Advice from furniture upcyclers/restorers please, re annie sloan paint.

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Hello all.

I have a gorgeous large dark wood (can't decide whether it is pine or oak, although leaning towards pine) welsh dresser, I want to give it a make over and have seen what I would like to do to it and have chosen annie sloan paint (colour - cream).

What I would like to know is, do I have to sand the dresser down to bear wood before painting or will a good thorough wash down with sugar soap be sufficient to then coat the dresser with the annie sloan paint. The dresser hasn't got a lot of deep nics or wear and tear dents and also hasn't got years of polish/wax build up.

Any advice or suggestions would be most appreciated, thank you.

[****merlin*****]

i did a dresser a few years ago

dark wood to almost white

i used this

http://www.owatrol.com/index.php?langue=en&page=produits-esp

i couldnt be bothered sanding and faffing around

[****merlin*****]

excuse the pic

we were having building work done

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Great, Merlin thank you.

I shall check out that stuff in the link.

I like the dresser too, thank you for posting the pic.

Do you still have it and use it?

I am thinking along similar lines and painting the main body of the dresser and keeping the shelves and top dark polished wood.

This is my dresser as it is at the moment.

[****merlin*****]

oooh thats lovely

yes we still have it and its used every day

the shelves and the drawers and cupboards 

i keep breadmaker in one and its in and out everyday

the george is in one and its used a lot

so it gets a huge amount of use

i didnt want a high shine, and i didnt the shabby chic look

what kind of finish are you looking for?

i wanted flat, and solid colour

i just used a washable matt emulsion

chalk paint is good but needs sealed, and be careful, some clear varnish will go yellow

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I don't want the shabby chic either,

I just want a solid matt or egg shell finish more cream rather than off white, not high shine or glossy, if I use the chalk paint do you think just sealing with a clear beeswax polish would do the job then just buff up?

[****merlin*****]

i dont see why it wouldnt work, and beeswax wont go yellow

i THINK they use beeswax to seal paintings dont they?

its a beautiful dresser

i have 3

i do love them

the other 2 i have left natural

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As far as I know paintings these days are sealed with a fine laquer a spray type....I think.

Yes I love my dresser, and my lounge is full of old solid wood pieces, ones that I have found and restored, sanded right down stained (jacobean oak) and waxed. I hate thick varnish.

I have a gorgeous old court style dresser in my lounge that I did a few years ago now. I much prefer the oldy worldy wood style than the modern. I just love natural wood.

Thanks for your help merlin, much appreciated, I shall post a pic, whenever I get my dresser finished.

[bankhaunter]

Back i9n the 50s I did a laboratory technician's course and one of the things I learned was the surfacing of laboratory benches with a polish made from beeswax and turpentine,

The idea was to get a surface finish impervious to any chemical.