Painting Chairs the Easy Way

Lucy asked me to paint her set of 8 beautiful Chippendale dining chairs. I gave her a quote, she accepted, we scheduled in the job and last week she brought me the first four chairs to paint. We had to do them in two lots as all 8 didn't fit in her car.  It suited me anyway as it meant I didn't have half painted chairs ALL over my house.

Lucy and I decided on a colour for her chairs, the paint type and sheen. She wanted very durable chairs that should could wipe down and that didn't require any ongoing maintenance. I didn't think that a waxed finish would fit that bill so I suggested we use Dulux Aqua Enamel in a semi gloss. Dulux Aqua Enamel is a fantastic paint that dries very hard.  It's the modern equivalent of oil paint with the added benefit of a non-yellowing formula. The colour Lucy chose was Dulux Light Rice Half. It's a lovely non-yellow beigey white.

I sanded the first chair lightly and started hand painting on the primer and I quickly realised I'd very much under-quoted on these chairs. Quoting on chairs is always a complete bitch difficult - they take a long time to paint but no one seems to appreciate just how time consuming and fiddly they are to paint and they don't want to pay very much for chairs. To be honest, I don't usually agree to paint chairs as I'd rather paint a whole chest of drawers than one chair. As these Chippendale chairs are very ornate and huge and dark, dark brown, it took me ages just to do one semi-translucent primer coat. I was going to be earning about $2 an hour on them!!

My clever Phil suggested I crack open the paint sprayer that Bosch sent me 8 months ago to trial. It's the Bosch PFS 55, a fine spray, portable hand held system that retails for around $100.

I seriously had the sprayer stashed under the bed as I had been very nervous about using it. I told Bosch that eventually I would get around to using it - I just needed to summon the courage. I have always been 100% about hand painting but these chairs really needed the primer to be sprayed at least. I set up a make shift spray booth in the back yard and sat down to read the instruction manual. It seemed pretty straight forward and I'm a bit of a jump right in and have a go person so I watered down the primer, set up the spray gun and started spraying. Wow it was fantastic!! I know it's just a DIY level tool and not a professional level fine finish sprayer but it's also a fraction of the price and perfect for my use especially when I am hand painting over the finish.

A solid coat of primer in about about 3 minutes and no drips or runs. This was better for my profitability and hourly rate! I quickly sprayed all the chairs and let them dry for a few days. (Stopped by the rain Sydney has been having but it was fine by me as it's always good to give the paint a good cure time between coats). I sprayed two coats of the Dulux Aqua Enamel, sanding lightly between coats.

For the last coat I hand brushed the paint to give them the look that Lucy wanted. Because Aqua Enamel dries so very hard, I had a little trouble distressing these chairs and ended up using a razor blade to lightly distress them.

Lucy came to pick up the first four the other day and was so happy with them that she even got a little teary. They are for a dining setting given to her by her much loved mother who recently passed away. It's so hard losing our mums isn't it? I am very happy knowing that I've made these chairs how Lucy wanted them and she will use them and think of her mum.

Now for it to stop raining so I can paint the other four. Maybe I'll even watch the instruction DVD that comes with it!

So my tip for a very quick and easy way to paint chairs is use a spray gun at least for the undercoat/primer. I'll definitely be using the Bosch PSF 55 again. I was completely surprised by how easy it was to use, what a great finish it gave and how quick the clean up was. I'm not sure what I was afraid of!

love from a girl 

who has just learnt something new!

Fiona xx