Re-finshing store bought dresser

So, my wife wanted to get a dresser for the nursery. I offered to make one but she wanted it before the baby is in college. We found one at the Pottery Barn outlet that was 80% off so we loaded it up and brought it home. Only problem is she wants it white and it is currently "honey pine".

My question is this. What steps do I need to take to seal the knots and do I need to sand the existing finish to get paint to stick well? I was thinking I would give my PC HVLP sprayer a try (haven't used it yet) but I'm not sure if this is the best application.

The pictures are to try and give some idea of the current finish. It is not a "deep" gloss finish, more of a shallow satin.

Thanks for the ideas and help.

Erin

Erin - congratulations on your forthcoming arrival to your family!:)

If the wood had not been finished I would worry about sealing the knots, however, since it's already been finished I would not.

As to painting it - you definitely need to rough up the current finish so paint will stick. I'd probably use 150 grit and just give it a good going over. Make sure that you get all the dust off before you start to paint. Also with any wood project that I plan to paint - I start with a good coat of oil base paint. Let that dry throughly and then you can use a latex or oil based finish coat.

This is what I would do - it may be that others would disagree.

Good luck to you. - and Merry Christmas!

Betsy

Erin,

I find that B-I-N provides a good base for either oil or latex paint. It's a shellac base primer sealer made by Zinsser and will stick to anything, and allows anything to stick to it.

I would opt for coat of 2# cut shellac... It will seal any pitch residue in the pine and allow anything to stick to it. Sand of course, before and after.

For insurance, I would give it a good solid coat of 2 lb cut shellac or the Zinser seal coat. Sand it a bit. Clean thoroughly w mineral spirits or lacquer thinner and apply an oil coat of your favorite WHITE. Should be pretty easy but knots must be sealed before the oil based final coat.