Painting Over Stained Wood

By

T&T Grandma

We ran into this when we redid the house prior to moving into it. To do anything, you have to clean and/or strip the varnish finish off or your paint will continue to separate and 'slide' off. Finding the right stripper was interesting. www.prattandlambert.com was the only brand, got it from a furniture store. Our local hardware store had us try many, many brands.

My 3 story house is 100 years old and a mixture of woods from the open stairways, leaded windows, built in hutch with leaded fronts, etc was a challenge to match in refinishing colors. The hardware store manager came up with 3 color blends to get all woods the same shade.

Our kitchen, we ended up doing a Danish oil, walnut color, and re polyurethaned them. Could not think of the extra work to prep and paint (have 27 cupboards doors in the kitchen). Very difficult to undo OLD varnished to recover with paint.

By

latrtatr

I would recommend an oil based primer. Kilz is my all time favorite. It does have an odor so plan on doing it on a day when you can open windows for air. Anytime you are painting surfaces that could have grease on them you have to use an oil base primer first. Water base will peal. After you use your oil base primer you can then use a water base paint or your choice and color. I also recommend Kilz paint, kit is a heavier paint, covers well without drips the only paint for me and I have tried many many brands.

We are in the process of painting out our kitchen. One of the doors looks like it has had a wood stain or has been oiled, it is rather dark and we want to paint it a pastel shade.