Domestic Brights: Wake Up With Painted Furniture

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IN GRANDMA'S PRIME, neutral woods ruled the furniture world: mahogany bookcases and oak tables. It's also likely that she — and even your parents — painted their walls cream and bought their bureaus in hues no more daring then, say, a whiter shade of boring.

But in recent years, color has crept not only back onto the runway, but also into our homes. At first, those bright blues, fiery reds and cheery yellows mainly showed up on the walls. But now, dramatic hues are popping up on end tables, bookshelves and even armoires from big-box stores. "People are being bolder with their palettes," says Deedra Everett, co-owner of House Eclectic (Houseeclectic.com), an Alexandria-based importing company that specializes in colorful furniture from China. "Painted pieces perk up any room."

But forget the shabby-chic, distressed pastels of the late 1990s. Millennial homeowners seem to crave shiny, mod pieces that pop in neutral rooms.

Everett and her business partner/uncle began dabbling in rainbow hues about seven years ago and found a "very excited" market at trade shows. Via its Web site, the firm now offers Asian-style bookcases, end tables (pictured, facing page) and other pieces in 11 shades. Black and white remain big sellers, but pale green and robin's-egg blue are also popular. "People can't get enough pistachio, either," she says. Prices range from $200 for a stool to $1,720 for an ornate bureau.

Mass retailers also stock colorful pieces. West Elm sells its popular Parsons desks ($100-$200, Westelm.com) in key lime; Pottery Barn hawks a trad Queen Anne dining chair ($250-$350, Potterybarn.com) in rad red or French blue.

Still, unless you're very clever with color schemes, you might want to stick to just a few megawatt pieces in a room, or else it'll will scream "circus," not "chic." "Brighter tones sell better on smaller furniture," Everett says. "Some of that is about commitment. For big things, customers want them to last for a long time. For a small piece, they're OK with it just being around for a few years while they enjoy that color." That means it's easy to casually date a bright-blue stool but hard to make a long-term commitment to a traffic-cone orange dining table.

Such beyond-brown furniture seems especially suited to today's economy because you don't even have to buy anything — except maybe a gallon of Benjamin Moore — to indulge. It's a case in which doing it yourself is almost as easy as slapping new paint on the walls.

Janelle Tracy's job as a marketing manager for Logan Circle decor shop Vastu (1829 14th St. NW; 202-234-8344) means that she spends hours each week surfing design blogs. The 26-year-old kept seeing old-school chairs done over in modern shades. "But buying one new can set you back," she says. "I'm a do-it-yourselfer, so I thought I'd give painting it a try." She snagged a seat with nice lines on Craigslist for $40 and then set about sprucing it up.

Tracy sought advice from her boss, Jason Claire, who suggested building up thin layers of black automotive spray paint. She sanded the wood before each coat to help the paint adhere. "I wanted it to be really, really shiny, so I went with three coats," says Tracy. Then she re-covered the dowdy cushion with punchy black and white fabric.
Though she chose a neutral palette, Tracy "thinks furniture is a great way to add color. And if you're doing it yourself versus buying a painted piece, you've got a lot of flexibility. I almost painted my chair a high-gloss bright purple."

Sherry and John Petersik, the Richmond, Va.-based DIY bloggers behind Thisyounghouse.com, recently invited readers to vote on which hue they should use to refinish their old bookcase. "We thought, 'What's the worst that could happen? If we put it in the room and it doesn't look great, we can just repaint it,'" Sherry Petersik says. Readers chose a pale green, which the couple ended up loving.

Have qualms about painting over natural wood? Sherry Petersik preaches caution. "If you're on the fence about a piece, live with it longer rather than shorter. Paint can be painted over, but you usually can't easily get back to the initial finish under it."

The process doesn't just have to be about slapping a flat hue onto a bookcase. Via his business, Scenic Artisans, Bloomingdale's Sean Hennessey usually puts faux and decorative finishes onto customers' walls, but he sometimes also makes over their furniture. He has gilded dining chairs, faux marbelized tabletops and used thin layers of lacquer to turn a piano deep red.

Still, Hennessey believes too many colors and finishes can easily make a room veer into gaudy territory. "Keep a tight palette," he says. "You don't want to go into a room and see 42 different colors. Stick to four or five; then the pieces that you want accented, that's where you can pop it."

Sherry Petersik agrees. "It could be a mistake to paint a piece of furniture a punchy color that doesn't appear anywhere else in the room," she says. "Your eyes would go to that piece, and it would suck the life out of everything else." To prevent such a shade imbalance, she recommends using fabrics or artwork already in your space as inspiration. If there's an orange accent in mostly brown floral drapes, snag that shade in a can of Behr and put it on your end tables.

Even though she imports bright furnishings, Everett only recently placed a few such pieces in her Old Town home. "I brought in a bright rug and painted the dining-room chairs red," she says. "It was probably more elegant before, but it's happy to have the bright splashes of colors."

THE D.I.Y DETAILS
Our experts offered a few tips on furniture painting. Search for "How to Paint Furniture" on thisyounghouse.com for decor blogger Sherry Petersik's step-by-step guide.

» 1. "Prep work is vital," says Hennessey. Sand the original finish and clean off the dust before brushing on any paint. This will help paint adhere.
» 2. Both Hennessey and Sherry Petersik love primer. Petersik prefers oil-based primer because it sticks better.
» 3. Spray paint isn't just for auto body shops and vandals; it can provide a smoother finish than you can achieve with a brush, Hennessey says. Want a greater variety of colors than what's available in the hardware store? Go to Monarch Paint & Wallcovering Company (504 K St. NW; 202-289-1601). The shop can make aerosol spray cans out of the Benjamin Moore paint shades it carries. In addition to the price of the paint itself, the canning service costs $11.95 per can. A quart of paint usually takes five or six cans.
» 4. Whether you spray or use a brush, apply the paint in thin layers. "The paint's going to last longer that way, and that's really important for furniture because then it can take a lot of abuse," Hennessey says.
» 5. Take time between coats. Brush strokes often show when people slop a second coat of paint over a still-tacky first one, says Petersik. "Take a break, go have a lemonade, and then come back and put on your second coat."
» 6. The Petersiks like glossy finishes, so they top painted pieces with a coat of polyurethane, which produces a hard, shellacked surface. "Polyurethane adds extra sheen and limitless durability," Petersik says, noting that paint can chip easily. "It's an extra step, but I think it could be argued that, in the long term, it's a shortcut."

Written by Express contributor Julia Beizer
Photo by Marge Ely/Express; courtesy West Elm