One of my favorite things to do is to refinish wood furniture. Wood is warm and beautiful. And if you can snag something well-made that just happens to be a bit thrashed, it’s the perfect opportunity to make it beautiful again.

Generally speaking I prefer to stain wood if I can. I like to let the grain show as much as possible. Another top contender is the Japanese wood burning technique of sho-sugi. This is especially good for high-sap woods like pine. The sap burns faster, and emphasizes the incredible beauty of the grain.

However…

Furniture can be different. A lot of furniture can have lots of intricate details, small surfaces, not to mention curved rungs, and just generally hard-to-reach areas. In those cases, we get the paint out.

But you can’t get just any old paint. Do not try to use house paint. Can’t even tell you the number of times I’ve watched people try to paint, like, a bathroom cabinet with some regular-degular Behr satin wall paint. Don’t do it. Those paints are NOT meant to withstand the kind of beating that furniture gets. They also are latex, which means they’re full of plasticizers, making the inherently less durable.

As much as I care about the environment, the truth is that typically a less environmentally-friendly paint might be your option. I personally am a fan of spray paint. Comes in fun colors, goes on easy and evenly, gets in all the nooks and crannies, and you can create what is nearly a factory finish with them (just be sure to hit it with several coats of clear). Alternatively you can use a alkyd enamel paint. These are paints that act simultaneously like latex paints and urethanes — lower VOC than a urethane, but dries (cures, really) hard like a urethane. So it has way higher durability. The gold standard for a lot of people who have voiced opinions on this topic seems to be Sherwin Williams’ Emerald Urethane Trim enamel paint. It’s typically used for trim in houses — which take a lot of abuse so you know it’s good.

Especially after the 50s with the invention of plastic and an increase in mass-production of manufactured goods, high pressure laminate and various other dubious-material furniture products saturate the market. Does Ikea even sell solid wood stuff? (Genuinely asking, I really have no idea.)

Because this furniture is usually compressed with a plasticky outer coating, they cannot be refinished in the same way. I much prefer natural wood, but in a case like this, paint is your best friend. And you’ve already heard me sing the praises of spray paint earlier.

No shade on Ikea but…shade.

Testing font overrides 1 | Let’s see if these work

Testing font overrides 2 | Sometimes the font overrides don’t appear the same in the preview as they do in a test send or a real send

Testing font overrides 4 | And can I replicate it?

Testing font overrides 5 | My guess is probably not, because that’s how that very often goes. But we’ll see. Fingers crossed