Preparation for Faux Finish

[Miriam H. Nadel]

I have a rather old pine dining room table that I've been planning to
refinish for some time. Being intrigued by a lot of the fancy finishing
techniques that are being used these days (e.g. glazing, marbleizing and
the like) and having clipped a bunch of magazine articles that discuss
the painting techniques, I'm about ready to get started. The only problem
is that the articles assume you're starting with a piece fresh from the
unfinished furniture store and the table hasn't been in that state in a
number of years. The current finish is just an oil-based stain, but over
the years the table has acquired a few gouges, nicks and (recently) some
water damage (warping of one of the leaves).

There are some obvious things I need to do - like filling in the gouges and
nicks and sanding. But what else do I do before I start painting?

(If I sound too calm about the whole project, you have to realize that
I don't really care about the table - it's old and was cheap to start with.
Which is why it's a good choice for a first foray into faux finishes and I'll
probably post something about the faux lapis finish that I'm trying when I
have the whole thing done. I have done a lot of antiquing but only of
miniatures, by the way.)

Miriam Nadel
--
One of the 73% of Americans who have had a headache in the last year.

na...@aerospace.aero.org