Painting bare wood.

A decent paint finish can change the whole character of a piece of furniture. Even the shabbiest and most threadbare of possessions can be lifted and renovated with a new finish. As long as your piece is sound, there will be a way to revamp it and turn it into something lovely. My advice on this subject is to be fearless. What do you love? Pink? Flowers? The Hulk? Stick whatever you love on some furniture you can't stand. It's a no-lose situation. If you hate it already and it turns out badly, you'll still hate it, but you'll have learnt a few tricks along the way. The best case scenario is, of course, that you produce something you love.

This little unit is a good example of what can be achieved when dealing with a bare wood finish which doesn't require stripping.

This little unit was looking a bit shabby, but was still useful and necessary. It had crayon on it (yeah, thanks for that Squeaker) and had that generally grimy look that unfinished pine can develop after a couple of years of use. I took out the drawers, removed the handles and gently cleaned as much of the grime and crayon as I could. When cleaning unfinished wood, use as little liquid as possible or you'll raise the grain and the wood won't be as smooth. Sandpaper is almost always your friend in this instance, so sand away any stubborn stains or marks.

To prep the wood I used Ronseal Knot Block, Wood Primer and Undercoat. It's a three in one product and although a little pricey, it's great stuff and will save you time and stress by taking three steps in two coats. It's also water based and dries quickly, so there's not as much waiting around as there is with oil based paints.

When my first two coats of ronseal had dried, I applied two coats of light blue acrylic (Craig and Rose 1829 in  Porcelain Blue) to the body of the unit and two coats of cream acrylic (again, Craig and Rose 1829 in Regency White) to the drawer fronts. Personally, I really like acrylic. It's pretty hard wearing, available in a wide variety of colours and is easy to apply. Your brushes will be washable in plain old water and fairy liquid and it can be cleaned from solid surfaces with ease if you catch it quickly. Acrylic also has the benefit of having a low VOC content, so it's one of the less harmful paints. Don't get me wrong, the sturdy finish of a good solvent based gloss is lovely, but they're hard to work with and hard on the lungs too.

I was going to replace the handles with something different and then decided that I rather liked the old ones now that they were based on a lovely clean finish. Definitely worth the effort and would make a simple first project.