#AskHelen How to paint your IKEA Furniture

It's often seen as the mecca, the place you’re guaranteed to be able to pick up decent furniture at a reasonable price whilst munching on incredible meatballs and hot dogs! Yes IKEA is the ultimate furniture shopping destination for many of us. Especially when shopping on a budget, furnishing a new house from scratch or when needing instantly available furniture.

They make fantastic products with items like the BILLY bookcase and HEMNES daybed becoming household names but more and more people are getting creative with their basic IKEA furniture to create something bespoke for their home, without the price tag of unique furniture! 

 

 

Painting IKEA furniture can be a little daunting, and when not done correctly it really won’t last long due to the glossy nature of most of the wood product used so this is where I’m going to step in and share my trade secrets on achieving a beautiful and affordable painted finish on your IKEA furniture.

I’m going to take you through step by step of painting my own MALM makeup table, taking it from white gloss to black to match the rest of my bedroom furniture. 

In this blog I’m going to cover

1. Why it's a good idea to paint your IKEA furniture. 
2. Adhesion primers and why they’re important
3. My favourite products to use when painting Ikea furniture.
4. A step by step guide for painting your Ikea furniture.
5. Some lessons learned from painting my own furniture. 
6. Some gorgeous inspiration to guide your own Ikea Furniture Hack project!

Why Paint Your IKEA Furniture?

So first up, what are the benefits of painting your IKEA furniture? Well I could talk for days about this but I’m going to keep it brief and reel off my favourite key benefits to an upcycling project like this!

1. It can save you money! Why spend money on new furniture when you can make your existing furniture match the rest of your room? 
2. You can’t buy what you want. Sometimes you have a vision in your mind and can’t find the furniture anywhere! This way you can make exactly what you want as you can colour match our paints to over 19,000 different shades!
3. It can provide you with bespoke furniture! The various IKEA hack projects that are floating around (and which I’m sharing inspiration for at the end of this blog) means you can really achieve some very bespoke pieces of furniture that are ‘money can’t buy’ pieces. 
4. Cheaper than designer alternatives. Similar to the bespoke furniture benefit above, I’ve seen many IKEA hacks tackled because they have been created to imitate a higher end piece of furniture that's a bit out of someone's price range. 
5. It saves waste! We’ve become a bit of a culture of throwing away perfectly good items as they no longer match our style and it's no wonder as some of this furniture is so cheap to replace. This isn’t great for the environment and is incredibly wasteful, breathe some new life into older furniture and create something you love. 
6. It can unlock your creative side! There is a lot to be said for the satisfaction you gain from upcycling your own furniture and creating something for yourself. 
7. You could make money from it! If you upcycle it but still decide that the furniture isn’t for you then you may still be able to sell it on a second hand/preloved app and make some money on it!

 

 

Adhesion Primers

So a term you may not have come across before is adhesion primers. As the name suggests, these are primers that provide a bonding layer between the substrate you’re painting and your paint to improve the adhesion.

They’re really important when painting surfaces which are particularly difficult to bond to or in applications with high demands (such as kitchens, regularly used furniture etc!) and if you’re thinking of IKEA furniture, you know that veneered wood surfaces on the MALM, HEMNES, PAX, KALLAX etc are all a really high gloss, slippery substrate! We have a couple available, here are my favourites. 

 

Zinsser BIN

Ok so I talk about this product perhaps a little too much but it really is the G.O.A.T. of adhesion primers. It's billed as a primer-sealer stain killer but important not to get too caught up on the stain killer bit. It's a brilliant bonus and if you have any left a good product for your tool kit but we’re going to focus on its adhesion properties!

It's a shellac based product which gives it an unparalleled ability to adhere to glossy surfaces (even glass) making it a fantastic choice when painting your slippery IKEA furniture.

There is no need to sand your surface first and it dries incredibly quickly, being recoatable in just 45 minutes. You can also buy it in a grey ready mixed shade for projects where you’re using a darker top coat. 

The downside to Zinsser BIN is due to it being shellac based it requires methylated spirits for clean up and has a strong smell whilst using it. I tend to use older brushes or rollers on application that I don’t mind throwing out once finished and I line my trays with tin foil to aid clean up.

Another limitation to note is that it's only suitable for interior projects and if you’re wanting to paint exterior furniture then you should use the Bullseye 123 or the Bullseye 123+. 

 

Zinsser BIN AQUA

Now, if you're looking for similar adhesion properties without the cleanup hassle of shellac-based primers, then B-I-N AQUA might be your perfect match. This primer effectively blocks stubborn stains from nicotine, smoke, water, grease, mildew, tannin, crayon, and lipstick.

It acts as an outstanding barrier against all types of odours, including fire damage, smoke, nicotine, and mildew. Just like Zinsser BIN, B-I-N AQUA excels in adhering to glossy surfaces, making it an ideal choice for your IKEA furniture projects. It dries quickly, allowing for recoating in a short time span.

Plus, its water-based formula means easier cleanup without the need for harsh solvents. While Zinsser BIN is primarily suitable for interior projects, B-I-N AQUA offers versatility for both interior and exterior applications, providing a reliable solution for your painting needs.