Clean the pine- If woodwork is fairly clean, wipe it thoroughly with a lint-free rag dampened with white spirit or meths. (Not dripping!) When it has evaporated off, sand with 120 or 180 grade Abranet abrasive paper, using a foam sanding pad for intricate areas.

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Or, if the woodwork is waxy or filthy, I degrease and de-wax with Liberon Wax Cleaner and steel wool. Krudkutter Original with scourers achieves a quicker and cleaner end result. Leave to dry overnight and then sand as above. (See Annie Sloan chalk paint below if you cannot stand the prospect of too much preparation of waxy pine.)

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Prime pine – Prime with Blackfriars Problem Solving Primer, which is water-based low VOC low odour. (The contents of the Blackfriars tin are in fact re-branded Classidur Universal Primer which historically adheres to any surface better than any other primer available to the decorating trade. It has a lot of body too.) Mythic Universal primer is on a par with the Blackfriars paint for this scenario. It is fantastic to apply, but because of its consistency, I would specify 2 coats of Mythic primer on new timber versus one of the Blackfriars.

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Use a Wooster Alpha brush to give yourself the best chance of a nice finish.

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Undercoat – apply a coat of oil-based undercoat tinted to the colour of the top coat. (I use Little Greene oil undercoat, as it has body and dries as expected. I used to favour Dulux Trade undercoat for this sort of work, but I’m not that struck on Dulux formulas these days.)

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Fill – When the u/c has dried overnight ideally, do any filling of dents over the undercoat; sand smooth. 2-pack filler is most sensible choice.

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Eggshell finish – Apply 2 coats of Little Greene Oil Eggshell, sanding between coats and cleaning with a tack rag. Prior to last coat, sand with 240 or 320 grade for a lovely finish.

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Brush tip! If this is a one-off project, just buy one 2″ Wooster Alpha, for the whole job. Clean it out after priming in water-based. When you have finished with the oil u/c, if you have a little Brushmate vapour box, there’s no need to clean the brush out.

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Finish with the undercoating, then use a scraper and piece of lining paper to get out as much paint as you can, then work the brush in to the eggshell. By the time you are onto the second coat of eggshell, the brush will be perfect.

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Prepare pine- Preparation is same as above ie If woodwork is fairly clean, wipe it thoroughly with a lint-free rag dampened with white spirit or meths. (Not dripping!) When it has evaporated off, sand with 120 or 180 grade abranet, using a foam sanding pad for intricate areas.

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Or, if the woodwork is waxy or filthy, I degrease and de-wax with Liberon Wax Cleaner and steel wool. Krudkutter Original with scourers achieves a quicker and cleaner end result. Leave to dry overnight and then sand as above. (See Annie Sloan chalk paint below if you cannot stand the prospect of too much preparation of waxy pine.)

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Knot and prime pine For a belt and braces approach, use Zinsser Aerosol to seal knots and then prime with Zinsser Cover Stain (oil-based paint) These are superb trade products that dry quickly. On small projects, you can have the surface sealed and primed twice in a day, ready for finishing the next day.

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Fill over first coat of primer Now you can see the blemishes, do any filling, and sand smooth. (2 pack fillers are good bet.)

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Re-prime Apply second coat of Zinsser Cover Stain.

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Acrylic eggshell finish Sand the coverstain smooth with 180 abranet. It will sand down easily to a glassy finish. and apply 2 coats of acrylic eggshell, sanding with 240 or finer Abranet between coats.

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If using Farrow and Ball Estate eggshell, which is an oil-water-borne hybrid, the correct approach is to apply one coat of F&B primer -undercoat over the coverstain! If you paint F&B eggshell straight over Coverstain, or any primer other than Farrow and Ball’s, they will not entertain your complaint if there are any issues. Slow drying, no drying, flaking, to name but 3 issues I have encountered or heard about.

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As you can see, this approach with oil primer plus acrylic topcoats is a bit more thorough than the slap-it-on-quick technique that many people are lead to believe is the advantage of using water-based eggshell.

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You need a really good technique to avoid brush marks in acrylic eggshell. I cover this elsewhere on the site under Brushes.

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Prepare surface
Apply one coat Blackfriars Problem-Solving Primer or 2 coats Mythic Universal primer to seal surface and block stains from knots etc.
Apply 2 heavy coats of Acrylic Gesso, leave 24 hours and sand smooth with 180 grade Abranet.
Apply 1 primer undercoat, and 2 topcoats of acrylic eggshell.

