Who doesn’t love a sleek black painted piece of furniture?
A black painted piece can really add some drama to your space, and of course black goes with everything!
When you paint furniture black though, it can be a bit tricky. So in this post I’ll pass along my best tips for how to get that sleek, black finish you’re looking for.
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Which black paint is best?
My favorite black paint for furniture is Fusion Mineral Paint’s Coal Black.
It’s a true, jet black that glides on soooo smoothly! It has great coverage, usually only taking 2 thin coats to get that deep black I’m looking for.
If you like a softer black, Typewriter in the Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint line is a good option.
It’s still a true black, but a tad bit less harsh than the Coal Black. Plus, it looks amazing with a nice, dark wood!
What type of paint brush should I use to paint furniture black?
My favorite paint brush for most types of furniture paint is a nice, round brush. If you can get one with all synthetic bristles, you will get fewer brush strokes in your black paint.
A great, middle of the range brush is this one:
The bristles are nice and fine and help smooth out your paint really well. If you decide to invest in a nice brush, be sure to keep it good and clean. Properly cared for, a brush like this will last you for years!
How do I distress black painted furniture?
If you want to distress your piece after you paint it, you can use a mid-grit sandpaper (180-220) to lightly sand along the edges to take off some of the paint and show a bit of the wood underneath. When you sand over black paint though, it does usually cause the black to streak and get kind of chalky looking.
Wetting down your sandpaper will help some, but unfortunately this is just something that happens with dark black paint! But don’t worry, I will show you how to fix it in the next step!
What topcoat to use when I paint furniture black?
One of the best things about black paint is that it hides imperfections really well! So if your furniture has lots of dings and dents in it, painting it black will make those less obvious. That’s a major pro of painting furniture black.
There are some cons though to going black . . . Think about wearing a black pair of pants and how by the end of the day, you can see every bit of pet hair, lint, and dust your pants picked up along the way?
The same goes for your black painted furniture! It will show the most dust, dirt, and fingerprints of any color of paint. So the way to fix that problem, and any chalkiness that showed up when you sanded and distressed, is to apply a topcoat.
You need to pick an oil-based topcoat though, and NOT a water-based topcoat! Water-based topcoats can easily go cloudy over dark colors, so oil-based is the way to go.
One of my favorite and easiest products to use is Fusion’s Beeswax Finish.
A dab of this rubbed over your black paint will take off the haze and give it a light sheen.
If you decide to use a wax for your topcoat, watch out for any paste-type wax that is very thick. If you apply that wax too thickly, it can get trapped in the wood grain or tiny grooves of your paint and leave a hazy look once it dries–yikes!
Be sure to use a cream-based wax that is nice and soft, or a wax that has some oil in it (like the Beeswax Finish I told you about above).
Another option is to wipe on a full oil topcoat, like Hemp Oil or Fusion’s Stain & Finishing Oil. You could use the Stain and Finishing Oil in Natural (clear) or the Ebony (which is black tinted) to get an even richer finish on your black paint!
The BIG thing to remember though is that an oil-based topcoat is your best friend when you want to paint furniture black!
I hope this post has helped you gain the confidence to try black for your next painted furniture piece! A black painted piece is timeless and can work in any decorating scheme. And now you know all my tips for how to get that sleek look you want.
Thanks for joining me today!
teresa
Friday 6th of March 2020
Great advice. I just use a tinted paste wax to cover. This is sold in most paint stores for wood floors. No need to worry about it getting into the pores. It comes in brown and rarely black.