Old varnished bench

[con1_uk]

Hi,

What’s the best way to paint an old varnished bench please? What’s the best paint to use, is it just gloss?

Cheers

 

[footprints]

Varnish is very hard to paint over the paint tends to chip off, best to remove the old back to bare wood.
There are a couple of ways to paint over varnish using a special primer Zinsser bullseye 123 is a white primer undercoat or ESP https://www.owatroldirect.co.uk/product/esp-easy-surface-prep/
I would go for the ESP here. Bear in mind both take a while to cure fully although you can paint soon after, treat the surface with care for a week or so otherwise it can be scratched off with a fingernail until fully hardened.

 

[opps]

As footprints says, painting straight over varnish often results in the finish chipping very easily.

Last summer I painted wardrobes in a house where the other painters had used Zinsser BIN over the existing varnished room doors as an undercoat before then applying oil based eggshell. They didn't sand the doors before using the BIN. Within weeks every door had chips in the eggshell.

In an ideal world one would sand the varnish off but sanding a key and then using something like BIN or ESP is an acceptable solution.