Whether you are talking about a desk, a dresser, custom cabinetry, or the wooden parts of a chair, there are times you don’t want to paint them. The following are a few instances shared by the designers at our local custom cabinet company.

• Any furniture that has been in the family for a while and has sentimental value to your family. If grandma passed down that beautifully stained wood dresser that still looks decent after 40 or 50 years, you should probably avoid any family squabbles by keeping it as is.

• There are paints on the market specifically designed for painting furniture. If you are thinking about using any old paint you have around to add color to a dresser or some custom cabinetry, you should fight this urge. If you’re contemplating doing something like this, do it right or don’t do it at all.

• Research the furniture online first. If you have a desk type that you see regularly sells for good money online unpainted, but sells for much less when painted, you may want to reconsider adding some color to it. That being said, if you are mainly doing it to blend in better with the other pieces in your home and don’t care about resale value, then go for it.

• Don’t succumb to trends. Sometimes, you only want to paint furniture a particular color or pattern because you see it in a lot of home magazines or websites, and it’s the “in thing.” The problem is that such trends usually don’t last long and are out of style before you know it. Only paint your cabinetry or piece of furniture a specific color or pattern if doing so makes you happy.