How can I paint --shit-- brown woodwork white/cream?

[DitaVonCheese]

Our house was last decorated in the 1970s (not by us). Among other exciting interior decor decisions, the previous owners painted all the woodwork in the dining room shit chocolate brown.

I want to repaint it white/cream but cannot face sanding it all down (also am pregnant so probably shouldn't be breathing in too much dodgy dust). Also part of it is a massive floor to ceiling cupboard so there is loads of bloody sanding/prep to do.

I've painted a couple of door frames but it's already chipping off a bit so clearly need to do something else to it first. Help! Can anyone better at this kind of thing tell me what I need to do please?

You don't need to sand it loads, just enough to provide a slightly uneven surface for the paint to grip. The reason it is flaking is probably because the paint you are using has a different base to whatever was used in the 1970s so if you paint on an all-purpose primer first, the new paint will take better.

Thank you Will give that a go.

There is so much in this house that needs doing, it's so wearing :(

Oh - anything I can do about my flaky doorframes? Same thing?

I found some sanding liquid - haven't tried it yet so can't tell you what it's like but might be worth a go

liquid sander

I used some sanding liquid on the door frame of our side garage door. It worked well, but stank! In our case the frame had a very uneven surface and if I sanded it between coats, I ended up with gaps in the new paint surface. The whole idea of painting it was to provide protection rather than make it look pretty, so the liquid sander did fine - it keyed the surface without removing the paint from the existing bumps.

If your paintwork is basically in good condition then I think this would do fine - just open all the windows first!

I think you will probably have to use sandpaper on the flaky doorframes, though.

A really good primer is Zinsser B.I.N. which you can get from special decorating shops. It costs a bit and I think you need to clean the brush in meths or something unusual, but it covers ANYTHING, you will need fewer top coats over it.