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Upcycled Bedroom Furniture for Kids

Upcycled Bedroom Furniture for Kids

Vibrant and creative, children’s bedrooms are the perfect place to experiment with colour. From calm sleeping environments to inspiring play areas, both filled with wooden furniture, there are plenty of spaces to incorporate colour. Refreshing a piece of furniture is the perfect way to update an existing scheme.

You can rest assured that all Little Greene paint colours are certified child safe, which ensures that they are free from toxic ingredients. Choose from wipeable Intelligent Matt Emulsion for walls, supremely resilient Intelligent Satinwood, or Intelligent Eggshell for woodwork. All of these finishes carry the European Standard for Toy Paint*.

* European Standard Toy Paint Regulations, EN 71-3:2019

Decisions, decisions: Choosing Colours for Children’s Bedroom Furniture

When selecting shades for a children’s room, consider how you would like the space to feel.  Also, think about the light in the room and how it affects the space.  A shaded area might do well with a pop of brightly painted furniture to lift the space, whereas a brightly daylit area could take a darker shade of saturated colour on an item of painted children’s furniture.  You may also want to consider choosing colours that are soft and gentle for children with additional sensory needs, to create a sense of calm within the room.

Wall: Shirting

Stripes: Bone China Blue

Skirting: Middle Buff

Shelf Bars: Baked Cherry, Woad, Heat & Bone China Blue

Start Small: Child-sized Furniture Upcycling Projects

If you’re painting furniture for the first time, begin with a smaller project. A chair or a rocking horse is an ideal project and can be completed in a day.

How to upcycle varnished furniture: 

  1. Use a medium grade sandpaper lightly over any existing finish to provide a key to the new coats of paint. This will also remove any flaking paint.
  2. Wipe over with a damp cloth to remove dust and dirt. If greasy, use a sugar soap to clean and allow to dry.
  3. Use Intelligent ASP (All Surface Primer) to prime the furniture and apply one coat. This primer will be tinted to the shade of your chosen topcoat and will help the paint to adhere for a more durable finish.
  4. Choose Intelligent Satinwood as the best paint for upcycling furniture and paint 2 full coats, allowing 2-3 hours drying time in between. If your chair includes metal parts, this paint finish is ideal for painting both wood and metal surfaces.
  5. Be methodical. It is quite easy to miss a surface on a 3D object. Start from the top down and move around the piece of furniture to check you haven’t missed anything.  
  6. Use the paint sparingly and don’t overload your brush.
  7. When finished, simply wash your paint brushes thoroughly in water.

Walls: James

Woodwork: Gauze

Rocking horse: Felt & Slaked Lime Deep

Skittles: Milk Thistle, Deep Space Blue, Marigold, Spearmint, Phthalo Green, Leather

Creative Cohesion: Paint Woodwork to Match your Upcycled Furniture

Once you have painted a piece of furniture, find another element in the room to paint the same colour.  It could be the skirting boards, the picture rail, window frame or door.  Doing this will create a visual link between the walls and the furniture and will draw the scheme together. 

Wall (main): Welcome, Welcome – Pale, Pale Lupin

Skirting: Yellow-Pink

Chair: Mister David

Cupboard Love: Painted Children’s Furniture Inspiration

This joyful chest of drawers painted in Marigold lifts this neutral scheme and provides a bold colour highlight. Remove the drawers to paint and decide if you would like the drawer handles in the same colour or a contrasting hue. For an energetic scheme, look to colours on the opposite side of the colour wheel. Marigold pairs extremely well with the cool Bone China Blue – Pale on the walls and floor, and Bone China Blue creating stripes on the floor.

Drawers: Marigold

Stool: Chocolate Colour

Walls: Bone China Blue – Pale

Building blocks: Marigold & Carmine

Flooring: Bone China Blue & Bone China Blue – Pale

Sleepy Head: Upcycled Wooden Headboards

Keeping your child’s room relevant to their age doesn’t always require a complete revamp of the room. Small projects can have real impact and introducing a painted headboard is a simple and effective statement. 

 To create this checkerboard look, paint small squares of wood in Intelligent Eggshell. Select contrasting colours Olive Colour, Carmine, Citrine, Lemon Tree, Pink Slip and Loft White.

Wall: Hellebore

Headboard: Olive Colour, Carmine, Citrine, Lemon Tree, Pink Slip & Loft White

Quick Fix: Painting Behind Your Children’s Furniture

To give the illusion of painted furniture, paint a wall behind an open-backed shelving system in a vibrant colour. This will provide a backdrop to your child’s treasures and is a subtle way to zone areas of a room. 

Here, Phthalo Green is used to keep things fresh alongside French Grey shelves. Use the very matt Absolute Matt Emulsion for low traffic areas, or Intelligent Matt if the surface of the wall will be touched and will need to be wiped.

Walls and back of shelves: Phthalo Green

Back of shelves: Lawnmower Green

Shelves: French Grey

Learn more about our child-safe paints or browse our children's room inspiration gallery before embarking on your furniture upcycling project.