Upcycling Old Furniture with Chalk Paint and New Handles

Why a Chest of Drawers Makes the Perfect First Upcycling Project

A tired chest of drawers is the ideal candidate for a weekend makeover. It is flat, forgiving and easy to work on, and it gives you a genuinely useful piece of furniture at the end of it rather than a decorative ornament. In a small flat or a narrow hallway, a slim chest can double as a console table, a bedside unit or even a linen store, which makes reviving one far better value than buying flat-pack.

You need surprisingly little to get started: a tin of chalk paint, a decent brush, some sugar soap, a screwdriver and a set of replacement handles. Budget a weekend, though most of that is drying time. Here is how to do it properly.

Step One: Clean, Repair and Prepare

Paint will not stick to grease, wax polish or silicone furniture spray, and most old pieces are coated in all three. Remove the drawers, take off the handles and label each drawer on the underside with a pencil so it goes back in the right slot.

• Wash everything with sugar soap and warm water, working into the corners and along the drawer edges where hands have gripped for decades. Rinse with clean water and let it dry completely.
• Deal with damage. Fill chips and old screw holes with wood filler, let it harden, then sand flush.
• Scuff sand lightly with 120-grit paper on a sanding block. You are not stripping the finish, just giving the surface a bit of tooth. Wipe off the dust with a damp cloth.
• Patch problem areas. If the piece is mahogany, or has dark knots, seal those spots with a shellac-based primer or a coat of stain-blocking primer, otherwise the tannins will bleed through pale paint within days.

If the drawers stick, rub a candle stub or a little beeswax along the runners now, while you have the drawers out and easy access.

Applying Chalk Paint in Thin Coats

Chalk paint is popular for good reason: it adheres to most surfaces without priming, dries quickly and sands back beautifully. Its main downside is that it chips easily unless you seal it, so treat the finish as two jobs, not one.

Stir the paint thoroughly rather than shaking the tin. Work in thin coats, and always brush with the grain where there is one. On large flat panels such as drawer fronts, a foam roller gives you a smooth finish far faster than a brush, then you can lay off the roller marks with a light brush pass in one direction.

• Two to three thin coats are far better than one thick coat, which will drip, dry unevenly and look lumpy.
• Let each coat dry for two to four hours, or whatever the tin says, before recoating.
• Sand lightly between coats with 240-grit paper, just enough to knock back nibs and brush marks.
• Paint the drawer sides and the visible inside edges too. It takes two minutes and makes the whole piece feel finished.

If you want a distressed look, rub through the edges with fine paper or a damp cloth in the places a real piece would naturally wear: corners, the tops of drawer fronts and around the handles. Go gently. Subtle wear looks like age; heavy wear looks like an accident.

Swapping the Handles for Instant Impact

New handles do more for a tired piece than any other single change, and they take under an hour. The one measurement that matters is the hole centre: the distance between the centres of the two screw holes on each handle. Common sizes are 96mm, 128mm and 160mm, so measure yours before you buy.

• Same hole centres: straightforward swap. Reuse the original screws where they fit, and check the new screws are not so long they poke through the inside of the drawer front.
• Different hole centres: fill the old holes with a wooden dowel and wood filler, sand flush, touch in the paint, then drill fresh holes using a bradawl and a scrap of wood behind to stop the drill tearing the paint.
• Keeping the originals: brass handles and cup pulls often clean up beautifully. Soak them in warm water with a little washing-up liquid and white vinegar, then buff with fine wire wool.

Cup handles, slim bar pulls and leather tabs all work well on chests. Match the metal to the rest of the room, or mix it deliberately, but keep one finish on the piece itself.

Sealing the Finish So It Lasts

Chalk paint without a topcoat will mark if you so much as look at it with a mug in your hand. Clear wax is the traditional choice: apply a thin layer with a brush or cloth, wipe off the excess, then buff after twenty minutes for a soft sheen. For a chest that gets daily use, two coats of a water-based matte varnish will be more hard-wearing still, especially on the top surface.

Wax takes roughly two weeks to fully cure, so be gentle with it at first. Avoid silicone polish entirely from then on, as it will leave a greasy film that has to be stripped before any future repaint.

A Few Practical Pointers for Small Flats

Paint outdoors or in a well-ventilated room, and lay down dust sheets even if you think you are being careful. Chalk paint drips travel further than you expect, particularly onto pale carpets and skirting boards.

Choose colours that suit tight spaces: soft greens, greys, off-whites and deep blues all work well, while very dark shades can make a narrow hallway feel even narrower. Keep the top and sides pale and use the colour on the drawer fronts if you want a piece that lifts a small room without crowding it. And let the drawers dry fully before sliding them back in, or you will glue them shut with your own paint.