Can you paint fitted bedroom furniture?

* Collaborative post

A lot of bedrooms come with fitted wardrobes and storage that saves space in a room, but after a while, you can end up feeling like it just doesn't fit in with your style anymore. We often see beautiful looking bedroom furniture that makes us want to replace what we have or your current furniture simply gets worn out or damaged. There's nothing worse than a large item standing out like a sore thumb in your otherwise stylish bedroom!

So if you stop loving your fitted furniture, what can you do about it? It can be costly to remove it, so what are the other options? Well, one of them is to paint them.

Is it possible to paint fitted wardrobes and other furniture?

It is more than possible to spray paint fitted wardrobes, you just have to be careful about making sure you don't accidentally paint the walls around the wardrobe doors, and of course, make sure you paint the whole fitted item.

How to spray paint fitted wardrobes

Once you've decided that the time has come to paint fitted wardrobes, you will need to collect the necessary tools and supplies to do the job.

You will need:

• A primer that will work on the wardrobe doors

• Sandpaper or a sanding block

• Protective goggles and protective dust mask

• A vacuum

• Somewhere to lay the doors down flat

• Screwdriver

• Drop cloth

How to paint fitted bedroom furniture: wardrobe doors, drawers and cupboards

Assuming the fitted furniture in your bedroom is a fitted wardrobe or fitted cupboards, here's what you'll need to do to paint the fitted wardrobe doors.

Step one: prepare the workspace

The first thing you need to do is set up a work space. You could do this in the master bedroom or wherever the cupboards are, but then you run the risk of getting paint on other items. To be safe, it is recommended to remove the wardrobe doors, drawers and whatever else you're painting and take it downstairs and outside if possible.

Once moved, you should lay down a drop cloth to cover the floor. If you are painting inside, you will need to open all the windows so that the fumes do not stay in the room.

Step two: remove the hardware from the fitted wardrobes

Whatever you're painting, you will need to take off any handles or hinges to keep them from being painted. You can do so with screwdrivers.

Step three: clean the surfaces

Before you start to paint, you will need to wipe down the surfaces completely. The old wardrobe doors will need to be free of grease, dirt and grime. You might want to use sugar soap on the old wardrobe doors to remove any dirt in order to create a smooth finish.

Step four: if the piece is painted or varnished, remove the coating

You will need to remove the paint or varnish on the wardrobe door before you paint anything. This can be done using a paint stripper or a cleaner containing trisodium phosphate. You could paint over old paint, but for an even coat, you want your new paint to have a completely smooth surface.

Step five: smooth the surfaces

Using fine sandpaper or a sanding block, you will need to get the fitted wardrobes and other surfaces ready for the primer coat by giving them a light sand. This will help to create a surface that primer and paint can adhere to. The best sandpaper to use is anything between 220-grit and 120-grit.

Step six: fill any gaps or cracks

Using polyfilla or resin or any similar product, fill the gaps in your fitted wardrobes and other surfaces, then sand them down once dry to keep the surface smooth.

Step seven: apply primer

Now the painting begins! Almost. The first thing you should do before getting the new colour scheme onto the fitted wardrobes is to apply a coat of multi-purpose primer. Primer will help the paint to adhere to the door better, and will protect the wood of the door against damp and will provide a super smooth surface to paint.

Step eight: start to paint fitted wardrobes

Painting fitted wardrobes and other fitted furniture is relatively easy. You should paint a coat using even spray painting technique, making sure to go from multiple angles. Use sweeping motions when spray painting to achieve a smooth coat. Just be careful when spray painting so as not to cover the drop cloth or anything nearby.

After you have used the spray paint, let the wardrobes dry. After the drying time, move to step nine.

Step nine: sand

Lightly sand the newly painted wardrobes.

Step ten: paint the second coat

When you paint wardrobes, you will need to use more than one coat of spray paint (or normal paint if you're using potted chalk paint or latex paint). Apply each coat and leave it to dry; when you're painting furniture you should always leave the paint to dry to assess the colour before you continue.

Step eleven: reattach and reassemble

Once you've let the paint dry, attach all of the necessary hardware and pop it back in the bedroom. You could, if you wanted to, swap out the hardware, or you could add colour to the inside of the wardrobes with paint or wallpaper.

Or, if you really want an out-there look, you could extend the painting of the fitted wardrobes onto the wall with a fun wiggly decal or something -- it's all very on trend right now.

Can you paint other fitted furniture?

So if painting fitted wardrobes is fine, can you paint other fitted items like kitchen cabinets? The answer is yes! By following much the same procedure as painting fitted wardrobes, you can give your kitchen a new colour fairly easily. Just, with either type of fitted furniture, make sure that the paint dries before you reattach the cabinet or wardrobe doors.