Painting varnished furniture?

[SteeleyeStan]

I have a bunch of old wooden furniture that currently have a dark varnish on them. As much as I love them, they look gloomy and drab to me now, and I really want to pain them white. I'm very clueless, so, um... do I need to sand them or something first? If so, is it enough to take the top sheen off, or should I actually try to strip off the whole varnish?

I am also interested as I have a lovely pine chest of drawers that I would like to paint off white but leave the top. Also unsure of the best way so following this thread with interest.

I think you'd need to strip the varnish off first. You never know, with all the dark horrid varnish removed, you might end up preferring the furniture as wood, but with a clear varnish instead.

How about trying Annie Sloan Chalk Paint? You don't have to strip anything off first, honestly! It's amazing stuff. There have been threads about this on MN before - a quick search should find a few. Lots of info on there from Annie Sloan gurus.

Oo, thanks Pilcrow, I'll search that. :)
Thanks tb too - I guess that's another thing to consider, though I'm quite set on lovely whiteness at the moment.

Hehe, thanks again Pil - I've been reading up, and i can't wait to get my hands of that stuff; it sounds bloody marvellous!

Oooh I bet it would work on my boring Ikea wardrobes and shelves as well...

So where can you get the paint and wax from? We don't have a supplier that local.

Seems you can order it online at least here
I seems there's a store that sells them c. 2 minutes' walk from our soon-to-be house..