painting over brown varnish but it keeps showing through! help!

[linspins]

I'm painting some picture frames, in an attempt to turn them from ugly orange varnish to a tasteful muted colour, but the varnish keeps leaching through. I painted emulsion on first, but it still looked a bit orange, then I tried primer ...still faint orange hue. Any suggestions about what to seal it with? If I use gloss, will I be able to paint normal emulsion on that?

Did you sand it down first to create a key?

Chalk paint is able to cover anything (apparently) but is expensive.

I would go back to basics and sand it.

We did sand them a bit, and it's not that the paint isn't sticking nicely, more that the varnish is staining the paint. Off to google chalk paint...

did you use a water-based primer?

try Aluminium wood primer (spirit based). It is very good for sealing sap, knots and other problem surfaces.

You are though supposed to strip off varnish before painting.

I'm wondering now if it was more of a stain/varnish than a shiny varnish - difficult to truly sand off (although I didn't try much, just enough to provide a key!).

Have done an experiment with a bit of eggshell on one. Might have to use eggshell coloured paint over it though.

I use Johnstone's Ultra Primer Sealer here for lots of my projects, the advantage of this is that it is white and gives a good base for most paler colours.

PM'd you OP

Thanks!