You love the piece. You just do not love the color anymore. Or the finish is gone and paint makes more sense than stain for what you have in mind. Either way this is not a rattle can job. It is a professional painted finish built to last on wood that was built to last.
About 3 weeks · Rogers, AR & all of NWA
Here is the thing about paint that most people do not realize until they try to do it themselves. Paint does not hide bad prep work. It reveals it. Every scratch, every dent, every raised grain line, every drip from a previous coat shows up in a painted finish more clearly than it ever would under a stain. Stain soaks into the wood and the grain gives it somewhere to hide. Paint sits on top and has nowhere to go.
A professional painted finish requires the same prep work as a professional stained finish. Sometimes more. The surface has to be right before the first drop of paint goes on or the paint itself does not matter how good it is.
That is what separates a RePaint from someone with a brush and a quart of chalk paint. The prep. The primer. The process. The patience.
Paint is the right call in a few different situations.
Sometimes the wood underneath is not the point. A solid wood dresser with beautiful bones and a grain that is not particularly interesting is a perfect candidate for a painted finish. The structure is worth keeping. The wood tone is not what you are after.
Sometimes the existing finish is in rough shape but the damage does not go deep enough to justify a full strip and stain. A painted finish can cover a lot of surface level issues that a stained finish would require sanding out completely.
Sometimes you just want a specific color that wood stain cannot give you. A deep navy dresser. A soft sage green buffet. A crisp white dining table base. Paint gives you a color range that stain simply cannot reach.
And sometimes a piece has been painted before and stripping it back to bare wood is more work than the wood underneath justifies. Going painted again but doing it right this time is the smart call.
Covering up structural problems, hiding damage that has not been addressed, or putting a pretty finish on a piece that is not worth the investment. If the bones are not good the paint will not save it, and we will tell you that honestly before anything starts.
Same starting point as every other service. The piece gets looked at carefully before anything else happens. Hardware comes off. Drawers come out. Everything that can be worked as its own surface gets separated. The evaluation at this stage determines what the surface needs before paint, how much prep work is involved, and whether the piece is a good candidate for a painted finish or whether something else makes more sense.
This is where most of the work lives on a RePaint project and it is the step that determines everything about how the finished piece looks and how long it holds up.
If the existing finish is sound and well adhered it gets scuff sanded to give the primer something to bite into. If it is peeling, flaking, or failing it comes off. If there are dents, dings, or surface damage that would read through the paint those get filled and sanded flat. If the grain is open enough to telegraph through a painted finish it gets raised, sanded back, and sealed before primer goes on.
Every surface that is getting painted gets clean, flat, and properly prepped before anything else happens. There are no shortcuts here because the shortcuts show up in the finished product every single time.
Same as every other service. Structural issues get addressed before the finish work begins. Loose joints, failing drawers, unstable frames. Up to $100 in structural repair is included. Anything beyond that stops and gets a call before work continues.
A painted finish on a wobbly chair is still a wobbly chair. The frame has to be right before the finish goes on.
A quality primer goes on before any paint. Primer is not optional on a professional painted finish and it is not interchangeable with a first coat of paint thinned down. Primer seals the surface, blocks tannins and stains from bleeding through, and creates a uniform base that gives the topcoat something to bond to properly.
On raw wood or freshly sanded surfaces a grain raising primer may go on first, get sanded back, and then get a second coat of primer before paint. On surfaces being painted over existing finish a bonding primer ensures adhesion. The right primer for the situation is part of what fifteen years of doing this work teaches you.
The color you choose gets looked at in relation to the piece before it goes on. Paint colors look different on vertical surfaces versus horizontal ones, in different lighting conditions, and on different surfaces. What looks right on a phone screen or a paint chip may read differently on an actual piece of furniture in your actual house. Color gets confirmed before the first coat goes on. Not assumed.
Professional painted furniture finishes are not brushed on in one coat and called done. They are built up in thin even layers, each one allowed to dry properly before the next one goes on, with light sanding between coats to knock down any imperfections and give each new coat a clean surface to adhere to.
The application method depends on the piece and the finish. Some surfaces get sprayed for a factory smooth result with no brush marks at all. Some get rolled and tipped for a specific texture. Some get hand brushed in a particular direction for a deliberate look. The method follows the goal, not the other way around.
Drips, runs, and sags happen when paint goes on too thick or the conditions are wrong. Controlling those conditions is part of why this work happens in the shop. Temperature and humidity affect how paint flows and how it levels. A finish applied in the right conditions looks right. A finish applied in the wrong ones shows it.
A painted finish without a protective topcoat is a painted finish that will not hold up to real use. Tables especially. A dining table top painted without a durable clear topcoat will show every coffee ring, every scratch, and every piece of silverware that gets dragged across it within a few months.
A quality protective topcoat goes on over the paint on any surface that takes real use. It goes on thin, it gets sanded between coats, and it gets the cure time it needs before the piece goes back into service.
Hardware goes back on. Drawers go back in. The piece gets a final look as a complete assembled unit before pickup is scheduled. If anything needs attention it gets attention in the shop, not after you get it home.
RePaint is priced at $25 per square foot of surface area being painted. Square footage is calculated on the surfaces being worked, not the footprint of the piece. Intricacies like carvings, turnings, raised panels, and detailed bases factor into the final number.
For typical ranges and full pricing detail see the Services page.
Send a few photos of the piece and tell me what color direction you are thinking. You will get a call from me personally, an honest range on Monday, and a real number before you owe anything.
Start My EstimatePhotos required · About 3 weeks · Rogers, AR & all of NWA