Painting an antique pine wardrobe... Help

[naughtyorouttacontrol]

I have heard you can use lime wax, and it sounds much easier then actually painting it.

What I'm wondering is if it will actually look white after putting the lime wax on?

It is for my dd's bedroom and would rather not have to paint it with strong smelling paint if I can avoid it. But I really dont want the wardrobe to be wood colour.

Any tips and advice would be very appriciated

It looks white-ish wood, rather than white, I'd say. I've got some limed furniture in my house, and its very clearly wood, but now a pale wood. Is your pine wardrobe varnished at the moment? In order to lime it, you'll need to sand it right down, and then (IIRC) you need to go at it with a special brush in order to open up the grain to get the lime in, and then you start liming, and then (IIRC) you put another coat of polish on the top to preserve it. I'd say its harder work than painting, and that the lime is equally as strong smelling as paint.

I think this is a realistic picture of how you could expect your limed wood to look
www.sign-maker.co.uk/limed-wood-photo-frame-for-6-x4-tr134508a-4124-p.asp

Water based eggshell

fired earth, farrow and ball, laura ashley all do it. More hardwearing that normal emulsion and less glossy/smelly than gloss.

I didn't bother with waxing as I didn't necessarily want a distressed effect.

grend - thanks for the link, I think I wanted it to be more white then that. It is not varnished and I have cleaned it with wire wool and white sprit, so its very natual right now.

Laurie - if I paint it, how long would I have to wait to put it in dd's room? Do you need undercoat or primer or both? I never really get why you need so many different paints just to paint a cupboard.

Also I have been told it might be a good idea to white wash it with half paint half water, just wondering how good it will look after?

Its so difficult trying to decide...

I painted a chest of drawers for dd's room with standard emulsion, I think it took 3 coats to get the finish I wanted. I then sprayed it (outside) with a layer of varnish protector type stuff to give it a bit more durability.

I didn't use a primer but then I did 3 coats to ensure even coverage.