color with subtle black or brown streaks running across it, following the wood grain horizontally and vertically.

You can see a piece here...Ruma Nightstand...that is similar to what I am talking about, except it is a little more aged than I like.

It’s a super popular style, and recreating it at home is incredibly simple. Here is how to do it in seconds:

1. Grab a Flat Wood Block: I use a 3-inch square flat wood block (mine is an old layering block, but any flat piece of scrap wood works perfectly).
2. Apply Paint to the Block: Brush a very light coat of a dark paint onto the flat surface of the block. I used Dixie Belle’s Coffee Bean, which is a beautiful, deep espresso brown.

• Wipe Away the Excess: Lightly wipe the block with a cloth to remove the excess paint. You want the block to be almost dry.
• Slide: Run the block lightly across the surface of your furniture. The block will naturally deposit paint only onto the raised areas, edges, and slight imperfections of the piece.

You can’t find many pieces of furniture with a perfectly flat surface and no imperfections. I use a light hand when running the block over the surface.

You get to decide how heavy or light you want the dark streaks to be. I prefer a lighter touch for a cleaner, more modern look, but you can build it up to your liking!

Adding Block Feet

Just as I was stepping back to take my final photos, I spotted the bottom of the nightstand. To be honest, it has always been completely flat with no feet. The piece is quite old, and I’m pretty sure it was originally the top hutch portion of a much larger furniture set. There wasn’t even a real bottom panel on the underside!

It has always looked weird to me, but not enough to do anything about it- until today.

I didn’t have any standard furniture legs on hand, but I did find some thick rosette corner blocks in my workshop stash. While they aren’t traditional feet, their square, blocky shape matched the lines of the nightstand perfectly..

I gave them a quick coat of Drop Cloth paint to match the body.

Because the blocks were so thick, my long brad nails kept jamming in the nailer, so I switched to slightly shorter nails and drove a bunch into each block to make sure they were secure.

Those block feet aren’t coming off. 

It took only about two minutes and completely transformed the overall look of the nightstand.

The feet aren’t perfect but they are square and blocky like the nightstand. 

All in all, I think the little nightstand or side table looks 100% awesome. 

I didn’t overdo the dark brown streaks, and the feet are a great addition. 

The Final Reveal

To wrap everything up, I traded the old white-and-brown patterned knobs for some sleek, dark hardware to pull the whole look together

I also made sure to clean up and repaint the inside of the drawers, leaving them looking fresh without adding a new paper liner.

Time for you to tell me what you think. Leave a quick comment if you have time before heading out on the tour. I would appreciate it.

 

 

As always, thanks for being here, Kathy