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That works!

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The acrylic gesso is used by artists who prime canvas to create a super smooth substrate before painting. It is water-based and the consistency is like a cross between liquid filler and oil-based undercoat. ie it has body and builds up the surface to give a nice hard base for the rest of the water-based paints. It involves more work than priming with just an oil primer, (2 extra coats, extra sanding, extra time) but where customers with high expectations for quality require zero/low VOC, no/low odour paints, this is the way ahead.

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The ideal surface is new, unpainted timber. However, unpainted second-hand pieces will accumulate dirt and layers of wax etc which can fatally affect the adhesion of most paint. As a rule of thumb, with poor prep, all your good work could be for nought, so even though the primers available nowadays are really high performance, I don’t skimp on prep, and regardless of the primers I use, I try go the extra mile to get timber surfaces clean. Therefore,

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As an alternative cleaning agent to white spirit or meths, or Langlow Wood Reviver or Liberon Wax Remover, try Krudkutter Original, which is an eco friendly biodegradable cleaner which decorators use to clean really dirty or waxy surfaces quicky. Wipe on with a scourer, leave for a few minutes, and while still damp, scrub down. Wipe with a lint free cloth like a Mirka microfibre. Repeat if necessary.)

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Once cleaned down, the surface is ready for sanding. The aim of sanding is to provide a key for the paint, so 180 is minimum grade roughness you should use to prepare with. At the other extreme, don’t use coarse 60 grade – you don’t want to create ugly gouges and scratches. That doesn’t add character, that screams poor workmanship! I am practically down to only one type of abrasive, Abranet.

If you have knots, (which can continue to exude resin for years afterwards) the text decorating books say to “knot” them ie traditionally you would seal the knots with shellac knotting (brown) or clear styptic knotting.

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That is very old hat, and there are alternatives, which I now prefer.

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Blackfriars Problem Solving Primer or Mythic Universal Primer These are high adhesion water-based primers that prime AND seal knots and stains. One coat Blackfriars or 2 coats of Mythic Universal Primer.

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Zinsser Bullseye or other quick drying primers are user-friendly and have good stain-blocking abilities, just not as good as the 2 above options. However one option that has worked for me is to prepare and paint the whole surface first with a water-based primer. The dark shadow of knots will show through the white primer, and you seal those with a couple of sprays with aerosol Zinsser BIN.

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Bear in mind that some knots will weep beyond the capabilities of any paint coating, and will literally lift the paint and break through it. The ultimate solution is to drill the knot out and fill it. Or view it as character!

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If you are priming over factory lacquered pine, the lacquer coating should have had a stain blocker added to it, so knots should have been sealed in for good. However if you are priming with anything other than Blackfriars or Mythic primers, it might be a good idea to spot spray Zinsser BIN over visible knots.

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All the above primers dry within minutes and can be overpainted the same day.

Types of filler
Fill any obvious holes with a 2-pack filler or wood stopper, but not a standard “poly” filler which is too soft.

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You could use linseed oil putty or a plastic wood – . Wipe any excess putty or plastic wood off the surface with a rag. Putty skins over sufficiently overnight for painting. Use a chisel to level off plastic wood.

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For cracked joints, I use acrylic caulk sparingly before the first top coat.

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The extent of your filling is very subjective. I could skim and fill the grain of old pine furniture with Toupret Gras a Lacquer till it had a porcelain blemish free finish, but I think it is pointless and detracts from the fact it is pine. I fill obvious nail holes, and then make a judgement on where I stop. Judging by customers’ responses to the quality of my paintwork, so far, so good! Fillers and primers are getting quite complex bedfellows these days.

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For an oil finish, after priming, you should either undercoat once, topcoat twice, 3 x topcoats. I am a big fan of tinting the undercoat as close to the top coat colour as possible. Dulux oil undercoat was as good as any under Little Greene or other oil eggshell finishes but I tend ot stick with LG now. (Mark at Broken Cross Decorators Merchants in Macclesfield or any merchant with a machine should be able to tint primers and undercoats to match whatever you need for topcoats.)

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Next day, sand down well with 220 grade abrasive, clean off with vacuum/tack rag; apply acrylic caulk to joints, let it dry (2 hours is enough) then apply first topcoat of oil eggshell paint, dry overnight, sanding between coats with 320 grade abrasive, cleaning with vacuum and tack rag, repeat. Done