We’ve been promising a fill-in-the-blank project for a while, and this time we finally painted the bedroom finials to match Ed the Bed. In the photo below you can see they were a bit too white before.
It wasn’t complicated, but we wanted to share a simple, reliable way to match paint to an existing piece of furniture—useful if you plan to add legs to a painted dresser or touch up painted trim. The first step is to collect a variety of paint swatches in the same general color family as your item. For white pieces, start with popular white paint choices and include swatches that vary in brightness and undertone so you can compare warm, cool, and neutral options.
We weren’t tied to a single brand—we deliberately gathered samples from multiple lines to get the broadest range of whites. Back at home, we held each swatch up against one of Ed’s posts and looked for the one that almost “disappeared” when placed next to it. That indicates the closest visual match. The best match for our bed was Glidden’s Parchment White.
We bought a small satin test pot and got ready to paint. I saved the cardboard packaging from a recent mirror purchase—large flat pieces like that are perfect for painting projects. I poked each finial through the raised section of the cardboard so they could stand upright. That let me paint all sides without touching or smudging the wet paint while turning them. And yes, I had some evening TV on in the background while I worked.
The result: the finials now blend very closely with Ed’s finish.
One caveat: some items from retailers like Ikea can vary in their exact shade of white, so the same paint may not match every white piece perfectly. The best approach is to bring swatches home, compare them directly to your item, and then purchase a small test pot of the shade that visually blends in best. It’s an inexpensive, low-effort way to achieve a cohesive look.
Warning: small paint projects are addictive. After finishing these finials I found myself itching to paint more little things around the house. Consider yourself forewarned—this kind of simple refresh can quickly become a hobby.