painting an Ikea (Kura) bed

[Theonlyoneiknow]

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone has painted an Ikea bed? Am looking at painting the kura frame. It comes in pine but am guessing I can't just slap black paint on it?! I am the most useless person ever when it comes to things like this, hoping I am not starting too high! Haven't a scooby how much paint I will need either.

Thanks in advance if anyone can help!

I do think it is paintable - jist buy wood paint. Do you use Pinterest? Theres quite a few painted Kuras on there for inspiration. Also saw.one where they wallpapered the side panel which looked brilliant!

these lot used spray paint which seems an easy way to.do it

I was planning on painting ours white - there is lots of info on Pinterest. From those posts it seems you need to sand the wood down, apply primer and then paint.
Would you paint before or after putting it together though? If after then you probably wouldn't be able to dismantle it (eg to move house) which may be an issue.

Kura hacks

We painted DS's white. It was very doable. We gave it two coats of white primer and two of white satinwood. We found the best finish was with a small roller though that's probably because I'm shit at painting and overload the brush.

What you don't want to do is decide to make it shorter by 20cm and narrower by 8cm and then try to assemble it in a space where it fits without a hair's breadth to spare. Seriously. If you value your sanity, don't do that.

Builder did you sand it first or just prime it?

I am wanting to do ds2's Kura bed when we redecorate his room soon.

Oh, and yes, Ikea hacks always look soooo easy until you do them yourself! (I'll stick to decorating, it is what I am good at)

oooh we have kura beds, loving the curtain pole fixed on the lower bunk so it is a proper den!

I didn't paint mine, but I did wallpaper the panels, which looks amazing. You have to use thin paste and leave it to dry for ages though as its a bugger to reassemble with the paper on. Just prime with one coat then paint with satin wood or acrylic gloss. Easy. Wish I had painted mine now, but I was impatient :)

Thanks! I have just painted a feature wall in DS's bedroom (a lovely deep blue) and have the same colour in eggshell to paint his kura frame with. Not sure where I am going to find the space to do it though!

Will get some primer tonight at B&Q and some mini rollers. Silly question, can you get dark or just white primer?

I am then hoping that I can fit ikea malm underbed drawers where the panels are (he will be sleeping on the lower level).

If you use Zinsser primer you won't have to sand first. It is amazing stuff but very messy.

Oh that sounds fab!! Do you just put it on with a wee roller?

Yes I buy them from Poundland in bulk as the Zinsser paint seems to unstick the glue so the foam bit falls off after about 20 minutes and you can't clean them. It dries very, very quickly, so you have to go fast. You can get it in a spray can too, which might work better.

You can paint almost anything with Annie Sloan chalk paint. Not primer needed. You just slap on a couple of coats and wax over the top. It gives a flat matt finish and dries really quickly.

Having done both I prefer the Zinsser. I love the eventual finish with ASCP, but it is such a faff to get the smooth look I prefer.

I stumbled across this video and they don't use any primer at all, just sand it down?

www.nurserypaint.co.uk/how_to_videos.php

Primer is super cheap - you use it to avoid having to do too many coats of the expensive paint! I'm not sure I'd even bother sanding to be honest, but you could always do a test and see if the paint sticks ok without sanding?

There's a really good video from Crown Paints on which paint to choose when painting metal and wood here> www.crownpaints.co.uk/advice/choosing-which-paint-to-use-for-wood-and-metal