Update your wood chairs with paint using this easy spindle painting technique—no fancy tools required! | YouTube video

I’m thrilled you’re here today because it’s another Furniture Fixer Upper Day where I join my talented friends and link to their makeovers below… AND we’re diving into a classic DIY project that never goes out of style—painting a wooden chair! Whether you’ve scooped one up at a thrift store, inherited a family heirloom, or found a roadside gem (my fave 😉), giving a wood chair a fresh coat of paint is a satisfying makeover.

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Here’s the Windsor chair I started with. It has great shape, awesome-looking two-tier back, and gorgeous spindles. Although the spindles look great, they can be intimidating to paint if you don’t have a sprayer, but we’re going to make this step by step easy peasy. If I can do this – YOU can do this.

The legs may have been chewed on by a pup or possibly just banged up from use over the years.

The seat finish was chipped and flaking off. It also had cracks and dings because this chair is old. I wasn’t too concerned about getting a ‘perfect’ finish because I wanted to keep the character of this wood chair. Also, it’s not going to be home decor or for sale. I’m going to keep it in my inventory for a staging/styling prop for my other furniture makeovers.

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WHAT YOU’LL NEED

Wood Chair  – SALVAGED
White Lightning Cleaner
Sanding Sponge
Bonding Boss Primer (if not using a paint in primer paint)
Anchor SILK All-In-One Mineral Paint
Midnight Garden Decoupage Paper
Shop Towels
Paint Brush
Clear Coat Satin

WINDSOR WOOD CHAIR MAKEOVER

Here’s how it all came together…

CLEAN

I laid down a plastic drop cloth and cleaned this chair with this heavy-duty furniture cleaner . The right size sponge is important to get inbetween each of these spindles.

👉 Tip: After cleaning, give your chair a quick rinse with clean water and let it dry completely.

REPAIRS + PRIME

After giving it a good cleaning and rinse, I flipped it over to repair the chewed-up legs. This chair had WAY TOO MANY dings, scratches, gouges and holes to fill all of them, but the chewed up feet really stuck out so I used some wood filler to smooth them out.

 SCUFF SAND… JUST ENOUGH!

Okay, so here’s the deal with sanding—don’t skip it, but you don’t need to go crazy either. If you’re using chalk or mineral paint, a light scuff sand is often all you need to help the paint grip. I used a medium grit flexible sanding sponge to hand-sand the entire base. Sanding sponges are the best when chair legs and spindles are involved because they easily wrap around the spindles and legs. Use medium grit sandpaper (around 120) for this. If your chair has a glossy finish, you’ll want to knock that down a bit more with a coarser grit first, then go over it with fine grit (220) to smooth it out.

👉 Tip: Always sand in the direction of the wood grain and spindles to avoid scratches.

To wipe off all dust, I brought it back into my paint room and wiped it down with this tack cloth which comes in packs. If you don’t have any tack cloths, a slightly damp towel or lint free cloth works well.

PRIMER

(Optional, but Recommended If You’re Not Using An All-In-One Paint)

Depending on your paint and the wood you’re working with, you might need/want to prime. I highly recommend using an All-In-One Paint so you don’t have to prime – it’s a HUGE time saver.

If you’re painting a light color over dark wood (especially something like mahogany), or if the chair has any knots or tannin-rich wood, I recommend a stain-blocking primer. This will help prevent bleed-through and give you a more even finish. I like using shellac-based primers for heavy-duty stain blocking, but a good water-based bonding primer will work well too.

PAINTING THE WOOD CHAIR

Now for the fun part—painting! I used a quality brush for the spindles and seat of this chair. I used Anchor SILK All-In-One Mineral Paint – a classic black to keep the vintage vibe and hide all the years of use this chair has seen. I like to start on the bottom and flip the chair upside down to paint the legs and underside first—then flip it right side up and finish the top. This helps catch any missed spots.

👉 Pro Tip: Apply thin coats and let each one dry thoroughly before applying the next. Two to three coats usually does the trick. Don’t rush this part—thin layers give the best finish and reduce the risk of drips or brush marks.

I painted two coats to cover the entire chair using my ‘slap it on’ paint technique so I wouldn’t have any brush marks on the spindles. The key to this paint technique is to use VERY little paint on the brush and brush it on the circumference – not the length of the spindle. You can do this slow or fast, it doesn’t make a difference. If you want to see this paint technique in action, I’m sharing in the YouTube video tutorial down below.

To hide all the imperfections in the wood seat, this black was a great choice. I used the tip of my paintbrush to get into all the cracks, dings and imperfections. Matte or a low sheen paint and topcoat also help to mask years of use as well. The light doesn’t reflect off them so everything blends in and is much less noticeable.

DECOUPAGE

The seat looked SOOO much better after it was painted black but compared to the freshly painted spindles and turned legs, it needed a little something extra. I picked the new Midnight Garden Rice Decoupage Paper and tried something new – tearing the edges as someone suggested on the blog and Youtube. Thank you because I really love the effect the torn edges added!

Applying this decoupage paper is super easy.

1. Cut or tear the image to size.
2. Apply a coat of Clear Satin Topcoat
3. Lay the design down over the wet topcoat
4. Brush on another coat of topcoat over the decoupage paper
5. Let dry

I have a full detailed tutorial on How To Apply Decoupage Paper here.

SEAL THE DEAL WITH TOPCOAT

To protect this paint finish I used this Satin Clear Coat adding two coats to the entire chair using a paint brush. You can also use a sponge or roller however with all these spindles, the brush gives me the same smooth finish if I use the same technique as when I applied the paint – from side to side – not up and down. If this were a high-traffic kitchen or dining chair, I would add at least three coats. The more coats you add, the better protection against wear and tear. I’ll be using this chair for staging and styling my furniture makeovers, so no additional coats are required.

Here are a few of my other go-to sealing options:

• Clear wax – Gorgeous matte finish, great for chalk paint, but not the best for heavy-use pieces unless you’re okay with reapplying occasionally.

• Polycrylic – Water-based, dries clear, and available in matte, satin, or gloss. Great for light-colored paints as it won’t amber like an oil based topcoat will over time. Also, the matte or satin sheens are perfect for hiding imperfections on dark paints like I did with this Windsor Chair.

• Polyurethane – More durable than wax, but can yellow over time on light paints. Best used over dark colors or natural wood.

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