How to Paint Finished Furniture Without Sanding

This is a story of the Case of the Unfitting Furniture. There is a lot of that in my household, but that’s OK. Sometimes it means the furniture is a hand-me-down. Sometimes it means that my tastes have changed. Sometimes the piece itself shows its age and lack of style. I’m sure there have been times you’ve felt this way, too. If you’re willing to spend a day or two adapting your furniture to your new tastes, you could save both your time and your wallet.

Today’s episode of the unfitting furniture goes back to the 1980s. My husband had this oak dresser set as a kid and he used it all the way through college. When he moved to his first “adult” home, the dresser set came with him. I’m not mad about it. The pieces are made of solid wood, which is hard to find on our budget these days. I just wish they were timeless pieces that didn’t show their 1980s flare.

The only dressers that could fit in our new RI space were these ones. ’80s and all. I’m sure I made a face, but I recognized how functional they’d be. But there was no doubt that they needed to be updated. Immediately. That said, I politely asked (that’s important!) my husband if I could paint the set to help them fit better into our new decor. He agreed. Then I asked if I could paint them robin’s egg blue. He hesitated, and then, like the great husband he is, said “Ok.” He added that I’ve never steered him wrong in design so he trusted my design opinion here. <- I believe that’s a lesson of good husbandry, ladies.

We agreed that the large dresser would be his to use and the smaller one would be mine. This sad little piece sat in the only corner it fit in our soon-to-be dressing room (a decision made only because our bedroom is too small to fit dressing furniture). It was a catch-all for clothes or hangers that didn’t otherwise have a home. It was an eyesore -painted or not.

While the piece itself wasn’t hideous, it had no character…and no drawer pulls. Have you ever had a dresser with no drawer pulls? It’s aggravating! So, I decided on a whim one afternoon that today was the day to paint it. Normally, when you paint a piece of furniture that is already finished, you must sand it first in order for the paint to stick. Well, since this was a whim and it was afternoon already (I was close to losing sunlight), I didn’t have the time or patience to sand it first. Granted, it probably would have taken an extra 30 minutes to complete, but I didn’t have 30 minutes to waste.

I dove into my paint arsenal to find a solution: Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 Primer for All Surfaces. In a spray can. GENIUS! Once I found this gem, I gathered up the necessary materials to get this job done quickly.

Materials:

Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 Primer for All Surfaces
extra large garbage bags, cut into a flat sheet
masking or painter’s tape
paint of your choosing
angled paintbrush
Minwax Polyurethane (spray if you’re looking to save time) clear gloss or satin

I wasn’t looking to paint the inside of the drawers so I used garbage bags I’d cut open to block the area I didn’t want painted. I used the tape to secure the bags into place.

Once the drawers were prepped, I went to town with the Zinsser spray primer. This small dresser required one and a half cans of the paint.

I let the primer dry fully before applying two coats of the robin’s egg blue paint color. I allowed paint to dry then I went over every surface with spray polyurethane to seal the paint and the primer.

Voila! A total of four hours later, and you have yourself a painted dresser ready for the finishing touches. In this case, those finishing touches were drawer pulls. I decided that because the paint color was so feminine, I’d make the drawer pulls more masculine. That said, I went with brushed nickel cup pulls, one on each drawer to get this look:

To finish the space that I now determined as my space for my jewelry, I took a trip to HomeGoods, matted and framed a print I found on the cheap and made a proper nook: