[PFR226]

We are furniture refinishers that are getting more requests for painting furnirure. We want to have our painted pieces look as good as our stained and finished pieces do. So, we're here looking for some help. A current job is to paint an 8 drawer mahogany dresser and full-size headboard. The previous finish and paint have been professionally stripped. Because our shop is small and we don't want a lot of paint splatter or spray, we were thinking of using BM Aura in winter white. Can we use vinyl spackle to fill the pores or should we use a waterbased wood grain filler? Should we use Bin as a primer or just the self-priming Aura?
We realize that there will probably be many different opinions as to the best way to approach this. I think painting is really difficult to do well, but we are fussy. So, thanks for any and all help!!

 

[DeanV]

I would use BIN as a primer. In shop settings, BIN sprays great through HVLP setups. I think it is important to seal the wood or to ensure adhesion to lacquer that a primer is used even with Aura. I have no experience with pore fillers, so hopefully someone else has an opinion there. Another option, if you do not want to fill the pores, would be to use a higher building primer to help fill them in more.

 

[Joewho]

I'd go ahead and fill the same as if I were staining, using plastic wood, sand, plastic wood again, sand until the surface is perfectly level. I wouldn't use wax sticks or any soft filler. This way everything dries to the same hardness and it all takes paint like wood. Wouldn't want to deal with dw mud flashing on a piece of furniture.
Someday, somone might want to strip it down and keep the mahogany.

As far as primer, I'd go with a bonding primer for obvious reasons.

Also, with furniture, I'd go with flat paint and cover with clear waterborn finish. It's only my opinion, but I think a clear finish will keep the piece looking and performing like furniture. A painted piece will always age and degrade like a painted door or trim. Even if sprayed, paint is paint.

I can see why you'd want aura or any top of the line paint as a finish coat, but using a clear over the paint may change the perspective of what to use. Flat paint will sand (powder up not gum up) to give you the smoothest finish before the clear coat.

I used to work at an antique furniture resto shop.

 

[DeanV]

The only downside to clearcoating is that I have yet to see a clear, waterborne or not, that does not yellow with time. Clear lacquers all seem to yellow, the best (read hardest and best leveling) waterborne I have used is Graham Ceramathane, but it will yellow enough that it shows over light colored paints.

 

[Joewho]

My thoughts were that a clear would be used in any funiture finishing anyway, and I've yet to see the waterborn clears yellow. "Crystal Clear" is what they advertise. Over time I suppose they may yellow with direct sunlight. But, paint yellows with time too.

 

[slickshift]

Wow...raw mahogany dresser...man keep it wood
Oil that puppy up, save the paint for the notreal wood and unstripped furniture
A couple or 7 coats of Hope's or Watco would be a siight

If it really, really, must be painted, a quality enamel underbody and a premium enamel would be my choice
The topcoat would need no clearcoating (which I feel is best left for protecting faux or stains...not paint)

Wood filler, not spackle