Lime Paint — Tricky, Expensive & Absolutely Beautiful

Lime Paint: When Beautiful Wins Not every paint that creates a beautiful finish makes good business sense. I learned that while using Pure & Original Fresco lime paint on an inexpensive serving cart I’d owned for years. The color, Soft Taupe, gave it movement and an old-world, almost stone-like appearance. Nine years later, it still sits beside my front door, and I still love looking at it. Would I recommend lime paint to a beginning furniture flipper? Probably not. It’s expensive, has a learning curve and requires the right preparation and protection. It can also be difficult to spot-repair because the beauty comes from variations created across the entire surface. For an experienced furniture artist selling high-end work, however, that one-of-a-kind finish could help a piece stand out—and attract a buyer willing to pay for the additional artistry. Sometimes we also need to stop looking at every piece as inventory. … Read more

Ep55 What Exactly Is Mineral Paint?

Does the Paint Jar Label Tell You Exactly What’s Inside? When you’re new to furniture flipping, it’s easy to assume the name on a paint jar tells you exactly what’s inside. Mineral paint sounds pretty straightforward. It’s mineral paint, right? Well…not necessarily. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned after years of painting furniture is that product names and marketing terms don’t always tell us everything we need to know. Two paints associated with the word mineral can have very different formulations and behave very differently on furniture. That doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with either product. It means we need to learn to look beyond the label. A good example is Fusion Mineral Paint. Fusion explains that its binder is 100% acrylic resin while its pigments are derived from minerals. If you only saw Mineral Paint on the front of the jar, you might have assumed something different. And … Read more

Ep54 A Furniture Flipper’s Guide to Antiques: Why Is That Doll Looking at Me?

Just Because It’s Old Doesn’t Mean It’s Valuable One of the easiest assumptions to make when you’re new to furniture flipping is that old furniture must be valuable. It’s old. It’s solid. It has dovetails. Grandma had one. Surely somebody is going to pay a fortune for it. Not necessarily. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned from buying and selling furniture is that age alone doesn’t create value. A piece may be beautifully made and more than a hundred years old and still be difficult to sell. Another piece from a much later period may have buyers fighting over it. Why? Because value needs a beholder. A buyer may care about the maker, rarity, construction, original finish or history. But ultimately, somebody has to actually want that piece enough to pay for it. That matters to furniture flippers because we have another decision to make: What should we do … Read more

Ep53 Alkyd & Urethane Paint — Pretty Is Nice, but Will It Last?

Alkyd & Urethane Paint — Pretty Is Nice, But Will It Last? Pretty furniture is easy to photograph, but the real test is what happens after it leaves your workshop. One of the most important things I’ve learned through years of painting furniture is that there isn’t one “best” paint. There’s only the paint that’s best suited to what you’re trying to accomplish. That’s why I keep coming back to this advice: Learn your products and choose according to your need at the time. Alkyd and urethane paints are a good example. Products such as Sherwin-Williams Emerald Urethane are designed to create a hard, durable finish that can stand up to frequently used and cleaned surfaces. That matters when you’re selling furniture, because your responsibility doesn’t end when you take the pretty Marketplace pictures. Your work goes home with somebody. I’ve used different paints for different projects over the years, … Read more

Ep52 Acrylic Paint — What Works, What Changes & What Lasts

Acrylic Paint: Why Knowing Your Product Matters Acrylic paint sounds simple enough, right? You see acrylic on the label and assume you know what you’re getting. Not necessarily. One of the most important things I want you to learn as a furniture artist is this: the paint family tells you where to start, but it doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about the product. Think about those little bottles of acrylic craft paint you’ve probably seen at the store. I’ve used them for stenciling and decorative details for years. They’re acrylic. But so are some coatings specifically formulated to stand up to the everyday wear and tear we expect from furniture. In fact, professional wood coatings can use acrylics, polyurethane dispersions and blends of resin technologies to achieve different performance characteristics. Those products aren’t interchangeable just because they share the word acrylic. That’s why I’m always telling you … Read more

