How to Paint a Piece of Furniture in 3 Hours

I wish you all lived near me so that we could grab a latte, head to the city and do some furniture bargain hunting together! It's one of my most favourite things to do. I love hitting up antique shops, thrift stores, and garage sales to see what sorts of treasures I can find for a great price. One great place to find furniture bargains right now? The Brick Tent Sale! It's happening right now at Brick stores across Canada, and it's such a great place to find furniture, mattresses, electronics and appliances that have been deeply discounted. I hit up the Tent Sale at my local South Edmonton Brick store last week and found a gorgeous piece - the most beautiful, curvy little chest that was begging for a DIY paint job! Let me show you what I did to it, and how I gave it a fun makeover in less than 3 hours.

Here's what I started with:

This adorable chest was 75% off! How could I let this guy go? For this price, this piece was definitely eligible for a DIY treatment. The Brick Tent Sale features pieces like this that are floor models and scratch and dent items. Some pieces have no visible flaws but they're still discounted, while others (like this chest) had a few nicks and scratches that could easily be fixed or painted over.

I also had to grab this pretty bench that was half price. I adore the nail head trim, and could totally see this at the foot of our master bed. I'm deciding if I want to paint the legs... they could look really neat with a bit of a DIY treatment too!

One day this week, I had a 1.5 hour window of kidless time to paint. I quickly mixed up a batch of DIY chalk style paint using this recipe and a can of flat latex paint I had on hand. It's a lovely aqua colour and I threw in a bit of charcoal coloured paint to tone it down a little. I wiped down the chest, and used a regular paint brush to paint the DIY chalk style paint over the entire piece. I managed to do 2 coats in my small window of time - this type of paint dries REALLY quick!

Once the paint was dry, I sanded some of the paint off of the edges of the chest to give it a slightly distressed look. When I saw this original deep red colour of the chest, I immediately envisioned it peeking through a robin's egg blue colour like this! The contrast is so pretty.

Distressing a piece slightly like this is also a great way to work with a piece of furniture that's a little scratched or dented. You're playing up the distressed parts of the furniture by giving it a vintage look.

The final touch was sealing the piece with some FAT Wax Beeswax Polish I had on hand.

I think the final result is just so pretty! This curvy little chest is now one of my favourite colours, and it looks so unique and gorgeous. The chest was such a great deal and this paint treatment only took me a few hours - it was 100% worth it!

I've tucked this guy beside our sofa in the living room to house magazines and books.

Our lilacs are blooming early this year, so I also had to dress up this piece with a huge vase of them!

If you want a unique and well-made piece of furniture for your space, I'd definitely recommend hitting up The Brick's Tent Sale this week. There are some fabulous things to snatch up and refinish (or leave as-is!). When I was there last week, I was also drooling over some of the beautiful tables and top-of-the-line refridgerators that I saw under the tent!

Happy bargain hunting!

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Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by The Brick. As always, all of the opinions here are my own. I only recommend companies that I use and love myself.