Glossy finish on wooden furniture

[conor1n]

Hello,

I am going to help my mum restore a piece of furniture soon and we are thinking about finish.

She would like to paint it some colour with a nice hard wearing glossy finish. My thoughts are that we prime the piece, followed by a base coat and then some kind of lacquer.. I guess not 100 miles off how a car is painted.

What can we use? It seems the internet is only taking about chalk paint right now..

My current thinking is that we choose the base coat colour we want then get a suitable primer and clear coat. I think they call it lacquer in the furniture world.

I have some automotive 2k primer and clear coat from my own projects, bonus points if that can be used.

What have others used?

Many thanks
Conor

 

[voipio]

Shellac varnish has been in use for centuries, so that might be the traditional way to go and, with sufficient coats, a high gloss finish is possible. A suitable applicator would be a piece of cotton wool inside a sheet of cotton fabric.. The downside is, if applied over paint, it would impart a shellac colour (kind of yellow to dull brown, depending on the colour of the shellac it was made from). Vehicle paints would work, and the wood would need a primer coat to stop the paint soaking in. It also depends on whether or not the wood grain should be visible on the paint surface. If you want to go high gloss without surface undulations or wood grain, the wood would need to be sanded very flat before and after the undercoat. Several coats would be needed.

 

[angellonewolf]

gloss shows every blimish matt better unless for a reason

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

French Polish in thin coats. Then real bee's wAX.

 

[grim_d]

If brushing/rolling then this is the dogs, roll on then brush it out.

Can be sprayed too if you like.

Prep is key though, as with all painting projects.

Miranol

Ultra high gloss, traditional paint for exterior doors, windows and furniture. Impact-resistant.

www.tikkurila.co.uk

 

[henry Kadzielski]

My two cents worth. Glossy finish can look very nice, is easy to clean and dust off. You can paint it with urethane finish just like you mentioned, prima and then top coats with sanding in between. Only problem with a glossy finish is the quality if the finish. It looks very nice when it is flat, looks like glass. To get it to that standard is long, laborious, did I say it takes a long time? There is the traditional timber clear coat. The last job I did was with a acid catalyzed timber clear coat (2 pack), which looked quite nice. It is still a little flexible but tough. You don't want to shatter the finish by dropping something on the surface. Don't forget that some kitchen cupboards are painted with urethane. That is not the automotive paint but the process is the same.

 

[Ali]

Liberon Finishing oil is great and hard wearing, easy to apply and refresh. If you want to go the celly route have a look at New Yorkshire Workshop on YouTube, he knows how to get a flawless finish, but you can see the sort of prep that goes into it.

 

[Dcal]

Timber moves so the finish need to move as well.
As @henry Kadzielski said, acid cure clear is the way to go.
This is the stuff I've used.
You can use the clear with a primer and base coat if you wish.

Morrells | Morrells | Acid-Catalyst Lacquers

Morrells acid-catalyst lacquer range offers FIRA Severe Use with easy sanding and quick drying

www.morrells.co.uk

The lacquer is very easy to use and it flats and polishes up very nicely.

Tips for flatting back topcoat lacquer

So my newly sprayed bonnet has orange peel, and quite bad. I got some P1500 and tried sanding a spot, you can see below. I've had this before, if there is an imperfection or a drip then hand sanding takes off paint around the imperfection and can go through. So any tips? Should I be using a...

www.mig-welding.co.uk

Still looks ok years later.

 

[Turbo]

Been said already, best to avoid gloss finish on furniture. Very hard to get a nice even finish, will show every blemish on the wood & every scratch once painted!

My suggestion would be a satin finish & if its for indoor use you could use a water based paint. At the minute any oil based paint is very expensive, especially varnish. Before covid a 2.5l of good varnish was around £30, it's now £70-£80!

You could use car paint but for a good finish you are looking as the same prep & paint process as painting a car & the end result is something that looks like it's made of plastic, not wood because there's no wood grain visible!