How to Paint Chinese Furniture With a High Lacquer

Use Asian-inspired accessories to highlight your furniture.

With bold, simple forms, delicate carved details and a high gloss finish, Chinese furniture can add functional sophistication to any room. However, Asian-inspired furniture has passed in and out of fashion since the early 1700s and it is often expensive. Trim down your budget by buying bare wood furniture and painting it yourself or refinishing your existing wood items with a Chinese motif. Just start by applying a high-gloss lacquer finish in black, red or cherry, and then add designs as your artistic ability and budget allow.

Things You'll Need

• Soap
• Rag
• Screwdriver
• Sandpaper
• Palm sander
• Tack cloth
• Varnish
• Natural-bristle brushes
• Stencils

Instructions

1. Wash the furniture with soap and water. Wait for the piece to dry.

2. Remove any hardware such as pulls or knobs.

3. Sand the surface of the piece down to bare wood; use sandpaper or a palm sander. Use caution when working around structural details such as carvings and built-in knobs.

4. Wipe down the piece with a tack cloth to remove fine dust.

5. Apply a thin coat of black varnish to the piece with a wide flat brush. Brush varnish on in long even strokes perpendicular to the wood grain. Go over the area to even the varnish brushing with the grain.

6. Use a lint picker to remove dust and dirt while the varnish is wet.

7. Dry the piece overnight.

8. Apply a second coat of varnish. Wait 24 to 48 hours for the base coats to dry and begin curing.

9. Hand-paint or stencil details such as Hanzi, gold trim or illustrated panels. Wait 48 hours for the paintings to dry.

10. Apply a coat of clear varnish over the entire piece to protect the piece from scratches, dust and moisture.

Tips & Warnings

• Paint the main surfaces of the piece last so that any spillover from the other sections can be covered up.

• Work in a well-ventilated, dust-free area.

References

• "Chinese Furniture"; Xiaoming Zhang; 2011
• "The Grove Encyclopedia of Materials and Techniques in Art"; Gerald W. R. Ward; 2008
• "Austere Luminosity of Chinese Classical Furniture"; Sarah Handler; 2001