Can You Paint Pottery Barn Furniture Black?

The short answer is yes. However, it would be best if you were willing to put the work needed to paint the furniture black.

What You Can Do To Make Furniture Look Like Black Pottery Barn

1. Choose The Right Piece

The style and shape of the furniture you choose have a major difference.

Solid wood pieces with warm stains work well. You can save much time when the piece doesn’t have a stain base coat.

2. Avoid Using Primer

Primer is used to stop stains and bleed-through. If you choose light paint colors, it can help to fix the stains.

However, the white primer doesn’t go well when painting a distressed black finish. It will ruin the look.

Here are options to consider: As long as you clean the piece properly, apply light sanding and use quality paint, you don’t need to apply primer.

However, if you want to use primer, you can purchase a tinted primer to prevent white from showing through after doing sanding works.

You can also use a mineral or chalk paint to replace priming.

3. Sand Between Coats

To achieve the black pottery barn finish, it is necessary to do sanding in between each coat. While painting, paint some areas lightly and continue to sand the areas back a little bit more aggressively.

The aim here is to reveal the original stain while the rest of the piece stays a rich opaque black.

4. Treat Bare Wood Using Stain

Unless you do the sanding with an extra light hand, you may notice that some areas are sanded back to bare wood.

A simple fix is using a Q-Tip and choosing a matching stain. Dip your Q-Tip into the stain. After that, apply it to the areas where raw woods are located.

Leave it alone for a minute and wipe it off with a towel. Let it dry.

You can apply this step after you have applied and sanded your last coat but before your topcoat.

5. Use Black Wax Finish And Topcoat To Achieve Extra Durability

You can use black wax to achieve black color on a black pottery barn finish.

To add durability, use General Finish High-Performance Poly.

You can also apply Annie Sloan’s Black Wax to the entire body. Any black wax gives an added black shiny layer.

How to Apply Black Paint on Furniture for a Rubbed Finish Look

You can paint furniture black easily at home. It will give the finished product a classic and timeless look.

The rubbed finish is added to give a professional look to your furniture piece. You can apply a variety of metallic tones to the finish, from copper to bronze.

The finished piece will easily match any existing black furniture. Here are the steps to transform your old furniture using black paint.

  • Clean your furniture piece with a damp cloth and water. Clean all dust and grime off of the surface. Remove all hardware pieces such as knobs and drawer pulls. Set aside doors and drawers.
  • Use fine to medium grit sandpaper to sand your furniture. Sanding is aimed to allow the base paint to be able to grip and bond to the furniture. After that, wipe the dust away with a damp cloth.
  • Use black latex paint using a roller or brush. You can also spray the paint. To create a strong foundation coat, you might need to apply many coats of paint. Let it dry for at least four to five hours between coats of paint.
  • Use sandpaper to rub crevices and edges of furniture. This will let the natural wood show through. You can also sand other areas to give a distressed, rubbed look.
  • Apply metallic paint. Dip a rag into the paint lightly and rub along the crevices and edges of your furniture. Metallic paint has a faster dry rate than latex paint because of metallic mica flake addition, which will dry after two hours. You only need very little paint to achieve a hand-rubbed look.
  • Apply a clear polyurethane sealer to protect your furniture. You can apply the sealer to the entire piece or only the horizontal surfaces. Use a roller, brush, or spray on the pieces. Then, give it about 24 hours to dry before putting the hardware back on the furniture. Only reattach doors and drawers when it is scorched.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Painting The Furniture Black

If you wish to paint your furniture black but are still unsure whether that is the right choice, this advice might be good for you.

Black color can be a strong contrast to a bright and airy room. The great thing about using black paint is that it can hide any flaws in the furniture.

If there are scratches, dents, or scuffs in your piece of furniture, using black paint is suitable to hide them so it will look and feel brand new again.

The downside of using black paint for your furniture is that, just like black clothes, furniture with black color is more noticeable when it gets dirty. Any dirt, dust, animal hair, or stains can be noticeable on black furniture.

It means you must frequently clean it to make it stay in the best shape.

The time it takes for cleaning can be a major problem for people who don’t have time and energy to clean every week.

The Best Black Furniture Paints

The list of black paints mentioned below is the recommendations for furniture paint. The list below contains water-based, chalk-based, and latex paint. You will find paints that work best to give your piece a modern and sleek look.

  • Country Chic Chalk Style

For a matte finish, clay-based, dry quickly

  • Fusion Mineral Paint

Has natural color. Contains 2 in-1 paint and topcoat

  • Rust-Oleum Latex Paint

It is durable, no primer is needed, and has thick coverage

  • KILZ Tribute Satin Paint

Durable has 4 finishes, resistant to mildew.

The Secret To Paint Furniture In Black Color To Resemble Pottery Barn

Many people like the style of pottery barn furniture.

Those Pottery Barn pieces utilized a good deal of matte finishes. You can apply chalk paint to achieve a similar sheen.

Pottery Barn also often has distressed furniture styles.

To get the same effect, you can apply sandpaper to get a distressed style on the black furniture so it will look the same as the furniture produced by Pottery Barn.

How To Paint Your Furniture Without Having To Apply Sanding

Here are the methods to paint furniture without the sanding process.

  • Use mineral paint. The paint is almost the same as chalk paints. It does not require preparation time.
  • Use Liquid Sandpaper. With this liquid, you can apply it over painted wood, stained wood, and other furniture. It is a good alternative to traditional sandpaper and provides the same “roughness” surface so the paint can adhere to it.
  • Use a bonding primer.

The Difference Between Black Stain And Black Paint

Black paint and black stain are completely different.

Black stain is much thinner and is used to penetrate surfaces made of wood.

Black paint, on the other hand, is thicker. It is for the surface, and it does not penetrate the wood.

Related: Mistakes On Painting Wood Furniture