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Oak furniture, want to paint it white

19K views 13 replies 8 participants last post by  spraygunn 
#1 ·
The furniture is oak with, I think a stain and a finish that has a bit of shine to it. I would like to paint these white and have that smooth finish to them. What kind of paint and what kind of prep do I need to do before I paint. I know I can hear my Dad saying you want to paint oak!!!! Yes I do.
 
#3 ·
Don't paint the oak. It never looks right to me. Why not refinish it?

If you're hellbent on paint, you"ll have to sand, tack off the dust, prime with an oil-based bonding primer, let dry, sand and dust off again, apply first coat of white paint, let dry, sand yet again, tack off dust, apply additional coats as needed. Once painted, oak, being a hardwood is easily chipped if you knock into it with something or drop something on it. I say refinish......NO PAINT.
 
#5 ·
Hey Truffell,
You want to paint Oak??!!! I'm a dad, I couldn't resist. Follow what Gymschu said, but to add to what he suggests I would say to prime it with Sherwin-Williams "Wall and Wood" enamel undercoater. It's oil base and drys slowly giving it a chance to bond with the substrate while leveling out, eliminating brush marks. Finish it using a good quality oil base enamel with "Flotrol" added to further allow the enamel to dry without brush marks.
 
#6 ·
Hey Truffell,
You want to paint Oak??!!! I'm a dad, I couldn't resist. Follow what Gymschu said, but to add to what he suggests I would say to prime it with Sherwin-Williams "Wall and Wood" enamel undercoater. It's oil base and drys slowly giving it a chance to bond with the substrate while leveling out, eliminating brush marks. Finish it using a good quality oil base enamel with "Flotrol" added to further allow the enamel to dry without brush marks.
Excuse me Steve, I know you know this, but don't you mean "Penetrol". I feel funny correcting my elders lol (inside joke).
 
#9 ·
There is a few different ways to do it. Some are easier and some are harder. What I would do would depend on how fancy the chairs are. If they have a lot of hard to sand areas or not. If not, then I would sand them with a sander using 220 grit paper. You just have to remove the gloss and any bumps or imperfections in the finish. For those hard to get places I always use a sanding sponge.Then clean them well and paint a coat of Zissner primer on them. Sand the primed surface with a really fine grit. I use 600 or finer, just to get any dust or bits off. I then paint with the highest quality furniture paint I can get. Usually Moore. Because you are going white One coat will cover completely but I would put a second really thin coat on. Again sand with the ultra fine between coats. It's not necessary but you could then finish it off with lacquer. I have put up to 20 coats on some of the pieces I have painted and polish them with a 2000 grit wet paper when I'm done. Amazing results I must say.

The other option especially if the chairs are fancy and hard to sand is to buy a product called"Liquid sandpaper". It's amazing stuff and years ago I had a big bookcase that was made out of something that looked like arborite,YUK. Any way, I used the liquid sandpaper on it, no actual sanding at all and then primed and painted it. I still have it and it's still perfect after all those years. I'm actually going to paint it in the next couple of days for a new colour.

Use only water based paints. They are as durable as oil now and much easire to use. AS much as is possible I always paint furniture using one of those small foam rollers. It's easy to get a very uniform coat with no brush marks. For really big pieces I spray them.

I also have had people say,"You painted those nice old wood pieces. you'r crazy". They say that until they see the finished product and then they say,"Man that is beautiful". LOL
 
#11 ·
Just think of when I am gone and someone get this dresser after its painted, they will find a treasure underneath. Lucknow, that is just way to much work. I like the spray paint idea, have to do this in my condo. Sorry guys I am not fond of the real wood look. What about the product you wipe on and off then paint with primer than winwax??
 
#13 ·
Spraygunn, glad to help, yup minwax, So will that work? I only paint a few times a year and its always walls. I did a coffee table, yes oak and it's now white. The area is very small so looks good. Need help for the large area's. Thanks everyone, great site.
 
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