Furniture Paint

[oatlyexhausted]

I've recently painted a few pieces of furniture for our baby's room with the Rustoleum Chalky Finish Furniture Paint. I finished off with a clear, water based varnish, It's ok, and looks nice, but seems rather fragile and the paint is quite susceptible to knocks, showing the original wood colour underneath.

I'm now tempted to move on to redecorating our living room; possibly including painting more furniture; but in this room I need something more hard wearing. Ideally, I love the idea of a product that doesn't require you to sand the furniture first; but I suspect that may give a similar problem with a fragile finish.

Any suggestions or recommendations?

That's typical of chalk paint tbh. That's why waxing or varnishing it is advised. If you want a more robust finish I suggest using Zinsser primer - the shellac one - no need to sand first. Then use two coats of a satinwood paint. Rustoleum do a satin finish furniture paint which I've used and which seems to be very hard wearing. Use a small gloss roller for flat surfaces and a brush only for detail and the areas you can't use a roller on.

I've used the same paint before on the furniture in my bedroom but haven't had any problems with chipping. The only difference is perhaps that I used the rustoleum furniture finishing wax on top. Didn't affect the final colour I don't think and was quite easy to apply.

I used the same brand of paint on two pieces of my bedroom furniture and found the rustoleum furniture finishing wax gave it a good finish that isn't fragile!

Frenchic paint is popular with up-cyclers in the trade. There's a limited colour palette but they mix them. There's loads of this type of stuff on Insta and Tiktok and some really good tips.