Furniture upcycling: What paint to use on wooden furniture?
Deciding to upcycle your furniture rather than throwing furniture away is a great way to curb your shopping habits as well as minimising impacts on the environment. Not only this, but paint for wooden furniture can be used across other areas of your home to help spruce up other areas, for example, your kitchen cabinets and doors.
With so many different finishes and brands of furniture paint on the market, our experts wanted to help you make a decision on choosing the best paint brand for use on your wooden furniture; Tikkurila. This brand is ideal for both DIY projects or professional painting jobs, discover more below including pros and cons for their wooden furniture paint range, Helmi.
Why Tikkurila Helmi?
The Helmi range by Tikkurila is one of their most hard-wearing paints, designed for interior wood and wooden furniture offering a matt finish. The various products in the Helmi range differ based on their sheen levels, therefore Helmi 10 has a sheen level of 10, whereas Helmi 30 has a sheen level of 30. The Tikkurila Helmi range also features a primer, this is also safe for use on childrens toys and furniture meaning you don’t need to worry about any limitations when it comes to enhancing the appearance of wooden furniture throughout your home, including cots, bannisters and more.
Pros
- Great coverage and finish
- Recoat between 2-4 hours
- Lasts longer and is more durable than Rust-Oleum chalky furniture paint as it is softer in nature
- Dust-dry after 1 hour
- Ultra low VOC
- Sheen level 10
- Great finish when sprayed onto furniture
- Can also be used on interior wooden trims, including skirting boards, radiators and cabinets
Cons
- Sensitive to brush marks and better suited to spray application
- Tikirulla Helmi is more expensive than other furniture paints on the market, however is a high quality, dependable choice
- Typically best used in combination with a primer
Tips for Painting Wooden Furniture
Before you begin painting your wooden furniture we always recommend you:
- Have the right painting accessories to hand, your preferred mode of application (we recommend spraying) however you may prefer to use a paint brush. If you do, you will need a paint tray, masking tape, roller pole and sandpaper.
- Ensure you buy enough paint and primer to sufficiently have enough coverage for your piece of wooden furniture.
- Before you start painting, clean the furniture down, removing any flaking paint or marks by sanding, this will ensure you get the desired smooth finish surface you are looking for once you have finished painting.
- Apply your Helmi Primer
- Apply 2 coats of your choice of Tikkurila Helmi