Painting Finished Furniture

[Gardner Barnes]

I have this pine armoire that has a glossy wood finish on it. If I wanted to paint it, do I need to sand the varnish off? Or can I just apply a primer and then paint it?

Sanding it would be a pain in the *** because the armoire has this decorative strip of wood glued onto most of the the front of the piece. Sanding off the finish would probably damage that strip of wood.

 

[forgotmyusername]

You probably only need to lightly sand it, then Kilz, then paint. Should you require my considerable expertise in anything else, you know where to find me, yo!

 

[washparkhorn]

If you cannot lightly sand, buy a deglosser (liquid sander), prime with an oil based primer, and then finish with 2 light coats of oil based paint.

Paint thin. It looks so much better than one thick coat. The new oil based paints have fewer fumes, but work in a well ventilated space.

 

[jmrob93]

Yes, liquid sander is what works best and can often be the promer as well depending on the brand

this worked well on the kitchen cabinets I updated a few yr back

 

[txzen]

Another vote for the liquid sander or deglosser. We did this recently with bathroom cabinets, followed by shellac-based primer and oil paint. I'm sure you can have similar results with latex paints too, but for anthing that is going to be handled a lot, it's hard to beat oil. Takes some getting used to and the cleanup (and smell) are a pain. Incredible results though, and I'll never paint doors or trim with anything other than oil now.

 

[eflow24]

You definitely want to use some kind of sander, liquid or regular, because Kilz alone will not do as well considering it is a gloss finish.