Thread: Part 1 - Painting my antique wardrobe

It's probably going to depend on a couple of things.
1. What are you going to finish it with - paint or a stain/varnish type finish?
2. What condition is it in?

If you are going to use paint, then you may very well get away with a light sand and patch up any holes/knocks with putty, then on with your new paint. This assumes that the existing finish is in reasonable nick - ie not peeling or cracking up anywhere.

If you want to go for a clear finish, then you will probably have to strip back to bare timber to get a decent result.

Hello!

A friend of ours bought a restaurant and all course everything that comes with it, including all the tables and chairs. They were solid timber, painted with gloss enamel blue and yellow paint! :eek: So she got rid of them and bought new ones. She took a really big table home and had it out the back of her house for ages. It had dog food all over it and was generally disgusting. They were going chuck it to the tip and I asked for it.

It took me about 6 weekends to strip back the paint with paint striper and sander. It took me another 2 weekends to stain / finish. The table had NO intricate routing or anything. It was hard work, but definately worth it. It's not perfect, still kind of rustic, but it was free (in $ anyway) and I fixed it!

You are stripping back clear lacquer? I don't know if there is other stripper for that, other than normal old paint stripper . . . Unfortunately I don't think there is any miracle, easy way to do these things . . .

It is in perfect condition surface wise I just want to make it white rather than dark timber. Might run with the sanding idea from what you have said.... I still have lots of paint stripping to do with the coffee table and am not enjoying it so would like to avoid more of the same... Thanks for telling me I can! My gut feeling said yes but I didnt want to stuff it up ... Thanks.