revamping very old wardrobe

pebbles88

hello,

hope this is the right area, we have sourced an old wardrobe off freecycle, and we want to paint it.

its quite old, unsure exactly, but my Mum remembers her Gran having a similar one and Mum is 69.

its mahogany finish, apart from front door is made out of what seems to be thick plywood. and has lots of marks and dints. which is the finish we wanted anyway!

we want to paint it cream, so know we need to sand it, 2 coats acrylic primer, 2 coats undercoat, then satinwood, this is what decorator advised us, but as he hasnt done this before on old furniture, it was what he does to old woodwork in houses.

has anyone got any tips/tricks or knowledge that we should know before starting???

tizerbelle

Blimey, thats a heck of a lot of coats to apply!

I did this about 10 years ago on some old 1950's furniture I bought for the bedroom but the route I took was

1. ESP (easy surface primer) - there are other similar products out there - basically wipe on, leave a while, wipe off - it provides a key for the primer.

2. Used a multi-purpose primer/undercoat all in one mix

3. Two coats of cream eggshell (in my case)

4. New handles fitted and woila all of a sudden 4 mismatched pieces of furniture became a fantastic looking bedroom suite.

pebbles88

Thank you, well we've done couple coats multi surface Primer, so on with the satinwood tomorrow!! Fingers crossed!!!