Wood Surface Prep Tutorial for Decorative Painting

Our wood surface prep tutorial for decorative painting shows you how to prepare both raw wood and up-cycled stained and painted wood.

Talking about decorative painting is like taking a trip down memory lane.

When I got married, I started a new life in more ways than one.

I not only had a new husband and a new family, I also had a new country in a new environment. I had never lived in a city before, and never in a place that was summer 365 days of the year. Moving from Canada to the Arizona desert? Where there’s just hot, hotter and fire weather? It took me five years to figure out that the desert did have four seasons.

So all this new stuff is going on and I don’t have a job besides changing all my identification papers (new driver’s license, new insurance cards, new address labels, new social security number, the list seemed endless).

Then we’re walking through a craft sale one Saturday and I say, “You know what I’ve always wanted to do?”

And when I said paint, my new husband said, “Do it.”

I looked at him appalled yet excited.

“Really? You think I can learn to paint?”

“Of course.”

“But I have never held an art brush in my hands! I wouldn’t know what to buy or where to start.”

“Well… figure it out.”

If You Want to Learn Decorative Painting

I didn’t need more encouragement than that.

I signed up for tole painting classes using oils, and started a new hobby.

My teacher was way over-qualified for what she was doing, and with her superb guidance, the hobby quickly became my new passion.

My fellow students muttered about my fast emerging skill, and that it was because I didn’t watch TV, leaving me more time to practice.

That is likely true. But I also didn’t want to admit that when I went out to learn something I tended to go all out. No fishing from shore for me. It was don the waders and walk right into the deep waters.

So when you’re a decorative painting junky, you need a constant supply of surfaces to paint on. Old metal sawblades, wood, glass, even fabric: they’re all victims of your fervor.

We couldn’t afford a lot of new wood items, so I learned to up-cycle old wood long before it was a thing. Check out this cottage-core upcycle or my favorite old window project.

That’s why this wood surface prep tutorial is for raw wood and for stained or painted wood that needs a refresh before you can paint your design on it.

Raw Wood Surface Prep for Decorative Painting

Supplies you’ll need:

• New wood, which can be either soft wood like pine or hard wood like oak.
• Sandpaper for wood in various grits. Be sure your final sanding is with extra fine 120+ grit.
• Brush on wood primer, such as Delta Ceramcoat All Purpose Sealer.
• Flat paint in the background color of your choice, Delta Ceramcoat or Plaid or any of the readily available hobby paints. You could use a high quality wall paint, but the formula isn’t specifically for a decorative top coat, so it shouldn’t be your first choice.
• Tack cloth or other lint free dusting cloth; foam brushes

How to prep raw wood for decorative painting:

1. New wood pieces aren’t very rough, so a light sanding with fine grit sand paper may be enough. Run your hand over the surface (carefully, in case of slivers). When it feels velvety it is smooth enough.
2. Dust the entire surface with the tack cloth. Dust and wood specks will make for a rough paint surface.
3. When the surface is dust free, shake or stir the sealer and brush a light coat over the entire wood surface. Even the back. I usually do the back first, then let it dry and do the front.
4. After the sealer is dry, sand with the finest grit sandpaper and dust well.
5. Shake or stir the background paint and cover the wood piece with a light coat of paint. Let dry, sand lightly, and re-coat.
6. After the second coat of paint, use the back of the sandpaper, or a piece of brown paper bag, to give the wood a final extra light sanding. The wood should be ultra smooth now, yet the flat finish of the paint will allow the art paint to adhere well.
7. Dust all surfaces with the tack cloth.
8. Your wood is ready for decorative painting!

Stained and/or Varnished Wood Surface Prep

You’ll need the same list as for raw wood. However, if the wood piece has chipped or broken veneer, you will need wood filler such as MINWAX* Stainable Wood Filler and a wood-filler trowel. You may also need a power sander if it’s very damaged and has a lot of surface to prep.

If the finish is undamaged and the varnish/coating isn’t sticky, give it a good cleaning with odorless mineral spirits. Be sure to work in a well vented space and dispose of the used cloths per fire safety laws.

My first furniture restoration was my grandma’s Singer sewing machine cabinet. Yep. We hauled it all the way from Canada in the trunk of our car. In pieces, though. Because my baby brother practiced his screwdriver skills on the machine head and it was never put back together.

The wood cabinet was missing the front center drawer and a piece of trim below the drawers on one side. We purchased a maple board and fitted a flat piece onto the front where the drawer had been, then routed and sanded a strip to resemble the missing trim. I left the dark maple stained finish on the cabinet, so when it was all done, you couldn’t tell the new parts from the old.

If you leave your old wood with it’s stained/varnished look, a good product to refresh the finish is Howard Restor-A-Finish. When this process is done per product instructions, your wood surface will be prepped and ready for decorative painting.

Too much damage means you prime and paint:

Let’s say this cabinet has chipped or broken veneer. Sometimes the best practice is to sand or scrape the entire piece of veneer down to the original wood beneath. Then either apply new veneer or prime and paint the existing wood surface.

If the veneer is just cracked, give the surface a good sanding. A power sander is great for big jobs like this. Use fairly rough grit sandpaper, and work at it until the raised edges are gone. Fill in the remainder with wood filler. Smooth and sand according to product directions.

When your entire wood piece is sanded and cleaned, go to Step 3 for Raw Wood Surface Prep. After Step 7 you can get out your decorative paints!

Painted Wood Surface Prep for Decorative Painting

This isn’t very different than stained/varnished wood surface prep.

You will do everything the same – sanding until smooth and filling in cracks and sanding some more.

The main thing that is different is less surface prep, because you don’t have to worry about sticky, grungy varnish. While you can’t cover yucky varnish without removal/refreshing, paint almost never has to be removed.

The worst cases of stain bleed will call for Kilz cover up primer instead of the hobby paint primer, but that’s beyond the scope of this beginner wood surface prep tutorial.

And that is our Wood Surface Prep 101 for your next painting project.

Want to paint cottage core? Farmhouse? Memory art? This method will work to prep all the wood surfaces for your nest painting vision.

Enjoy!