Ep51 Chalk-Type Paint — Loved by Some, Hated by Others, but Still On My Shelf

There was a time when chalk-type paint seemed to be everywhere. If you painted furniture, chances are you had a can or two sitting on your shelf. Today? Well…people have opinions. Some furniture painters still love it. Others wouldn’t touch it. Me? I still have it on my shelf, and there’s a pretty simple reason why. I know what it’s going to do. After you’ve painted enough furniture, you begin to get acquainted with your products. You learn which paints level beautifully, which ones need a little extra help, which ones work well for certain projects, and which ones you’d just as soon leave sitting on the shelf. I call that getting to “no-brainer land.” It doesn’t mean you’ve found the perfect paint. I don’t think there is one. It means you’ve gained enough experience that you don’t have to hold a committee meeting with yourself every time you open … Read more

Ep50 Held In His Hand – God’s Provision and Protection

This week’s podcast isn’t about painting furniture or building a business. It’s about one ordinary day that suddenly wasn’t so ordinary anymore. What started as a weekend at the campground turned into a long drive home with a vehicle that simply refused to cooperate. More than once, we wondered if we’d make it home at all.  Friends prayed. Family checked in. Mechanics did what they could. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, I found myself watching God quietly work through the people and circumstances around us. He didn’t instantly remove the problem. He walked us through it. Looking back, I can see so many small moments that could have gone differently. The timing. The people who answered the phone. The place where the vehicle finally stopped. Even arriving home exactly when we needed to. When we’re living through difficult circumstances, it would be natural for most to … Read more

Ep49 Experience: How We Discover What We Love

Experience: How We Discover What We Love Experience has a way of teaching us what no opinion ever can. Ask a group of furniture flippers what the best paint is, and you may get more opinions than there are people in the room. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having a favorite. I certainly have mine. But there’s a difference between learning from someone else’s experience and allowing their preferences to become yours before you’ve had a chance to develop your own. That’s why we’re beginning the paint-family portion of The Furniture Artist’s Resource Guide with true milk paint. Prefer to listen? Hit play below. Old Fashioned Milk Paint is unlike most paints you may have sitting in your workshop. It comes as a powder, you mix it yourself, and you can adjust that mixture depending on what you’re trying to accomplish. There’s a bit of a learning curve, … Read more

Ep48 Come Into the Workshop and We’ll Open Up My Paint Cabinet

Come Into the Workshop and We’ll Open Up My Workshop. One of the most common questions I hear is, “What’s the best paint?” It’s a good question—but it isn’t always the best place to start. After many years of painting furniture, I’ve realized something. I rarely think in terms of individual products anymore. Instead, I think more about what my end game is – and that usually revolves around paint families. That simple shift has made choosing products much easier. Instead of trying to memorize dozens of brand names, I first ask what kind of finish I’m trying to achieve. Once I understand the characteristics of a particular paint family, choosing a specific product or brand becomes much more straightforward. It’s a little like walking through a garden center. If you’re looking for tomatoes, you don’t begin by comparing every plant in the greenhouse. You first head to the vegetable … Read more

Ep47 There is a Better Way | Better Together

-There Is a Better Way | Better Together Have you ever asked a furniture flipping question online and received 11 completely different answers? One person says to use Floetrol. Another says thin your paint or dip your brush in water. Someone recommends cabinet paint. Someone else swears by milk paint. Before long, you’re more confused than a termite in a yo-yo. I’ve watched this happen for years. I realize the problem wasn’t that people were intentionally giving bad advice. Most were genuinely trying to help. The problem was that beginners were trying to learn in an environment where everyone was sharing pieces of the puzzle without anyone connecting the dots. That’s why I believe there is a better way. What if experienced furniture flippers explained not only what they recommend, but why? What if beginners didn’t have to spend years piecing everything together on their own? I believe learning happens … Read more