Neutral Furniture Makeovers That Will Leave You Inspired

Ready to paint your tired brown furniture or invest in having your furniture professionally upcycled? I am sharing with you my own favourite neutral furniture makeovers to show you that dark brown furniture with good bones, can look beautiful. Some people have ‘the eye’ to visualise how something could look and others sometimes find this a struggle. These before and afters should hopefully fill you with plenty of inspiration for your own furniture if you struggle to visualise ‘the after’!

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The shape of this piece is so unique, I’m so pleased my client Diane chose to keep it and ask me to update it to fit her new home instead of sending it to landfill. Besides from Diane not liking the look of the pine, the chest of drawers were in otherwise great condition and therefore there was no reason a little bit of TLC wasn’t going to be the best option! She wanted a distressed finish with an off white beneath grey, and while Diane was very specific about the tones, she left the final decision up to me (love the trust my clients have in me)!! I opted for soft tones that would compliment her light and airy guest bedroom and it looks perfect! You don’t get shapes like this in IKEA that’s for sure!

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This rocking chair makeover is a super simple one and exactly why I want to share it with you! It was practical but not pretty. Once a rocking chair that although useable, was a horrible orange wood tone, but is now more than fit for its nursery. My client chose the classic ‘All White’ from Farrow and Ball. I sanded and primed this piece first before painting. The spindles and many coats of white did make for quite a lengthly makeover but boy was it worth it!? In my ‘Beginners Guide To Furniture Paint’, you can find out the brush I use which makes a job like painting spindles actually fun rather than painstaking!! 
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One paint < two paint effects, for this now statement chest of drawers! My client was after a Hamptons vibe for her furniture to match her beautiful guest bedroom. Hamptons style is known for washed wood and so we wanted to incorporate a white wash into this makeover! I used Fusion Mineral Paint ‘Picket Fence’ which is a bright white, to paint the body of the drawers and then used the same paint watered down to create a wash for the top. We were both so pleased with how it turned out and I now love with white washed wood even more!!

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By combining a couple or more neutrals, you can create some really cool patterns and effects whilst still keeping your piece of furniture nice and light. Here I have used a neutral and white to create fun stripes for this chest of drawers. Keeping the original handles has added a cool vintage twist. It didn’t take long for these to be snapped up from my website. To ensure I always get my stripes crisp and without bleed through I use frog tape and paint the ‘base’ colour again first to ‘seal’ the tape. Then when dry I paint the second colour (the white stripes in this case) and remove the tape on my final coat when the paint is still wet to ensure the most perfect stripes possible! 

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Katherine had two chest of drawers in her bedroom that were very different to look at, the only thing they had in common was they were both brown and in need of some love! She wanted to make them look more like a pair and that they were meant to sit in the room together. When I visited her home she wasn’t sure whether to go for white or grey. After getting a feel for her bedroom and learning that she might like to change it again in the future, we chose the colour ‘Slaked Lime’ from Little Greene as it is a very versatile off white! By adding some new handles to one set of drawers and painting the originals black on the other, these pieces now look gorgeous AND as if they are singing from the same hymn sheet! 

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And last but definitely not least, my client Lottie had this wonderful drinks cabinet that she had inherited from her Grandmother (family heirlooms always feel even more special when I am working on them for a client)! Lottie wanted a bone inlay effect for the cabinet but wanted the piece to have a light airy feel. With this brief, I chose Cobblestone from Fusion Mineral Paint and used a beautiful stencil set to create some bespoke stencilled artwork to the cabinet. The piece needed a little ‘grounding’ so I added some dark wax to the legs to do just that! I am so pleased that Lottie and her family are thrilled with this makeover!

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SO…I hope these furniture flips have inspired you. Inspired you to tackle your own makeover, inspired you to hire a professional, and inspired you to keep your dark brown furniture and turn it into something beautiful. If you would like to get in touch to find out how I can transform your furniture then don’t hesitate- I can’t wait to hear from you! More details for my commission service can be found here too, if you feel like you want a little more info first.

If you want to tackle your own makeover but find yourself asking, what furniture paint should I use?! Check out ‘My Beginners Guide To Furniture Paint’.

As always, thanks so much for reading, and let me know in the comments which one of these is your favourite! 👇🏻

Stacey x