Painting over varnished cladding inside

[jimAuk]

Hi

In our kitchen the ceiling is varnished wood cladding, good condition, but only issue is combined with the red quarry tile floor, it makes the room quite dark.

We like the the texture and appearance the cladding gives, (the kitchen is in the country style,) so thinking of painting over it, to a white colour (matt emulsion)

Is there a possibility of varnish leaching through or notts bleeding? Do we need to prime the surface with anything or just go at it with a good white emulsion?

 

[elrobbo82]

in the past i have just given varnished cladding a good sand down with 400 grit wet and dry sandpaper and primed with zinsser BIN primer as this product has great adhesion properties and with it being shelack based it acts like knotting as well. this will then be ok to emulsion over with a good quality trade emulsion.

 

[jimAuk]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Sanding down sounds quite a lot of work And even more so to get into the grooves in the cladding!

I think I might do some test sections, some straight emulsion, others with a primer then emulsion, and maybe gloss then emulsion.

 

[TheDec]

Wet abrade with as said 400 grit taking care not to breakthrough the varnish, wipe down and allow to dry and give it one coat of a thinned oil based undercoat. You should then be fine to apply your emulsion.

Dec

 

[jimAuk]

Wet abrade with as said 400 grit taking care not to breakthrough the varnish, wipe down and allow to dry and give it one coat of a thinned oil based undercoat. You should then be fine to apply your emulsion.

Dec

Thanks that sounds better! I had vissions of having to sand off the varnish

As said it is quite a country looking kitchen so we are not wanting a 100% perfect finsih, more os a semi distrest look (which is what most of my painting looks like )

Edit to add, oil base under coat thinned...thinned with what?

 

[elrobbo82]

sorry maybe i was not specific enough. i did not mean sand all the varnish off as this would take an age with 400 grit. you just need to achieve a good key for the BIN/undercoat.

 

[TheDec]

jim,

The varnish is acting as a natural knotting agent, you only need to dull down the sheen.

Dec

 

[jimAuk]

Thanks both for your advice, makes good sense.

 

[ic1927]

Wet abrade with as said 400 grit taking care not to breakthrough the varnish, wipe down and allow to dry and give it one coat of a thinned oil based undercoat. You should then be fine to apply your emulsion.

Dec

Thanks that sounds better! I had vissions of having to sand off the varnish

As said it is quite a country looking kitchen so we are not wanting a 100% perfect finsih, more os a semi distrest look (which is what most of my painting looks like )

Edit to add, oil base under coat thinned...thinned with what?

White spirit.

 

[ic1927]

It's much cheaper, and just as good, to use oil based undercoat rather than Zinsser BIN which has become ridiculously expensive recently.

 

[RMS]

in the past i have just given varnished cladding a good sand down with 400 grit wet and dry sandpaper

Careful, you don't want to sand away the varnish. As stated this will eliminate the use of a knotting solution.

and primed with zinsser BIN primer as this product has great adhesion properties and with it being shelack based it acts like knotting as well.

No need. Do you think the op is made of money? Are you aware of the price of zinsser? An oil based undercoat is all thats required here finished with one or two coats of emulsion.

 

[elrobbo82]

It's much cheaper, and just as good, to use oil based undercoat rather than Zinsser BIN which has become ridiculously expensive recently.

your probably right zinsser is really expensive oil undercoat would be cheaper and probably easier to get a hold of.

 

[TheDec]

And a lot easier to apply.

Dec

 

[ic1927]

I saw Zinsser BIN the other week selling for £21 a litre in one decorators merchants.

 

[jimAuk]

Just had a quick look on homebase site and 2.5L of value all purpose primer in brilliant white (which is oil based) £8.98


Thanks all.