Q&A: Ask Sarah @ Country Chic anything about painting furniture!!

Hi Hillela,

Great question! With our paint, it's not always necessary to seal it, especially if you love the the nice, matte look of chalk-based paints! Our All-in-One Decor Paint in particular is designed to be durable on it's own without a top coat. However, if you're painting a piece that will get a lot of heavy wear and tear like kitchen cabinets or table tops, we do recommend adding a bit more protection with something like our Tough Coat. Wax and Hemp Oil are also great products for adding a bit of protection and a more professional looking finish.

~Sarah

Hi Shoshana,

One of the most important factors in reducing brush strokes is to make sure you're using a good quality, synthetic bristle paint brush. They will apply water-based paints like our much more smoothly than a natural bristle brush. You might also really enjoy working with something like our painting sponges which apply the paint in nice thin, quick, smooth coats: http://www.countrychicpaint.com/products/painting-sponge

In this tutorial, our company co-founder, Rosanne will go over some more of our tips for applying smooth coats of paint without having to sand the finish: http://youtu.be/kS1wT-yApXA

~Sarah

Hi Kathleen,

Sorry about that! It's so strange, the links keep getting changed when I submit my reply. You can find both our surface prep tutorial and our kitchen cabinet painting tutorial on our website on the tutorials page.

Hi Tamara,

Unfortunately I don't have a particular brand of sprayer that I can recommend at the moment, but I do know several people have used various different sprayers with our paint, all with great success! Another option you might like is trying out our painting sponges: http://www.countrychicpaint.com/products/painting-sponge

You might find they're easier on your hands than gripping a paint brush handle!

~Sarah

This is definitely something you can do, but keep in mind that when the light is shining through your lamp shade, you may be able to see brush strokes in the finish and it will likely become quite opaque so it will block most of the light from shining out.

We do have tips for painting on fabric in these two tutorials:

http://www.countrychicpaint.com/pages/fabric-painting-tutorial

http://www.countrychicpaint.com/pages/how-to-paint-fabric-chairs

Hi Ann,

You won't necessarily have to choose a chalk-based paint, but it is designed for furniture refurbishing so it's a great choice! If you're not sure what type of finish was previously used on it, I would recommend wiping the entire surface down with rubbing alcohol before you re-paint it. That will remove any wax or oil that might be on the surface that would prevent the paint from adhering properly.

It's also a good idea to do a scratch test before you paint the whole piece. Paint a small 2x2 swatch in a few areas and leave it overnight to dry. If the paint comes off easily when you scratch it lightly with your fingernail, there's probably something else preventing the paint from adhering well and you'll need to do a bit more prep work.

I hope that helps!

~Sarah

Hi Gail,

You might like the look of distressing using the "resist" method! With this technique, you apply a resist medium such as beeswax on raised details and edges before you apply your final paint coat so it will prevent the paint from adhering in certain areas. It's great for creating larger distressed areas.

You might also like something like our crackle medium which will make your paint look authentically aged and worn.

http://www.countrychicpaint.com/pages/distressing-techniques

I hope this helps!

~Sarah