Painting pine furniture

[Tightarseinleggings]

I know there are threads here if i had a proper look but ill start my own!

Total novice, but i have a set of bedroom furniture id like to paint. DDs bedroom is due for a revamp. Shes chosen her curtains etc from Dunelm.

I know chalk paint is the thing to use but im unsure if i need to gently sand the wood. This is how im thinking of painting, but if i do it all including the top what do i need to use to seal it??

If you use chalk paint you don't need to sand it at all. You can wax over the top of chalk paint to seal it. Annie Sloan has a good range.

Check out youtube. There are lots of videos on there.

We have varnished pine furniture. I assumed I'd need to sand it first before painting white?

Nope. That's the beauty of chalk paint. No sanding required.

Is that all chalk paint or just Annie Sloan?

Chalk paint gives a real shabby chic finish (or patchy!). If thats the look you're going for then thats fine, but it doesn't hold up particularly well to knocks and dinks, it can chip. The varnish over the top helps, but its not particularly long lasting.

An oil based eggshell paint will be more robust.

I've used both eggshell and chalk paint on different projects.

Whilst the chalk paint is super easy and needs little preparation, the waxing can be a bit of a pain and labour intensive though I semi melt the wax and apply with a brush to speed it up.

You may find that the chalk paint wears a bit round drawer pulls, knobs etc but that can be a nice look especially if you have a different colour underneath your top coat.

My eggshell pieces have maintained their finish really well but overall took more labour than if I used chalk paint. For the eggshell finish it was sand, wipe with wire wool dipped in white spirit, base coat and 2 top coats.

I'd be tempted to give the chalk paint a go. You can make up your own if you want to save some money. I've done this using leftover emulsion and it was great.

To hell with the sanding.... just get a mini roller and some satin or eggshell and a mini roller

I painted my kitchen side board this way and it still looks like new 4 years later