How To Black Wash Over An Existing Furniture Finish (2025)

January 23, 2025 by Denise - 30 Comments

THE **EASIEST** BLACK PAINT WASH TO TRANSFORM YOUR EXISTING FURNITURE FINISH | YOUTUBE VIDEO

Hello beautiful friends and welcome back! Last week I found a curbshopped dresser frozen in the snow. I was working on it to refinish for today’s Furniture Fixer Uppers tour but unfortunately, it didn’t work out. While sanding and stripping the frozen little dresser, I believe I may have stumbled upon lead paint on the back. I’ve ordered some lead testing strips but they haven’t been delivered yet so this one is on hold.

Buuut, this little bump in the road provided me with an awesome opportunity. It’s Furniture Fixer Upper tour today so yesterday I hustled to a few thrift stores to find a piece of furniture that needed fixing… AND could be restyled into something fabulous F*A*S*T!! I can’t wait to share this EASY black-wash paint finish with you. This might be exactly what you need to update the look of your furniture’s current finish!

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This two-drawer chest was selling at the Mission Thrift Store for $55 but was on sale for 25% off. I’ve seen these accent chest of drawers selling on Wayfair and other sites for $600+ so I think it was a steal of a deal.

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It has a really cute shape. It has some heat damage on the factory finish top. It has some sort of sticky residue with cat hair sticking in it. 😸

The top drawer works well but the bottom drawer needs repair. The rails had fallen off. Thankfully the person who donated this piece the rail back in the drawer so it can be repaired. Let’s get started!

THIS POST IS SPONSORED/CONTAINS AFFILIATE LINKSTO PRODUCTS I USE. YOU CAN SEE MY FULL DISCLOSUREHERE.

Thrift 2 Drawer Chest – SALVAGED
White Lightning Cleaner
Heat Gun
Sanding Sponge
Woodubend Appliques
Caviar Chalk Mineral Paint
Water Mister Bottle
Shop Towels
Oval Paint Brush
Big Daddy Blending Brush
Astro Euro Paint Gun Sprayer
Gator Hide Topcoat
Bronze Gilding Wax

Here’s how I changed the look of this chest and how it all came together…

I removed the drawers and gave the drawers and the body of this piece a good vacuuming. I flipped it over to get all the cobwebs underneath as well. Then I took my favorite heavy-duty furniture cleaner and cleaned it from top to bottom. I made sure to give the sticky top extra attention as well.

Luckily these drawer guides were an easy repair. I lined them up using the existing holes to guide me. Then using screws that were slightly larger than the original ones, I screwed the guides back in place.

For this black paint wash to stick to this existing factory finish, a scuff sanding is needed. I used a medium grit flexible sanding sponge to hand sand the entire piece. Sanding by hand isn’t difficult. This entire piece took me all of five (5) minutes to scuff sand. And I really like the sanding pad because it contours all the curves nicely. Once the chest was scuff sanded, I used a tack cloth to pick up all the dust.

I thought this piece could use a little something extra. I pulled out my Woodubend stash and started going through what I had. I found an applique that fits beautifully on the bottom of this piece. It had been used on a prior makeover but that’s perfectly okay because Woodubend is reusable!

I removed the old glue on the back. I heated it up with my heat gun and then reglued it onto the bottom of this Bombay Chest. Clamps held it down while it dried and I have to admit, even this small detail really brought this piece up a notch!

Now for the fun part! When we think of a paint wash, it’s typically paint mixed with water to create a wash – and you can totally do this. However, because I had limited time for this makeover, I’m sharing the quick and dirty way aka the EASIER and cleaner way to get a black wash on an existing furniture finish.

Here’s what you’ll need –

• Black Paint
• Water Mister Bottle
• 2 Paint Brushes (1 soft brush for blending)
• Shop Towel or Rag

1. Working in sections, spray the existing furniture finish with a fine mist of water using this water bottle mister.
2. Spray your paintbrush with water and dip into the black paint.
3. Apply a light layer of black paint over the sprayed area. (The paint should glide nicely and feel wet)
4. Using your ‘fluffy blending brush‘ start brushing the paint thinner in some areas and thicker in others.
5. Once you’re happy with the results, move onto the next section and repeat the steps again.

The paint wash is easily manipulated by using the above steps. You can add more paint to make the finish more opaque. You can spray more water to give the original finish to peek through. Once the first coat is dry, you can go back in and add a second coat. I’ll share these exact steps in this weekends video for those of you who like a visual.

I like to spray my topcoat for a flawless finish but brushing or sponging it on works really well! I sprayed three coats of Gator Hide and lightly sanded smooth between the first and second coat. Because I was on a time crunch, I also used a heat gun to dry the topcoat faster in between coats. I don’t recommend this. I think it’s nice to let the topcoat dry naturally, but in a pinch, adding a little heat works. One of the questions I get asked most (especially on Youtube) is what spray gun do I use. Here’s the sprayer I’m using now with a 1.7mm nozzle and it works amazing. A compressor is required.

For the final finesse, I used a Copper Gilding Wax to highlight the Woodubend and the handles. I wanted it to be fairly subtle and I think the copper did the trick. It’s super easy to apply with my fingers OR an artists brush. And its buildable. I like using less and then adding a little more if I want it any darker.