Painting over varnish or removing it first

t_r

Basically my daughters bedroom has built in wooden panel wardrobes they are all varnished 70's style. They would suit some period mansion but not my semi.

We have got three choices

1, Rip them all out and start from scratch. (shame as there has been a lot of work put into making them & IT WOULD BE MY JOB TO DO IT)

2, Remove the old varnish and paint as required (Nitromors aint cheap and there a hell of a lot to do)

3, Paint over the lot (What would happen? Will the paint react?)

Option 2 & 3 will require least input from me as I already have plenty to do. Honest:D

adandem

It is possible to paint over it but you will need to prepare the wood first by sanding/ undercoating etc. The paint will just chip off if you don't.

phill99

adandam is correct. You need to sand them well. Also, undercoat them with an oil based underecoat (not acrylic) and do enough coats until you can't see any of the base colour. I've had to do 5 coats on very dark varnish to make sure it all the colour has gone.