How to Paint Pre-Finished Furniture

Spread a drop cloth on your work area. Put on protective clothing. Long sleeves, closed-toe shoes and long pants protect your skin from sharp fragments and dust particles when sanding. Put on protective glasses, gloves and a mask. You can also wear a hat or scarf, especially if you are sanding metal furniture.

Sand the furniture surface. Your goal is not to remove all the previous finish, but rather to roughen up the surface, so that paint can adhere to the furniture.

Repair cracks, nicks or gouges in wood furniture. Apply wood filler to fill cracks and nicks. Let the wood filler dry completely, and then sand it to smooth and to blend the repaired area with the rest of the surface. Use a putty knife or bladed scraper to remove stubborn paint, drips and spots and sand the remaining furniture surface.

Repair laminated surfaces with epoxy or other glue made to repair laminate furniture. Areas where laminate separated from the underlying particle board can be coated with glue, then clamped for 24 hours, so that the surfaces can bond. Secure all furniture nails before priming and painting, so that paint and primer do not seep underneath the laminate surface, which could warp the laminate's press board backing.

Turn your furniture upside down and apply a thin coat of primer to the underside first. Let the primer dry at least two hours. Turn the furniture right side up and finish applying the primer coat. Let the furniture dry for eight hours or overnight.

Apply a thin coat of topcoat paint. Two thin coats provide much better coverage than a single, thick coat. Let the paint dry for at least eight hours or more between coats.