Painting high-gloss furniture

In the noughties, high-gloss furniture, especially high-gloss kitchens, were all the rage. Whether in vibrant shades of red or blue or in brilliant white, glossy surfaces were a must. In the meantime, the enthusiasm about the great look has often given way to frustration. Unfortunately, you can see every single fingerprint on these surfaces. And who wants to spend the whole day chasing after stains with a cloth? What to do when you've had enough of high gloss? Upcycle your furniture, of course!

Table of content

1. Ideas & inspiration for redesigning high-gloss furniture
2. Painting high-gloss furniture: step-by-step instructions from MissPompadour
3. Video tutorial: How to paint your kitchen
4. The tools you need to paint your high-gloss furniture & kitchen
5. FAQ: Frequently asked questions about painting high-gloss furniture

Ideas & inspiration from our community for remodelling high-gloss furniture

In our painting community, where thousands of members share their projects, you'll also find attractive examples of how to paint high-gloss kitchens. Why not get some inspiration!

Painting high-gloss furniture in the kitchen: step-by-step instructions from MissPompadour

Of course, repainting an entire high-gloss kitchen is a big project. But you can also follow the same instructions to paint smaller pieces of high-gloss furniture and work your way up slowly. And the best thing is: you can paint your high-gloss furniture without having to sand it!

Step 1: Choose a varnish

If you are painting your high-gloss kitchen, you should use a particularly stable varnish. MissPompadour Eggshell Varnish is perfect for this. You can also use chalk paints such as the CosyColours chalk varnishes for less stressed high-gloss surfaces. Use our colour cards to find the perfect colour shade for you!

Step 2: Prepare

Whether you unscrew the doors of your cabinets or leave them on is up to you. Unscrewed doors are a little easier to paint because you can place them horizontally on trestles. You should also consider whether you only want to paint the doors of the high-gloss units or whether you also want to work on the carcasses. If your kitchen has handles and hinges, unscrew them. If you want to replace them, it may be necessary to fill the screw holes before varnishing and later drill holes that match the size of the new handles.

Step 3: Cleaning

As always, painting begins with carefully cleaning the surfaces of the kitchen fronts. This is particularly important in a kitchen, because despite all the cleanliness, cooking vapours form a fine, invisible film on all surfaces. The kitchen front and carcass must therefore be freed from grease, but of course also from dust and dirt, before you can start painting. To do this, use the mild but extremely effective MissPompadour To Cleaner.

Step 4: Priming

Now comes the important process of priming. After priming, you can paint your high-gloss furniture without having to sand it. Priming gives your furniture paint a firm hold and an even base on the smooth surface. The white primer also covers a dark colour shade well. Use MissPompadour To Bond & Block for this. Allow the primer to dry for approx. 3 hours before continuing with your work.

Step 5: Colour coat

Once the primer has dried, you can repaint your high-gloss furniture. Apply the paint once and leave it to dry for approx. 4 hours. Don't be alarmed if the surfaces don't look even at first. The second coat of paint will give them their final look and you will be happy with the result. After 14 days of curing, the paint is fully resilient.

Step 6: Sealing

If you want to make your kitchen front particularly hard-wearing, stabilise your coat of paint with a topcoat at the end. Use MissPompadour To Seal for this. Wait 24 hours after the last coat of paint, then remove the dust from the surface and apply the topcoat evenly. The topcoat is cured after 14 days.

Video tutorial: How to paint your kitchen

The kitchen that Astrid is painting here is not a high-gloss kitchen - but she has lots of tips and tricks that you can also use for your high-gloss project.

You need these tools to paint your high-gloss furniture & kitchen

You will first need painting tools: a paint roller for applying the paint to the large surfaces of your furniture and a MissPompadour Paints brush. Its bristles are bevelled so that you can reach even the most remote areas of the furniture. It is also so fine that the brush leaves no brush marks.

For primer and varnish, you will need the MissPompadour Primer Paint Tray! The feather-light but sturdy, reusable The paint tray! made of natural material has several compartments for storing brushes and rollers. Foil would be useful to cover the floor, and for straight edges, order a Roller MissPompadour To Mask at the same time

FAQ: Frequently asked questions about repainting high-gloss furniture

The perfect tool and tools