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Furniture can very easily be painted or decorated in a myriad of ways so that a piece of junk can be transformed into something valuable. However, the only way to do this successfully is to bear a few well-worn rules and guidelines in mind. The main rule is that preparation is vital, on furniture in particular the paint needs to wear well and if the surface is not adequately prepared the paint will not adhere properly and will wear or chip off over time. The following steps will help you to ensure that any old furniture that you have or that you buy can be decorated in such a way that the new finish will stand the test of time.

1. Clean down the item, with a cloth and white spirit or a branded cleaner - do not use any furniture cleaners that contain wax as these will prevent new paint from adhering. Which brings me to the next step - remove any wax. You can do this by using white spirit, turpentine or ammonia, depending on the type of finish and the value of the piece being painted. An old piece of furniture that has been heavily waxed over the years will need a lot of work to clean off this wax. Simply sanding the item may drive the wax deep into the grain making it even more difficult to remove.

2. Sand the item to provide a key which will allow the paint to grip the surface and adhere well. Sand lightly; don't use heavy sandpapers which leave scratch marks on the surface. You can use a sander but not the heavy duty kind used for sanding floors, a small hand sander is best. It used to be necessary to sand 'Formica' and other plastic veneers really well but nowadays there are many products available to create a bond between the surface and the new paint. One of these is ESP, Easy Surface Preparation, I am sure it is available everywhere but if not check with a good paint supplier for any similar products available. These kinds of products really cut out a huge amount of the tedious labor involved in prepping but do make sure to read the instructions and follow them to the letter for the best results. Nothing is worse than having a perfect finish that looks amazing only to have it chip off in the first few weeks of use.

3. Once this preparation is complete you will need to fill in any holes or cracks, use wood filler or proprietary flexible filler. Use a filling knife and fill the hole slightly above the surface, if the hole is big fill half let the filler dry and fill again as filler can crack whilst drying. Finally sand the filler well until it is flush with

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