• Wood chairs of all types are great for painting projects.antique carved back kitchen chair image by Scott Williams from Fotolia.com
  
  Wooden chairs, whether old or new, make a great afternoon painting project. If you have any old chairs lying around in the basement or attic, or if you've been experimenting in woodworking and have made your own, you can make a handpainted masterpiece with little extra effort. Handpainted wooden chairs are great conversation pieces and, who knows, you may even get good enough to start selling your designs.
  
  

Use Stencils

• Make sure whatever chair you're using has been wiped down and sanded. Use a stencil to add a painted design to the back of the chair. If you've used stencils to paint your walls, you can use the same one to help match your chair to the room décor. This is perfect for children’s rooms, family rooms and even old rocking chairs in the nursery. The chair must first be painted a base color. Try one that brings out one of the accent colors of the room or a plain white. Then stencil your design and paint in desired colors with a small brush. Remember you can always add a coat to the chair if you mess up the design, but you may want to practice first.
  
  

Animal Prints

• Painted-on animal prints help make any wooden chair transform into an exotic artwork. First you’ll want to strip the chair; this is easily done by rubbing down with steel wool and sanding down. Add thin coats of the base color: orange for tiger stripes, gold for cheetah print, and white for zebra stripes. Let each coat dry before adding another. Once you have a strong base color draw or stencil your markings; if you don’t have a stencil you can easily draw them on cardboard, cut out, and trace onto the chair. Once you’re happy with the designs use a small brush and black paint to outline the design and fill in with the applicable color(s).
  
  

Plaid

• A plaid painted design is fairly simple, although your paint strokes must be even and proportionate with one another to get the best effect. You’ll need 3 to 4 colors and a lot of masking tape. First prep and coat the chair with the lightest or darkest of the colors you’ve picked. This will give you a good foundation to work with. Grab a plaid swatch for inspiration and ideas. Arrange the tape to make large squares with what you want to be your secondary color, then once it dries start mapping off and painting your stripes.