Can you apply stain over paint?

Question

I have an old dresser that's kinda ugly (paint is flat chocolate color, but I don't feel like scraping all the paint off just to stain and varnish it. Is there some kind of paint or stain I can just slap on top of the old paint to make it look semi-nice?

Answer 1

Yes you can, you can create a simulated wood grain look by using gel stain over a brown shade of paint (preferably flat though). I've built alot of custom resteraunts, with custom trim and stains throughout, the doors jams are usually steel for firedoors, but we paint them primer brown, then brush on a mixed down gel stain mix down with mineral spirits, and then go back from top to bottom (or side to side) with one complete wavy stroke to simulate a solid piece grain wood. Looks convincing from a distant, I've also done cheap plain luan doors like this, not over paint, but by using the gell stain custom finish to simulate solid hardwood doors, but I use a large rag for that style though. So in other words, you'd probobly brush on your drawers, then for hte top, after you've brushed or rolled on the thick gel stain, you'd take a rag starting from one moving towards the other waving as you go to give it a simulated wood grain.
Your dresser will cost you about 10 bucks to do if you want just cheap and fast, 4 for the gel stain, 6 for the paint thinner.

Answer 2

Well with a flat black paint on it now. Any type of solid stain will not show up very well. You would need to first paint it with a primer then you can apply a solid stain. Check with your local home depot or lowes they can fix ya up.

Answer 3

There are ways to remove paint without having to do all that scraping. One is sandpaper but I even think there might be liquid products to just wipe it off. Find out.