Paint over a clear finish.

With proper preparation of an old clear finish it's as easy to paint over the old clear finish as it is to paint over old paint.

Paint over a clear finish.

Email question:

Jane wrote:

I have dark pine Ethan Allen bedroom furniture from the 80s.  It is extremely dark and I would like to paint it but cannot find info on how to paint furniture with a finish.  Any help would be appreciated and color suggestion also would be welcome.

Jane

Email reply:

Hi Jane

Painting over a clear finish is pretty much the same as painting over old paint.  Preparation is about 90% of a good paint job.

You'll need to clean everything real good, not just dust, but a deep cleaning to remove all old wax and polish and other things that are brought in on our modern day air and left to settle on furniture surfaces.  There is a good cleaner called Prelude Furniture Cleaner that does a thorough job.  If everything isn't squeaky clean right down to the old finish the new paint may have a problem sticking.

Next, the surface has to be given "tooth" for the new paint to stick.  That means that it has to be roughed up a bit.  You  can do it with sandpaper, giving everything a light sanding.  It's necessary to get every nook and cranny, because any small places that might get missed can cause the new paint to skip over and not stick.  A lot easier and more foolproof method is to use liquid deglosser.   You just wipe it on with a cloth and wipe it off with another cloth and the preparation is done without worrying about missing a little strip or a hard to get to inside corner.  The chemicals leave a good paintable surface.

You can apply the paint with a brush, spray cans or rollers.  If there are spindles or hard to get to places the spray cans make the job a lot simpler.  Spray cans in many colors are available at Krylon and Spray finishes

The color you choose is pretty much personal preference.  I would look around at different colors and and see what looks pleasing to you and would be compatible with the colors in the room, such as walls and floor.  We had a series on color in our newsletter a couple of years ago.  You might take a look at our newsletter archive page and follow the links for newsletters February 15, 2003 March 1, 2003 March 15, 2003 March 29, 2003 April 12, 2003 April 26, 2003 May 10, 2003 May 24, 2003 June 07, 2003June 21, 2003 July 05, 2003 each of those has some information about the effect of different colors.

Tom

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