painting a kitchen table/chairs brown??

12 years ago

Has anyone ever done this? Do you think it would look horrible? I have a montego pottery barn white table which is white but it does not match my home decor. I don't really like black as my house has lots of dark brown stained furniture and built ins. Can you give me your feeling on this and if you have a color recommendation, I would love to have it. My kitchen island is a dark brown cherry wood stained. I realize I wont get the grain look with paint.

Featured Answer

redbazel

12 years ago

In my opinion, which has many times had to change in the face of overwhelming evidence that it's wrong....."Painted" brown furniture is not that attractive. I like black even though you feel like black wouldn't work for you. Even some other colors come out really pretty on tables. I always hit some of the blogs on their Furniture Friday linky parties to see what's new. But brown is just unappealing when it comes to painted finishes.

Red

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Comments (10)

shirleyinadirondacks
12 years ago
i agree with Red. How about painting it in a accent color?

My house had to be redone because of water damage from a busted washer line. So I've gone mostly with neutral colors and I'm not a neutral person. I'm using orange as an accent color. table runner, lamp shade(I painted it),trays that sit on the counter and a new toaster. The old one died so I went on Amazon and got an orange one. Everybody gives a short snort when they see it but I say it's my house and I like orange.
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peytonroad
Original Author
12 years ago
I love the idea of an accent color and my house accent is rust but a rust table and chairs?

anyone have a glazed creamy off white table I could see?
chucksmom
12 years ago
I'm sure someone will think I'm crazy here. I've been dying to try ORB (I bought a quart already) on furniture. Not black, not brown, not a color. What about a painted top and ORB legs. Just a thought.
User
12 years ago
General Finishes has milk paint that may work and give you the look you're after. If you painted it a medium brown then you could use umber brown to antique it.

Here is a link that might be useful: General Finished Milk Paint
hosenemesis
12 years ago
I painted a piece of furniture a mix of true red and black and put a black glaze over it to get an espresso-brown look, and it worked quite well. If I had used more red in the first coats it might have more even more depth. It looks best in good light, where you can see through the glaze a little.
Renee
User
12 years ago
Count me in with those that don't care for solid brown painted furniture. I've done a couple different techniques to give a somewhat wood look that you might want to try. One was to cover over knotty pine which I no longer care for and the other was over already painted wood.
I'm sorry I don't have a larger picture of the faux burled and zebra wood techniques I did over the knotty pine, but hopefully you can get an idea of what it looks like.

This next one was an old painted cabinet that I gave a Wenge wood faux finish too.

I used a cheap wooden handle brush for both techniques. If you liked to know the details I'd be happy to write them up when I get a chance. I need to get to bed for a busy day tomorrow, but will check back Sunday evening.
peytonroad
Original Author
12 years ago
Oh my justgot..!!!! Those pieces are both gorgeous. I would be sooo interested in hearing from you. Please! Can you share here? I have an already painted table, wood is probably mahogany and veneers. I am sooo excited! I think the wenge would look better on my table?
peytonroad
Original Author
12 years ago
Lurkish, thanks for the tip on milk paint too!
User
12 years ago
Thank you peyton.
All we did on the knotty pine tables was to use a furniture refinisher to remove the poly coat and then cleaned off all residue. Grabbed a can of Minwax water based stain in walnut and a somewhat good paint brush. We were originally hoping on a standard stain look, but the stain didn't soak in the wood like it should have. I'm guessing because it was the furniture refinisher and the water based did play well together. So while the stain was still workable/wet, I started playing with the brush to give it a faux wood look. For the burled wood I squiggled it in very small circles. For the zebra wood on the legs I used a one of those cheep chip brushes both L's and HoDe carries. They're small with raw wooden handles and cost less than a dollar each. After applying a good amount of stain you just pull the brush straight through giving it the somewhat striped looked of he zebra wood.
The wenge wood technique is similar to the zebra wood only you paint the base a medium brown first using the walnut water based stain as the grain. Using the chip brush and the stain do shorter choppy strokes giving a more wenge wood look.
I'll see if can have our daughter take pictures of the small tables since they were given to her for her first apartment. If not I'll try and remember to take pictures when she brings them home next time she comes as she doesn't want to take them when she moves to Hawaii in June.