can you paint a cheapo wood veneer bureau?

[Jocelyn]

Hiya everyone! I have a crappy Ikea particle board-type bureau and I'm wondering how I can spiff it up. I imagine paint might kind of wick off and not stick but who knows? Anyone tried painting one of these jobs? Does it work?

[oncewerewise]

I don't know what you're comfortable using, but I know that you can sand them down and prime them and then paint them. I've done one before. You can use a special latex-based primer and a latex paint. I did one and then covered it with stencils. If you don't sand and prime, the paint will flake.

Peace.

Edited to add that Benjamin Moore has a great primer called Fresh Start, I'm not sure if it's local to you but their website is Benjamin Moore

Good Luck!

[Jocelyn]

Thank you for the useful info!

Do I need to sand off the old surface entirely, or just enough to roughen it up?

Can't wait to get my stencils, and funky new knobs too!

[StarMama]

I have an Ikea coffeetable that I sanded, primed, and then spray painted black and added ivy stencils to... it was very pretty until my Dh scratched it up moving around a heavy computer case on top of it that had a metal spur at the bottom of it... (arg). Besides the scratches from what I would NOT consider normal use it stood up well (I've since had to cover the top with celestial contact paper because the scratches made it look soooooooo ugly). So I think a dresser would stand up well to being primed and painted/spray painted. I also put a few coats of clear urthane over the paint on my table, so it might be an idea for the dresser as well.

So if the top of the dresser might get some wear, I'd either do more coats of the clear urthane, or perhaps get a pretty piece of fabric to protect it, or maybe just not stencil the top so its easy to do little touch ups to. But if the top of the dresser isn't going to be seeing much in the terms of big scratchy things on it, you shouldn't have a problem

[carrieanne]

You just need to rough it up, gives the primer something to hang on to. Kilz now makes a latex primer which is SOOOO much better than the original(oil-based) in as far as fumes and clean-up. You can clean-up with soap and water as opposed to turpentine and the fumes won't mak you as dizzy, you can find it at the Home Depot. Good luck on your project!

[queen620]

My husband is a manager for Sherwin-Williams paint store. I have been buggin him for a year to find an easier way to redo a dresser in my kids room. Everytime i ask his answeris sand it ALL off and then use OIL-BASED primer. If you use latex it will chip over time, especially if you use latex paint on top.

If you don't plan on having the peice for long then don't worry about going the quick route, but if you want it to last, sand and use oil based primer. Kihls, now sells a "no fumes" oil based primer, but I owuls stilluse it outside as personally any and all fumes bother me even latex.

[Jocelyn]

Thanks!

I think I'll just go the quick route for now. If I had a nicer, well-built piece to start with I'd do the labor intensive sanding, etc.

Jocelyn.