Want to paint brown varnished doors white

Primrose

Our house is full of those 1970's brown veneered doors which are gloss varnished, which we thought at the time would save maintenance. They've lived up to their promise but I'd now like to modernise & lighten the house and wonder what is the best way of painting them white. Will all the gloss varnish have to be sanded off, or can I simply wash them down and then either put on a primer, or simply a coat or two of white paint?
What type of paint would be best - white gloss or matt, and is there a special paint which stays white for ages and doesn't go yellow with age?

phill99

You need to key them ie sand paper or wire wool. Clean down with white spirit. Apply as many coats as is necessary to get rid of the dark colour of white undercoat (oil based , not the acrylic one). Then a coat of decent quality white gloss. In terms of long term whiteness, try satin wood. This stays white for a long time. Have you thought about changing the doors? May be a simpler exercise!

ormus

we did this a few yrs ago. all the doors were the cheap brown type.
we cleaned them with sugar soap then sanded them down.
think it was 4 coats of white, we needed in the end.