Paint IKEA furniture: The right colour

Create your own individual piece of furniture with a little colour

With a new colour and perhaps new handles, you can individualise a standard piece of furniture so that it is almost unrecognisable. You can paint not only white IKEA classics, but also raw wood, as well as wood and plastic veneer. You can also find detailed instructions on how to paint your Pax wardrobe or your Malm and Hemnes chests of drawers in the MissPompadour blogs.

Regardless of which Ikea products we are talking about, the surfaces of Ikea furniture are almost always made of plastic veneer. However, there are also some shelving systems, such as the Ivar system, whose surfaces are made of raw wood. If you want to escape the monotony of a million-dollar production, there is a great way to make individual pieces of jewellery from IKEA furniture. The motto is: Pimp your furniture - it's easy with furniture colours from MissPompadour!

Preparing veneered IKEA furniture for painting

The veneer on IKEA furniture is usually made of very smooth plastic or wood. After thorough cleaning with MissPompadour To Cleaner, these surfaces can be painted without any problems if you work with a primer. MissPompadour To Bond & Block ensures that wood varnishes adhere perfectly to smooth surfaces. And all without the use of sandpaper.

Painting wooden furniture from IKEA

Furniture that has a wooden surface or is made entirely of raw wood, such as some shelves, is coated with the matt varnish MissPompadour Matt Varnish or the semi-gloss varnish MissPompadour Eggshell Varnish. The varnish for children, LittlePomp chalk varnish, is also suitable for painting wood.

As all MissPompadour varnish qualities are low-odour, furniture can be painted indoors without any problems. Sandpaper is not needed on raw wood. Clean your furniture and use a primer such as MissPompadour To Bond & Block on raw wood first. Then just apply two coats with a paint roller or brush and your previously boring IKEA furniture will have a new look.

Painting white IKEA furniture

White IKEA furniture usually has a plastic veneer. With a new colour shade that matches the wall paint in a room, this often uninteresting material can be given a completely new look. Again, use To Bond & Block and then a well-covering varnish. You can choose between Eggshell Varnish, Matt Varnish or LittlePomp chalk varnish from the MissPompadour range.

Painting IKEA furniture: Tips for paints and varnishes in the children's room

A children's room is a place where you particularly want to design with individual colours. LittlePomp chalk paint has been specially developed for children. In addition to the wall paint for children, there is a chalk-based varnish in 15 enchanting, child-friendly colour shades. The IKEA furnishings in a child's room with a cot, changing unit and wardrobe can be individualised with colour shades that have been developed according to child-psychological criteria.Calm pastel shades are best for babies and toddlers, while older children often prefer stronger colours.

If you want to paint an IKEA piece of furniture, you can change the surface in a few simple steps. For example, if you have a Malm chest of drawers that you want to adapt to the children's room, first clean the dust and dirt off it with MissPompadour To Clean. Then apply a primer with MissPompadour To Bond & Block. And finally, paint with the matt LittlePomp chalk varnish for children. It's a good thing that LittlePomp colours are completely harmless to health! Even pregnant women can work with it.

Finishing IKEA furniture in shabby chic style

If you really want to change rather faceless, boring furniture, you should paint it in shabby chic style. Perhaps start with a smaller piece of furniture such as a chest of drawers. This modern IKEA chest of drawers is now given a patina so that the result is as if you had an old piece of furniture in front of you. It's not that difficult.

First, paint the piece of furniture evenly with matt varnish. MissPompadour Matt Varnish is particularly suitable for this. Once dry, carefully sand the varnish off the edges of the furniture. Sand all the areas that would wear away with years of use. Finally, you should accentuate these areas with coloured wax.

Choose varnishes or chalk paint & order from MissPompadour

At MissPompadour you have the choice between 4 different varnishes. The satin-gloss varnish quality Eggshell Varnish and the matt varnish Matt Varnish are available in all of the more than 90 colour shades in the collection. The chalk varnishes in the CosyColours collection are available in over 30 rich colour shades. The LittlePomp chalk varnishes created especially for children are available in 15 enchanting, child-friendly colour shades.

To find the right colour, we recommend ordering our colour cards in advance. This way you can see the colour directly on your wall.

All varnishes from MissPompadour are characterised by their high opacity and durability. They are also low-odour and splash-resistant. The varnishes are manufactured in Europe and shipped with DHL Go Green.

Step-by-step: painting instructions for IKEA furniture

Want to know exactly how to paint your IKEA furniture? We have put together the following instructions for you:

• Paint PAX
• Paint Kallax
• Paint Malm
  
• Painting Hemnes
• Billy shelf hack
  
• IKEA Hack: From bread box to bedside table
  

Frequently asked questions about painting IKEA furniture

• Can I paint IKEA's veneered furniture without sanding?
  Ikea furniture with plastic veneer can be painted without sanding. However, the smooth veneer needs a primer coat of To Bond & Block. Furniture made of natural wood can be primed and painted without sanding.
• Is one coat enough?
  Even though the first coat often covers well, MissPompadour Paints, CosyColours and LittlePomp should always be applied twice because they only develop their full effect with the second coat.
• Which colour is suitable for painting an IKEA Malm chest of drawers?
  All 4 paint variants are suitable for an IKEA Malm chest of drawers.
• Which colour shade should I use?
  Choose a colour shade that matches your walls and other furniture. We recommend matching the colour shades with our MissPompadour colour cards.
• Which MissPompadour Paint corresponds to IKEA white?
  Even at IKEA, not all white is the same: different product lines have different shades of white and even at different production sites there can be variations in colour shade. IKEA furniture also yellows over time. It is therefore best to compare the shades of white with our colour cards.