Be Excellent To Each Other

I have an old wooden table with a dark varnish on it that I want to paint a cream colour. Is there any way of going about painting the table without sanding it first? I won't be sanding it as its carved and will take far too long for a £5 charity shop find. The top is covered with glass so the wear on the vital bit should be minimal.

So, is there any paint that will cover the varnished wood? Will it need any kind of primer first, do you think? Any recommendation? I don't care if the table is matte or gloss or anything in between, I just want it a nice cream colour. Any ideas/advice?

(PS, it's not a massive problem if it all goes wrong as it was only an old £5 coffee table)

can you not get varnish remover?

Dip and strip.

Just give it a good clean and gloss paint should stick well enough.

You really need to give it a quick sand else the paint will have nothing to grip, it needs a 'key to hold onto. Take it outside and quickly rub it all over with medium to fine sand paper, quick hoover and then paint. That's should do ok for a cheap renovation.

Sanding would only take a few minutes, just need to rough up the surface all over.

Car body primer then a couple of coats of cream spray paint.*

*note: not actually tried this.

Thank you, folks. I think I'll try the quick sand (as long as I don't have to attempt to get all varnish out of every carved crevice) and a couple of coats of gloss paint. If it looks nice I'll take a picture. I'll have to do it in the garage, mind, so I'm not looking forward to the cold Will be a few days until I can get to the shop, too

Here's a second for the "quick sand then gloss" approach - I have done it myself enough times. It's like repainting something that's already painted with gloss paint - you just give it a quick sand to get a surface for the new coat to key onto, and away you go.

Try all of the above methods and report back with which was best.

How many tables do you think I have?

Buy more tables! This is SCIENCE, damnit, and needs to be done properly.

Do a small area using each method. You could then label it and grade them.

Then exhibit it in the Tate Modern.

You also need to have a control table, which you just leave as it is to see if it spontaneously paints itself.

I... er... have I just agreed with Kissyfur on a practical matter?

Heh.

Here's a question - who here bothers with the "between coats" sanding? I'm too lazy.

That's why all your paint falls off

You know what, it never does. That's why I query the necessity for it. The paint tins don't tell you to do it, only the people who sell "between coats" sand paper do.

I don't do the sanding between coats.. I think I did once but quickly gave up.

I only wear one coat to sand anyway, even in this weather you will soon work up a sweat.